Recent controversies
The ordination of
homosexuals and the practice of blessing same-sex unions within some dioceses has caused criticism by many within ECUSA and in the greater
Anglican Communion. There are a variety of practices within the Anglican Communion:
- The Church of England considers a celibate person of homosexual orientation to be eligible for ordination, even if the person has entered into a civil same-sex partnership, noting "The Church should not collude with the present assumptions of society that all close relationships necessarily include sexual activity." [20]
- The Church of England affirmed in 2005 that lay homosexuals who have entered into civil partnerships are still eligible for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and communion. [21]
- In 2002, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Diocese of New Westminster voted to allow the blessing of same-sex marriages by those parishes who choose to do so.
- The Anglican Church of Nigeria issued a statement in 2006 affirming "our commitment to the total rejection of the evil of homosexuality which is a perversion of human dignity and encourages the National Assembly to ratify the Bill prohibiting the legality of homosexuality". [22]
The 2003 consecration of The Right Reverend
Gene Robinson, an openly gay man living in a committed relationship, was a landmark event for those on both sides of the issue. At the request of the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Commission, ECUSA released
To Set Our Hope on Christ on
June 21,
2005, which explains "how a person living in a same gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ."
[23]
The 2006 election of The Most Reverend
Katherine Jefferts Schori is also controversial within the church and the wider Anglican Communion not primarily because she is a woman
[24] but because she voted to confirm The Right Reverend Robinson and has allowed blessing of same-sex unions in her diocese of
Nevada, which some see as a contradiction of scripture and Christian tradition.
[edit] Requests for alternative primatial oversight
Part of the response has been an attempted
Anglican realignment within the Anglican Communion wherein some theologically conservative Episcopal parishes and dioceses are seeking the oversight of bishops from other countries, effectively trying to leave their local dioceses. Eight US bishops have rejected The Most Reverend Jefferts Schori's apostolic authority and have requested alternative pastoral oversight; in one case, the convention of the diocese supports the bishop; the other seven have not yet considered it.
[25]
Some individual parishes are also attempting to leave the Episcopal Church. On
December 17,
2006, St. John's Episcopal Church, in Petaluma, California voted to disassociate with The Episcopal Church, making it the first parish in the region of northern California (Diocese of Northern California) to leave with its property.
On the same date in the
Diocese of Virginia, eight parishes voted to leave The Episcopal Church and formed the
Anglican District of Virginia, which is part of the
Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an organization which started as ministry to Nigerian-Anglicans living in North America but which has also become prominent in the Anglican realignment movement. The Anglican District of Virginia's Bishop is the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, the Missionary Bishop of CANA. As church property in the Episcopal Church does not usually belong to individual parishes, the Diocese of Virginia
has taken the first steps to maintain its claim on the church buildings; if the departing congregations try to take their buildings with them a fight both in church and civil courts will ensue. NOTE: There was one parish, All Saints Church in Dale City that through the course of a year and a half finally came to an agreement with the diocese to keep the land they had purchased prior to 2003.
In a press release, The Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, referred to the requests for 'alternative primatial oversight’ and stated:
As we move to reflecting on these requests, we have to acknowledge that we are entering uncharted waters for the Communion, with a number of large issues about provincial identity and autonomy raised for all of us. [...] I continue to hope that colleagues will not take it for granted that there is a rapid short-term solution that will remove our problems or simplify our relationships for good and all without the essential element of personal, probing conversation.
[26] Some advocates of realignment hope to set up their own independent structure and receive recognition as a valid part of the Anglican Communion parallel to the Episcopal Church; others hope that the Episcopal Church may be replaced altogether. Defenders of the Episcopal Church note that there is no precedent in the Communion for two rival jurisdictions to overlap each other geographically.
[edit] American Anglican Council and Anglican Communion Network
The
American Anglican Council, formed in 1996, and the
Anglican Communion Network, formed in 2004, also consist of many conservative-minded clergy and parishes but remain formally within the church.
the Anglicans would be the most simplistic answer.
