Conservative Episcopalians ready showdown

OXFORD, England — Conservative Episcopalians say the majority of the world’s Anglican archbishops will support their efforts this week to punish the Episcopal Church for elevating a practicing homosexual to the post of bishop.

Starting tomorrow, the world’s Anglican primates, or leaders of the various national churches, will be at Lambeth Palace in London for a showdown meeting over the Aug. 5 ratification of Canon V. Gene Robinson, a homosexual, as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.

Conservatives say that two months of lobbying has amassed the support of 23 of the 38 primates for their plans to sanction the Episcopal Church in the United States, including, if neccesary, depriving it of billions of dollars in assets and disenfranchising it as the voice of Anglicanism in the United States.

A strategy session is set for tomorrow at All Souls Church, Langham Place, an evangelical parish in the West End of London. Conservative archbishops and other Anglicans — one of them being the Rev. Martyn Minns of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Va. — are arriving from around the world.

“We’ve worked out all the different scenarios as to what we’ll do,” says one of the planners, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s not all wrapped up, although we do have the numbers. We will have to cut out the cancer instead of breaking the church up.”

The “cancer” is the American church — or at least the 62 bishops and their dioceses who voted for Mr. Robinson. U.S. Episcopalians affirmed the Robinson selection at their general convention this past summer in Minneapolis and also voted in a provision acknowledging that some bishops are allowing the blessings of same-sex unions.

One scenario is for the archbishops at Lambeth Palace to demand that the American church halt the Robinson consecration, set for Nov. 2.

If the Americans refuse, they could be denied their three seats on the Anglican Consultative Council, which administers the Anglican Communion. Several hundred U.S. bishops could also be denied their seats at the once-per-decadeLambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in 2008.

Further discipline could include sending conservative bishops to lead parishes in liberal U.S. dioceses.

The final step would be to disenfranchise the American church altogether and install a new province in its place. One church leader, Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia, has urged that the American churchbe expelled from the communion.

To carry this out, the Rev. Rowan Williams, who as the Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, would have to recognize only the conservative dioceses and parishes as bona fide Episcopalians and members of the Anglican Communion.

Such a move by the Anglican Communion would give conservative parishes a legal basis for holding onto their property. U.S. courts have required that congregations wishing to depart the American church must cede the building and other assets to the diocese.

The conservative organizing is, predictably, not going over well with Richard Kirker, general secretary for the London-based Gay and Lesbian Christian Movement, which has 4,000 members.

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