Anglicans quarrel over gay unions

LONDON -- Anglican Communion leaders said Wednesday that they wanted to preserve their global association of churches despite bitter divisions over homosexuality, yet still faced the thorny task of resolving their differences as an emergency summit on the issue began.\nThe 37 church leaders -- or primates -- were in seclusion for two days of talks at Lambeth Palace, where the 77-million-member communion was formed.\nArchbishop Robin Eames, head of the Church of Ireland, emerged briefly after several hours to say that all the primates were eager to avoid a schism.\nThe bishops are under enormous pressure from conservatives to rebuke North Americans who have moved toward accepting gay relationships. A joint statement from the primates is expected when the summit ends tonight.\n"I am optimistic that the Anglican Communion will emerge from this stronger," Eames said. "What I would also like to predict is that there will be much greater honesty than perhaps we have had to now."\nThe communion's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, called the unprecedented gathering in August after the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, ratified the election of its first openly gay bishop.\nThe Episcopalians also acknowledged that some of their bishops allow blessing ceremonies for same-sex unions. Separately, the Diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, British Columbia, authorized the ceremonies in its parishes.\nThe primates took turns discussing their "cultural differences" over homosexuality and how their provinces responded to the North American actions, Eames said. The talks were conducted with "openness, frankness and honesty," Eames said, and they were moving toward a "consensus" on the issue. He did not elaborate.\nOne primate, Bishop Ignacio C. Soliba of the Philippines, did not attend because of a previous commitment, a communion spokesman said.\nConservatives worldwide have condemned the moves in the United States and Vancouver as unbiblical. They have threatened to divide the 136-year-old communion if Williams doesn't discipline the North Americans -- though he has little power to do so.\nU.S. conservatives already have started planning for a total break with the Episcopal Church. The conservative Church of Nigeria, home to 17.5 million Anglicans and the communion's second-largest province, has severed ties with the Diocese in Vancouver, and parishioners in Nigeria who oppose homosexual relationships have been fasting and praying.\nEvangelicals fear that pro-gay decisions anywhere within the communion will undermine their evangelism, especially in socially conservative places where they are competing with Muslims.\n"If nothing comes out of the conference, people will leave the Episcopal Church," said Canon David Anderson, head of the American Anglican Council, which represents U.S. evangelicals. He is among several U.S. conservatives in London who met with like-minded primates before the summit.\nAnderson has presented the primates with a petition asking them to "guide the realignment of Anglicanism in North America." The council has not said what form that should take, but some council supporters have said they want Williams to expel the Episcopal Church and recognize conservatives as the true Anglicans in North America.\nU.S. parishioners and clergy who support gay rights also traveled to London. They joined pro-gay British Anglicans at a worship service Wednesday, where the Most Rev. Walter Makhulu, the former archbishop of Central Africa, compared the exclusion of gays to the racist apartheid system.\n"The notion of an exclusive church is utterly abhorrent to me," Makhulu said. "It denies the very character and nature of God."\nThe primates have been insulated from any lobbying during their meeting. They were driven together to Lambeth Palace in three minivans, entering by a side door. Police stood guard in front of the building and set up barriers to contain protests that never materialized.\nWilliams greeted each of the men personally, then adjourned with them to a chapel where they prayed for about an hour, according to communion spokesmen. The primates then set an agenda and began their talks, breaking for meals and more prayer as the meeting stretched into the night.\nWilliams' options are limited. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, there is no centralized authority in Anglicanism. Each province is autonomous and Williams cannot settle issues of doctrine. The primates also have no collective legislative authority and cannot vote to punish a member.\nBut Williams does have the right to decide whether a denomination can affiliate with the communion, and the primates can band together to influence him.