Does anyone remember when liberals were saying that this crisis is no different than the one over women's ordination? ed.
From The Telegraph (UK):
By John Bingham
Last Updated: 8:33AM BST 15/07/2008
The Anglican Church is facing the "most perilous crisis" in its history due to disagreements over gay clergy as it meets for the Lambeth Conference this week, traditionalists have warned.
Dissenters claim the 10-yearly gathering, which takes place in Canterbury, could be the "last" of its kind unless church leaders agree a formal resolution on the matter - an issue which has brought the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and the more-than 800 bishops attending the conference is demanding an urgent overhaul of the programme to allow time to deal with the matter.
If not, the church risks squandering the opportunity to resolve the issue and risks "permanent and multiple fracture", it claims.
The letter, published on the website of a leading evangelical group, also calls for the exclusion of North American bishops who back the ordination of gay clergy and bless same-sex partnerships from the wider Anglican Communion.
But despite the increasingly acrimonious tone of the debate, organisers of the conference have deliberately excluded the possibility of a formal resolution on the issue.
In contrast to previous Lambeth Conferences, the emphasis will be on prayer and discussion rather than active decision-making.
Traditionalists said the failure to reach a decision would represent a "culpable" failure.
"We are facing the most perilous crisis in our life as a Communion and as members of it, that we have ever faced ... nothing in the past compares with the sheer extent of the threat to Anglican existence that we now face, as the Communion looks into permanent and multiple fracture," the letter warns.
Penned by the Canadian-based theologian Ephraim Radner, it was published on the website of the evangelical group Anglican Mainstream, which claims to represent around two million churchgoers in Britain spread across around 2,000 parishes.
The movement has been at the centre of opposition to openly homosexual clergy within Britain and backs the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) group of traditional church leaders, which was formed at a conference in Jerusalem last month in a direct challenge to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishops claiming to represent around 40 million practising Anglicans opted to attend the Jerusalem gathering rather than Lambeth because of the American Episcopal Church's decision to consecrate the openly gay cleric Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Sources within Anglican Mainstream backed Prof Radner's calls but said it may now be too late to bring the two sides together.
"I think it would take a miracle for these things to happen," one said.
Cannon Chris Sugden, Anglican Mainstream's executive secretary, echoed suggestions that the Lambeth Conference could be a make-or-break moment for the future of Anglicanism.
"If nothing is done at Lambeth it will underline the importance of the Gafcon movement and declaration in securing the future of orthodox Christian within the Anglican church," he said.
A spokesman for the Anglican Communion declined to comment on Prof Radner's remarks but said: "The passing of resolutions is not on the agenda for this particular conference."
Bishop Robinson, who has not been invited to Lambeth but is in Britain to attend fringe events, has said Dr Williams faces an "untenable" task of bringing the two sides together.
Bishop Robinson was heckled and denounced as a heretic during a sermon in London on Sunday night.
He is to make an appearance alongside the actor Sir Ian McKellen for the launch of a documentary about gay Christians.
An American liberal Christian group, IntegrityUSA, is also planning a series of events at the Lambeth Conference in support of gay clergy.
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