'Gay bishop rift will heal'

2003-11-01 20:14

London - The Archbishop of Canterbury said, as he signed an accord with the Methodist church on Saturday, that he believes divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion over the selection of a gay bishop will eventually heal.

The communion has been bitterly split over the planned consecration on Sunday of the Reverend Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

With Queen Elizabeth II present, Methodist officials and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, signed a national covenant aimed at closing the rift between the groups, which split more than two centuries ago.

"It is an irony that as we celebrate this new mutuality today, we also as Anglicans face new tensions and divisions, with those on both sides of our current troubles believing that obedience calls them to a risky break with what we have thought of as orthodoxy and good order," Williams said.

"But perhaps this celebration is timely after all in God's purpose. It is a reminder that when we can no longer see how to hold together, God will still teach us in our separateness," he continued.

"And one day we shall be led, in both thankfulness and repentance, to share with one another what we have learned apart, to bring to one another a history not without its shadows and stresses, but still one in which something quite distinctive has been learned," Williams said.

Robinson's selection has bitterly divided Anglicans and conservatives are threatening to split from the faith's worldwide communion. Williams, who is personally sympathetic to gay rights but has pledged to uphold the church's teaching that homosexual acts are contrary to scripture, struggled to bridge the differences at a meeting of Anglican leaders last month.

The Anglican and Methodist churches split from one another in 1795 in a dispute over Episcopal authority and ordinations.

Under the new covenant, they will move toward sharing services and clergy.

- AP