From the Associated Press: Anglican church leaders split over gay issue

February 17th, 2007 posted by kendall at 8:18 am

“This deliberate action is a poignant reminder of the brokenness of the Anglican Communion,” according to the statement from the group.

It is not the first time conservative archbishops refused Holy Communion with an Episcopal leader. At a 2005 summit in Ireland, more than a dozen archbishops would not attend daily Eucharist with then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.

Jim Naughton, canon for communications at the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., which accepts gay relationships, criticized the archbishops for making a sacrament a point of protest.

“Imagine if every believer, everywhere insisted on knowing the views of every other worshipper in a church on all the hot-button issues of our time before they would agree to go to Eucharist,” Naughton said. “When you don’t attend a Eucharist because you disagree with the views of the people who are attending with you, you make it seem that the Eucharist is about you. It is not about you. It is about God.”

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but reached a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems mounted last year with the election of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is the first female head of the U.S. church and the first elected female leader of an Anglican province.

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Posted in ANGLICAN, Dar es Salaam 2007 | Edit | 1 Comment »