c. 1998 Religion News Service

CANTERBURY, England _ Sharp divisions on aspects of medical treatment for the terminally ill forced Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference Thursday (Aug. 6) to postpone, at least temporarily, any action on the emotional and morally charged issue of euthanasia.

At the same time, however, the bishops, overcoming the First and Third World differences that bitterly plagued the prelates’ debate over homosexuality, approved a resolution calling for the cancellation of the international debt that burdens poor nations.

And the conference, a once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world, delivered an implied rebuke to the U.S. Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, for its recently adopted canon _ church law _ making it mandatory for bishops to allow the ordination of women in their dioceses even if they are opposed to such ordinations.

Action on the euthanasia resolution was postponed after Bishop Rowan Williams of Monmouth, Wales, said the bishops were faced with too many amendments without having them in writing _ tough for English speakers but even more difficult for bishops whose first language was not English.

The proposed resolution says euthanasia _”the act by which one person intentionally causes or assists in causing the death of another who is terminally or seriously ill in order to end the other’s pain and suffering”_ is”neither compatible with the Christian faith nor should be permitted in civil legislation.” Few bishops objected to the resolution’s general thrust but its effort to distinguish between euthanasia and”withholding, declining, or terminating excessive medical treatment and intervention”prompted sharp debate. The latter, it said,”may be consonant with Christian faith in enabling a person to die with dignity.” At issue is the question of the withdrawal of treatment from those in a persistent vegetative state. Archbishop Moses Tay of Singapore, who is also a medical doctor, opposed any move in the direction of approving such withdrawal of treatment, which he said would be the equivalent of starving a patient to death.”It is cruel,”he said.”It is consciously inflicting suffering. It is killing.” A vote on the resolution may come Friday, two days before the conference ends on Sunday.

The resolution on international debt was expected to be one of the chief accomplishments of the conference and while it passed with virtually no opposition, some bishops used the debate to vent their unhappiness with the capitalist, free market economy that now dominates the global economy.”Private capital enjoys universal power without challenge and without responsibility,”said Bishop Alfred Reid of Montego Bay, Jamaica.”In fact, the real power that holds sway in the world today is not political but economic.” Reid said that while condemning the burden of debt on developing countries is important, it is even more important to condemn the injustice of the power exercised by transnational corporations.

These powers exceeded the powers of elected governments, both in regions north of the equator and south of it, he went on.”It is the unholy alliance between the political powers of the North and international private capital that creates poverty in the South,”he added.

The adopted resolution calls for”substantial”debt relief,”including cancellation of unpayable debts of the poorest nations. …”The need for debt relief for the poorest nations is urgent,”the resolution said.”Children are dying, and societies are unraveling under the burden of debt. We call for negotiations to be speeded up so that the poorest nations may benefit from such cancellations by the birth of the new millennium.”The imagination of many, rich and poor, has already been gripped by the stark simplicity of this call,”the resolution said.

In its statement on women bishops, the prelates adopted a statement jointly drafted by a few of the 11 women bishops at the conference and a group of traditionalists opposed to women’s ordination.

The statement called on all the provinces of the Anglican Communion to affirm that”those who dissent from, as well as those who assent to, the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate are both loyal Anglicans.” It urged churches, such as the Episcopal Church,”to make such provision, including appropriate episcopal ministry, as will enable them to live in the highest degree of communion possible, recognizing that there is and should be no compulsion on any bishop in matters concerning ordination or licensing.” The amendment was opposed by Bishop Barbara Harris, suffragan (assistant bishop) of Massachusetts, and Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis, on the grounds that it contravened a canon of their province.

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