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Final Showdown
Looms In Anglican Gay Dispute
 20
Sept 2006- Rwanda- Kigali- Conservatives within the worldwide
Anglican Church have rejected a bid for unity by the denomination's
spiritual leader and are preparing a document that is likely to lead to
a breakup of the Church.
The worldwide
Anglican Communion is divided into provinces, mostly along geographic
boundaries. Those semi autonomous divisions in the southern hemisphere
make up the bulk of a denomination's members and represent its most
conservative faction.
This week the
leaders of the Global South are meeting in Kigali and at the top of the
agenda has been the growing discontentment with the way Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams has dealt with the American branch - the
Episcopal Church - over the place of gays in the faith.
The accepted
leader of the conservative faction, Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola
(pictured), has been pushing for Episcopal Church to be thrown out of
world Anglicanism for electing Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as
Bishop of New Hampshire.
Wednesday
Akinola told a news conference in Kigali that the Global South primates
are preparing a document that will force the issue. The covenant will
spell out a condemnation of homosexuality as being inconsistent with
Anglicanism, and bar gays from serving in any function in the church.
"Who ever
subscribes to this covenant must abide by it and those who are unable to
subscribe to it will walk out," Akinola, told reporters.
The final
wording is expected to be finished later Wednesday and signed by the
Global South primates later this week.
The roll of
gays in the Episcopal Church has divided the US denomination with some
conservative parishes leaving the Church and others calling for
oversight from conservative bishops.
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