The debate engulfing the Anglican Communion over homosexuality took yet another twist at the end of last week, as an Episcopal Church Panel studying the issue recommended that the Episcopal Church in America (ECUSA) offer an “apology and repentance” for the problems it has caused in the global Communion by consecrating the first openly gay bishop Gene Robinson.
The panel also stated that dioceses should immediate halt all blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples for the moment.
It was also proposed that “very considerable caution” should be used from now on in electing gay bishops, report the Associated Press. However, the panel did not go as far as to some moratorium critics have demanded.
These proposals will be discussed by the Episcopal General Convention in June, where the proposals can be accepted, modified or rejected entirely. But the outcome of the convention will be vital to the future of the American Church and the Anglican Communion worldwide also.
The Anglican Communion has been strained to breaking-point since the ECUSA approved the election of Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
The liberal Episcopal Church members in the USA have been rebuked fiercely by other Anglican Churches over the past few years, and it has been demanded that the ECUSA either follow the traditional views of the Church or it should be thrown out of the worldwide Communion body.
In 2004, the Anglican Communion produced the Windsor Report that discussed the situation with regards to the homosexual issue and made various recommendations for action. As a result of this, a 14-member Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, comprised of American bishops, clergy and lay people, was formed to build the foundation for the Church's response.
The commission proposed that the General Convention offer its “sincerest apology and repentance” for the problems the Church had caused other worldwide Anglican provinces.
It was also affirmed however, that there remained a need for “individual pastoral care for gay and lesbian Christians” — wording that leaves open the possibility that individual priests could conduct such ceremonies.
Canon Kendall Harmon, Diocese of South Carolina, USA said the report gave the impression as if the Church was “trying to figure out what they can get away with” whilst keeping its position in the Communion.
Despite the panel’s efforts to resolve matters, it is feared that the position of the Church could move into an irreconcilable position in May, when the Diocese of California is scheduled to elect a new bishop, with three of the seven candidates elected being gay.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, has said that it would create "definite difficulty" between the denomination and Anglicans if the California Diocese elects an openly gay bishop.
Adding to the controversy, the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William Skylstad has urged his fellow bishops to work for upcoming legislation for a USA Federal marriage ban.
He stated that he wanted all Roman Catholic members to oppose marriage between same-sex couples by backing a federal constitutional amendment that would ban it.
“Today there is a growing sense shared by many people, including a wide range of religious leaders, that a marriage protection amendment is the only federal-level action that ultimately will protect and preserve the institution of marriage,” Bishop Skylstad wrote.
Skylstad wrote that he expected the Protection of Marriage Amendment to be introduced in the US Senate in June. "In a matter of months we will have the opportunity once again to stand publicly in support of marriage as the God-given union of a man and a woman," he wrote.
Daniel Blake
Christian Today Correspondent