c. 2007 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Episcopal leaders on Thursday (June 14) rebuffed demands from overseas Anglicans to roll back their church’s pro-gay policies, arguing that such decisions can only be made at the denomination’s triennial conventions.
The church’s 40-member Executive Council, which is headed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, also declined a proposal from Anglican archbishops to create a separate church structure for conservatives who reject her leadership.
The panel, meeting in Parsippany, N.J., questioned overseas archbishops’ power to “impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion or to prescribe the relationships within … our common life.”
The Executive Council declined to give a “yes or no, up or down decision,” to all of the archbishops’ demands, said the Rev. Lee Alison Crawford, a council member and rector of St. Mary’s Parish in Northfield, Vt.
But Crawford said the council provided “a strong affirmation that the Episcopal Church is not going to go backward from the commitment to our (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) brothers and sisters.”
Last February, primates _ or top archbishops _ in the worldwide Anglican Communion demanded Episcopalians pledge to stop consecrating gay bishops, halt blessings for same-sex unions and cede some authority to oversees Anglicans to minister to disaffected U.S. conservatives. The U.S. church was given a deadline of Sept. 30 or face “consequences.”
Generally, the Executive Council is charged with making decisions for the 2.2 million-member church between its triennial General Conventions. On Thursday, the council said the archbishops’ demands could only be considered at General Convention _ next scheduled for 2009 _ thus essentially putting off the primates’ demands.
“It’s neither go back to the drawing board nor a complete rejection,” Jefferts Schori said at a teleconference, adding that Episcopal bishops could take up the demands at their meeting in September.
Derived from the Church of England, the 38 national and regional churches of the global Anglican Communion enjoy relative autonomy, though conservatives are pushing for more central oversight.
At its last General Convention in 2006, the Episcopal Church voted to “exercise restraint” by not consecrating bishops “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on the communion.” Some church leaders have interpreted that as prohibiting noncelibate gay bishops.
On Thursday, the Executive Council said that “we strongly affirm this church’s desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers, but in truth the only thing we really have to offer in that relationship is who we are _ a community of committed Christians seeking God’s will for our common life.”
KRE DS END BURKE
