Church halts gay ordinations

2007-09-26 14:04

New Orleans, Louisiana - The US Episcopal Church has agreed to halt ordination of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions, straining to try to prevent a painful split in the global Anglican Communion.

The church leaders who bowed to international pressure on those issues, however, also vowed late on Tuesday to continue to fight for the recognition of the civil rights of homosexuals.

"I have no doubt that the General Convention (in 2009) will revisit these issues," said Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori.

The more liberal stance of the Episcopalian leadership has divided congregations within the United States and threatened a split within the 77 million-member worldwide communion.

"This resolution really is the result of finding common ground to stand on," Jefferts Schori added. "Not everyone was 100% happy with every word in this document, as you might imagine. But together we believe that we have found a place that all of us can stand together."

Tuesday's decision came just days before a deadline imposed by global leaders who had threatened that relations would be "damaged at best" if the US church did not reverse its liberal stance on homosexuality and followed two days of crisis talks with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The leaders of the 2.3 million US Episcopalians said they made the decision "with the hope of mending the tear in the fabric" of the communion.

"We all hope that our sacrificial actions and our united actions at this meeting once again demonstrate to the wider communion that we treasure our membership and we treasure the other members of the Anglican community," Jefferts Schori said.

A pastoral duty to 'respond with love and understanding'

The Episcopal House of Bishops reaffirmed its decision to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion".

The church leaders also pledged "not to authorise or use in our dioceses any public rites of blessing of same-sex unions until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion or until (the) General Convention takes further action".

But it was not clear whether clergy would be allowed to carry out unauthorised blessings of same-sex unions.

The statement meant to clarify the church's position noted that clergy have a pastoral duty to "respond with love and understanding to the people of all sexual orientations... (and) maintain a breadth of private responses to situations of individual pastoral care".

Tom Shaw, the bishop of Massachusetts, indicated that same-sex blessings might continue.

"Coming from a state, the only state, that has marriage equality in the United States, I am especially pleased for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in the church that we included the statement by the primates where they said that if there were personal, pastoral reasons for the blessing of same-sex unions that was something that was understood," he said at a press conference.

The Anglican church has been divided since Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, was elected as bishop of New Hampshire four years ago, outraging traditionalists, particularly in Africa.

Tensions were further heightened last year when the Episcopal Church elected Jefferts Schori, a woman, as its leader.

- AFP