'Blessings' could lead to Anglican schism

By Peter T. Chattaway

Nigerian archbishop Peter Akinola has threatened to "sever communion" with the Diocese of New Westminster.

Fifteen of the church's 38 primates -- that is, leaders of national or international church bodies -- signed a letter saying they would "firmly and resolutely address" the situation in the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster, where Bishop Michael Ingham recently approved a rite for the blessing of same-sex unions.

The primates, most of whom come from Africa and Asia, said that Ingham, "by deliberately and intentionally abandoning the established Anglican consensus, has placed himself and his diocese in an automatic state of impaired communion with the majority within the Anglican Communion. . . . Bishop Ingham's action has brought the Anglican Communion to a defining moment in which the clear choice has to be made between remaining a communion or disintegrating into a federation of churches."

Archbishop Peter Akinola, primate of Nigeria -- which, with 17 million members, is the largest Anglican body in the world -- said in a separate letter that the diocese's action had made it "inevitable" that Nigeria would "sever communion with Bishop Ingham and the diocese of New Westminster."

Akinola later told the BBC that he would sever ties with the Church of England, too, if it proceeded with its plans to consecrate its first openly gay bishop. Canon Jeffrey John, the new suffragan bishop of Reading, is a gay man who says that he and his partner of 27 years have not had sexual relations for several years.

"We claim we are Bible-loving Christians," Akinola said. "We cannot be seen to be doing things clearly outside the boundaries allowable in the Bible. This is only the beginning. We would sever relationships with anybody, anywhere . . . anyone who strays over the boundaries, we are out with them. It is as simple as that."

The debate over schisms and sexuality also flared up in New Hampshire, where the Episcopalian diocese elected Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly noncelibate gay man, as its bishop June 7.

In response to these developments, Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife, Brazil said he would bring a motion to his diocesan council to "suspend indeterminably any institutional relationship" with the dioceses of both New Westminster and New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Yong Ping Chung, the primate of South East Asia and a key player in the traditionalist group Anglican Mission in America, declared that his province, too, was no longer in communion with Ingham or with those within his diocese who supported his policy.

And within British Columbia itself, Bishop William Anderson of Prince Rupert issued a pastoral letter saying Ingham and the clergy who participated in the same-sex blessing were in a state of impaired communion with the Diocese of Caledonia.

The divisions within the Anglican communion have made the task of preserving church unity more stressful than ever for Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Anglican Church.

On May 29, one day after the first official same-sex blessing took place in Vancouver, Williams issued a statement chastising the Diocese of New Westminster for "ignoring the considerable reservations of the church" and going "significantly further than the teaching of the church or pastoral concern can justify."

In late June, Williams also released a letter to his bishops assuring them that the bishop in Reading had agreed to abide by the church's official "framework of doctrine and discipline" in sexual matters.

In a nod to Anglicans around the world, Williams stressed that the Church of England was not "embarking on or colluding with any policy of unilateral local change, which I have more than once deplored elsewhere."

Despite all the controversy, the Diocese of New Westminster voted to continue blessing same-sex unions at its annual synod May 30. More than two thirds of the delegates voted to defeat a motion that would have postponed further blessings until after the Anglican Church of Canada had addressed the matter at its general synod next year.

Another motion, which called on the diocese to endorse churches that minister to people who wish to leave the gay and lesbian lifestyle, was never voted upon; instead, it was referred to the diocesan council for further study.

Rev. Dawn MacDonald, a former lesbian who sponsored both motions, had hoped the diocese would support ex-gay ministries to show that it truly wanted to be inclusive of all minorities.

"All we wanted was some kind of endorsement saying, hey, we recognize that some people want to change," she said. "I think the synod has shown itself to be pro-gay, and there is really no room for anything other than what they want to go ahead with."

Bishop Ingham said it was too early to say what the full consequences of the his decision would be. He told delegates to his synod that bishops can declare themselves out of communion but cannot declare others out of communion. "That is a fundamental principle of Anglicanism," he said.

Ingham told BC Christian News it was conservative bishops like Akinola, and not liberal bishops like himself, who were dividing the Anglican church by severing communion with his diocese.

"I see it myself as a clear sundering of church unity in an Anglican tolerance," he said. "Nigeria is not a place well known for its political or religious tolerance."

Seven parishes that walked out of last year's synod, in protest over its decision to permit the blessing of same-sex unions, boycotted this year's synod altogether.

The seven parishes, which represent about one fifth of the diocese's active membership and call themselves the Anglican Communion in New Westminster, have withheld the financial assessments that would normally go to the diocese, and they have asked for an alternative bishop who would have full jurisdiction over them.

Instead, Ingham has appointed William Hockin, the retiring Bishop of Fredericton, to be an "episcopal visitor" who would provide pastoral care to conservative parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster but would not have the power to appoint or remove clergy.

So far, only one parish, St. Clement's in North Vancouver, has requested Hockin's services, though Hockin said at a public meeting June 5 that two other parishes had also expressed interest in asking for his pastoral care.

MacDonald, whose parish, Holy Cross in Vancouver, is primarily Japanese, told delegates that membership at her church had "dwindled in half" since last year's synod.

"I feel the body of Christ has been ripped apart, all because we want to go ahead and make history," she said.

MacDonald said afterwards that those members of her parish who stuck with the diocese did so because she "begged them to hang in."

She said the diocese had missed an opportunity to reconcile with conservative Anglicans by rushing ahead with the blessings and not waiting the extra year.

"I frankly don't know where I'm going to go from here," she said. "I'm not sure myself."

Nigerian archbishop Peter Akinola has threatened to "sever communion" with the Diocese of New Westminster.