Latest Anglican Report Unlikely to Bring Healing, Says Christian Journalist
by Jody Brown and Jim Brown
October 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - A lifelong Episcopalian and conservative journalist says recommendations from a Church of England commission -- recommendations he says are less than forceful -- are likely to rankle both sides of the Anglican debate over the authority of scripture.
The Eames Commission has called on the Episcopal Church USA to apologize for consecrating a homosexual bishop last year and suggested the denomination adopt a moratorium on future homosexual ordinations until the Anglican Communion has reached a consensus on the practice. ECUSA's Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, saying he regrets causing turmoil in the world Anglican Communion, continues to defend his church's consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Griswold says he is sorry that many Anglicans were offended by the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop. "Certainly one thing the report does -- and indeed, the whole controversy that's arisen in recent months has done -- is make us that much more sensitive in the United States to the consequences of what we do in other parts of the world," Griswold said during an interview with Associated Press.
Doug LeBlanc is a contributing editor for Christianity Today and runs the website GetReligion.org. LeBlanc says the Eames Commission's report, known as the "Windsor Report," went beyond its charge by addressing more than just the U.S. consecration of Robinson and the official right for blessing same-sex unions, which is being practiced in some Canadian dioceses.
"I think conservatives can take heart, at least, that the Commission recognizes that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has overstepped its bounds in saying that blessing gay unions is within the boundaries of the common life of the Episcopal Church -- and [that] it has called on the Episcopal Church to adopt a moratorium on all blessing of gay unions," the journalist says.
But LeBlanc notes an aspect of the Commission's report that likely will not be encouraging to conservatives. The report did not give conservative Episcopalians what they sought: punishment for church leaders and quick recognition for the network of dissenting congregations.
At a news conference, Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland stated ECUSA "broached [and] breached bounds of communion in electing and consecrating to that position a person [Robinson] whom they knew had already been declared to be unacceptable to the majority of the Anglican Communion." Still, he said, his Commission was convinced the best approach is "not to impose or attempt to impose punishment."
Instead, notes Associated Press, the report urged conservative Anglican bishops -- some of them from Africa -- to stop offering oversight to estranged Episcopal congregations, and to apologize for doing so.
"That's a part of the report that will be costly to conservatives," LeBlanc states. "That will be painful [because] for some conservative congregations, that has been their only safety valve almost in dealing with hostile bishops -- and I think the Commission might be a bit overly optimistic about how well reconciliation can be brought about in those situations."
Rev. David Moyer, president of Forward in Faith North America, says one word -- "disappointment" -- sums up his reaction to the report.
"It doesn't say much at all," Moyer tells AP. "It doesn't seem to critically address the underlying situations that have brought about this crisis. And I think it will be disappointing to countless Anglicans in the United States and around the world." He describes the report as "typical Anglican fudge."
The report did not say whether Bishop Robinson should be removed. LeBlanc says he would be surprised if the Archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the Anglican Communion, or a proposed "star chamber" would expel any church from the Communion.
Pro-Homosexual Protesters
Shortly after unveiling the Windsor Report at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Archbishop Eames was accosted by protesters affiliated with the homosexual-rights group Outrage! The group accuses Anglican leaders of "condoning sexual apartheid within the church, colluding with homophobic bigotry, and denying human rights to gay clergy."
A report from Outrage! quotes pro-homosexual activists confronting Eames and telling him the Commission "failed to unambiguously defend gay human rights" and that "sanctioning homophobic discrimination within the church gives a green light to homophobic discrimination in the wider society."
ECUSA, the group contends, has shown great compassion towards homosexuals, but the Lambeth Commission -- commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury -- "preaches homophobic prejudice and discrimination."
Associated Press contributed to this story.
