After the Episcopal Church in the United States consecrated an openly gay bishop and the Anglican diocese of New Westminster in Canada allowed the blessing of same-sex relationships, the issue of sexuality came to the fore at the 2005 Primates Meeting in Dromantine, Ireland.

Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who became Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada in 2004, recalled his first Primates Meeting as "very, very tense," with a group of Primates largely from the Global South registering their disapproval over the actions taken by their counterparts in the U.S. and Canada.

"There were 14 Primates who would not set foot in the chapel because the American Primate [Frank Griswold] and I were there ... It was a pretty icy time," Hutchison recalled.

The 2005 Primates Meeting was also the first for Paul Feheley, principal secretary to the Primate under Hutchison and to Hutchison's successor Archbishop Fred Hiltz. The level of tension expressed by the Primates' refusal to enter the chapel, even for the Eucharist service held by the Archbishop of Canterbury, stunned Feheley.

"For a new person coming in at that point, for me, that was staggering, because I don't think it had ever occurred to me that people would choose to stay away from a Eucharist because so-and-so was sitting in the congregation," he said.

Feheley described the 2007 Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania as the "most difficult" of the four he attended, with tensions at an all-time high and a noticeable separation among the Primates. Among those in attendance was Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female Primate in the Anglican Communion.

Despite disagreements, the meeting again allowed Primates to understand the views of their foreign counterparts. Archbishop Hutchison offered the example of the Church of Nigeria, which opposes homosexuality and same-sex marriage but also faces an environment in which violence between Christians and Muslims is commonplace.

"Anglicans in Nigeria are in a very, very difficult spot because they are, to begin with, persecuted by the Muslim majority, and as Muslims hear that Anglicans are now in favour of the blessing of same-sex couples and so on, it gives one more reason for Muslims to reject and indeed punish Christians," Hutchison said.

"That's an issue for them. It's not simply a matter of distaste for same-sex relationships. It's a matter of their own safety and well-being ... And by the way, that kind of understanding is one of the advantages of this kind of coming together despite our differences, [in] that you can listen to and hear and appreciate the issues that emerge for them locally."

Friction remained at the 2009 Primates Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, the first attended by Primate Fred Hiltz. The meeting took place at the height of activities surrounding the creation of the Anglican Church of North America, interventions by Primates from other jurisdictions, and conversations around a proposed worldwide Anglican covenant.

As a result, Archbishop Hiltz recalled the 2009 event as one wracked by tensions. Feheley, by contrast, said that the meeting marked the beginning of a gradual reduction in discord compared to previous meetings.

"This wasn't because now suddenly everybody was seeing things in a liberal way or a conservative way," Feheley said. "But you could begin to see the Communion saying, 'OK, we need to work at this. We need to really try to understand Scripture and authority. We all know what the Scripture says on homosexuality, but we don't agree on the interpretation.'"

With the lowering of tension, the 2011 Primates Meeting in Dublin, Ireland had an altogether different feel for Archbishop Hiltz. Though a number of Primates did not attend due to health reasons, visa issues, or declining to accept the Archbishop of Canterbury's invitation, the meeting acknowledged those who were not present.

"We were painfully aware of that dynamic in our midst in Dublin, but upheld them every time we gathered to pray," Archbishop Hiltz said. "Every time we were in a conversation, we were just mindful that they weren't there and that we needed to be conscious of their voice and perspective in the conversation."

Exploring a wide range of topics, the 2011 meeting produced notable statements on climate change and gender-based violence.

"If you look at the communiques from the Dublin meeting in 2011, they were really positive," Feheley said, noting that throughout all four Primates Meetings, Archbishop Rowan Williams continued to serve as a focus of unity in his role as Archbishop of Canterbury.

With Primates requested to make suggestions for the agenda at the next meeting, many concerns from Dublin will carry over into the 2016 Primates Meeting in Canterbury.

DAVID VIRTUE RESPONDS

A large portion of this story is factually correct about what took place at various primatial gatherings. I was present at each one of these and can report that tensions were extremely high and got higher with each passing meeting, but not just for the reasons cited by Mr. Gardner.

At all times the issue of homosexuality (the central issue) was seen as theological, not sociological, by the Primates of the Global South. This is conveniently overlooked by Mr. Gardner.

It is true that the primates could not even take Holy Communion together because of the differences. This happened in Dromantine. It was here that Frank Griswold lambasted Archbishop Rowan Williams at one point for not pushing harder against Archbishops like Peter Akinola of Nigeria, but Williams knew that if he did that Akinola and the other Global South primates would probably walk out.

The Muslim persecution of Christians over homosexuality cited in this article was always secondary to the theological and moral argument that Scripture forbade sodomy. The Global South would not give an inch to placate Western advocates of homosexuality.

By the time Dublin came around (and I was there), fully one third of all the primates were no shows because they had had enough and saw which way the wind was blowing. They knew the differences were irreconcilable. Gene Robinson, a homosexual priest living with his lover had been ordained Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, and so the gig was up. The Episcopal Church had shoved this development in the face of both Lambeth Resolution 1:10 and the Dromantine Declaration and gotten away with it. The Global South saw no future in attending these meetings. It was over. ACNA was about to be born.

The issues of climate change and gender-based violence were always secondary or tertiary and of little concern or importance to the Global South primates.

To argue that the communiques from the Dublin meeting in 2011 were really positive is a complete fiction. The main players were not present, so the liberals and revisionists talked to themselves about issues they wanted to address but could do nothing about. This is a scenario likely to play out in Canterbury where Archbishops like Fred Hiltz want to focus on poverty, refugees, and global warming, while the GAFCON primates (including Archbishop Foley Beach) want to make it clear that the pervasive elephant in the narthex is gay marriage and all matters related to pansexuality. This time they won't let liberals like Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz or the Archbishop of Canterbury get away with disregarding these issues. Those days are gone. They will be forced to face these issues head on.

Gardner said that Archbishop Rowan Williams served as a focus of unity in his role as Archbishop of Canterbury during those years. Nonsense. He tried to square the circle and could not. When he left office eight years early, Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh ripped him apart, saying that when Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002, it was a happy family. He said he left behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism, and mission all around the Anglican world.

Canterbury in 2016 will be a "make or break" time for the whole Anglican Communion and the GAFCON primates will not be fobbed off by issues that do not touch the souls and destiny of men and women across the planet. The day of reckoning approaches.

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