CHURCH OF ENGLAND: ARCHBISHOP HEARS CALL FOR AN INCLUSIVE CHURCH

The Archbishop of Canterbury received a petition signed by 8,500 individuals from the new Inclusivechurch network of Anglicans on the steps of Church House in London on February 10, during the meeting of the Church of England's governing body, the General Synod.

The handing over of the petition marks the first milestone in the life of a grassroots organization that began in August 2003 in response to the overturning of the appointment of Jeffrey John, a celibate gay priest, as Bishop of Reading in the diocese of Oxford.

"We are an organization set up to campaign for an open, honest and generous spirited Anglicanism that has always been the very heart and soul of the Church of England," explained the Rev. Giles Fraser, chair.

Fraser said Inclusivechurch began as a group of friends from Southwark, London and Oxford who, prompted by the Jeffrey John debacle, were increasingly worried about the future direction of the Church of England.

They organized an open meeting in the church of St. Mary's Putney in London, site of the 1647 Putney Debates, taken by many historians as the birthplace of modern democracy.

Others similarly concerned asked if they could join, including individuals from the evangelical wing of the Church of England.

It snowballed very quickly to the 8,500 who have now registered their support on the website, www.inclusivechurch.net .

Fraser said the group's main concern is that the Elizabethan Settlement—the classical Anglican compromise based upon tolerance for diverse points of view—is being called into question and that broad church Anglicans are being forced out of the Church of England.

As the Rev. Nick Holtam, Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields in Central London, put it, "I am fighting against being made illegitimate in the church."

"It is excellent that so many people have supported the petition in such a short time, and with such little promotion," Fraser continued.

"Liberals are bad campaigners.

We're also a bit gutless.

But what those of us who are very angry need most of all is a call for action.

It is clear that the people of our country will not tolerate a homophobic church at the centre of our spiritual life, nor will they be edified by a theology born of ecclesiastical expediency rather than theological principle."

The vast majority of Inclusivechurch's signatories belong to the Church of England.

In addition to individual Anglicans who have signed the petition, more than 100 parishes have signed up too, each having passed motions of support through their Parochial Church Councils, the English equivalent of the vestry in ECUSA.

Signatories also come from parishes belonging to conservative organizations like Reform, and Inclusivechurch reports receiving emails from individuals keen to protest against their own churches, notably from places like Pittsburgh in the US, because they fear gay people are not made welcome there.

"People want an inclusive church," says Ann Kiem, a laywoman from All Saints Church, Fulham in London, and a signatory of the petition.

"I do not want to belong to an organization that excludes people on any grounds.

This is what, I believe, the vast majority of people in the Church of England think too."

The interesting thing about this "diverse middle" of the church, as Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of ECUSA has put it, is not that they are pro-gay, and for that reason horrified at the treatment of Jeffrey John, said Fraser.

It is their sense of common decency that is affronted.

"Grassroots members of the Church of England are now speaking loud and clear to Anglican leaders," says April Alexander, the lay chair of Southwark Diocesan Synod, another signatory.

"We believe that it is appalling that some parts of our Church are threatening schism over issues like homosexuality.

When secondary issues come to dominate over the church's core beliefs about the loving-kindness of God, something very serious has gone wrong."

After handing in the petition, Inclusivechurch held a Eucharist at St. Matthew's Church, Westminster.

The preacher was the newly appointed American priest, the Rev. Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and Canon of Oxford Cathedral.

"We who regard gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Christians, not as the latest problems on the sexuality syllabus, but as spiritual treasures for the whole community, cannot afford to equivocate or temporise," Adams said.

"We must support them in their life in Christ, and bear wide and public witness to how we have experienced their partnerships as sacraments of God's love in a broken and divided world.

The Body of Christ is pregnant with holy opportunity.

We shouldn't want to abort it."

GEORGIA: LOCAL EPISCOPALIANS RESPOND TO ROBINSON CONSECRATION

While some may be protesting with their wallets, others are joining new national groups.

Episcopal decisions on homosexual issues last summer hit home this week.

On Sunday, members of the 271-year-old Christ Church, the Mother Church of Georgia, voted to join a nine-year-old Anglican group that wants to preserve Biblical authority.

Meanwhile, the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia expects a dip in donations from its 71 congregations this year, attributed in part to those protesting actions taken by the national convention in Minneapolis last August.

Congregational pledges are down $219,528 from last year's pledged amount of $1.63 million, Bishop Henry I. Louttit Jr. said Wednesday.

Also, the diocese has an estimated 18,649 active members.

As a result, the Diocese of Georgia will reduce its contribution to national headquarters.

"I understand the frustration of those who want to do something, but the cost is to the poor of the world," Louttit said from diocesan headquarters in Savannah.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu listens to the debate in the Chamber at the Church of England's General Synod in London, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2004.

Church of England General Synod members were debating homosexuality and so-called "gay marriages", for the first time since the row over gay priests in the Anglican Communion.

In Minneapolis last year, Episcopal delegates approved the election of an openly homosexual priest to be bishop of New Hampshire.

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who has been living with a male partner for over a decade, was consecrated as bishop in November.

Leaders also recognized but did not endorse that some bishops allow ceremonies blessing same-gender couples.

Louttit said he is not aware of any such ceremonies performed in his diocese, which consists of 14,000 members throughout the southern section of the state.

The Episcopal Church USA is a democratically operated denomination.

Louttit said the diocese has lost some members because the national decisions go against their understanding of Scripture.

But other people have joined because they find the denomination brave to have taken on the issue.

At Christ Church on Sunday, 137 of the 214 voting church members present agreed to become part of the American Anglican Council, a Washington-based organization that represents traditional Episcopalians who believe in Biblical authority.

The vote also paves the way to possibly join the 3-week-old Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes.

"They want to remain within the mainstream, mainline traditional Anglican heritage which says marriage is between a man and a woman," said David Hein, co-author of the new book "The Episcopalians."

Sunday's vote puts a more public face on what parishioners believe, said the Rev. Marc Robertson, rector of the historic church on Johnson Square.

"Christ Church has always held the historic faith and order of the Anglican Communion," he said.

"We honor the centrality and authority of Holy Scripture."

The vote does not separate the parish from the diocese and members have no plans to seek alternative Episcopal oversight, Robertson said.

In his diocesan convention address in Valdosta last week, Louttit said he does not totally trust the American Anglican Council.

But earlier this week, a diocesan spokesman said the bishop understands the need for some parishes to join the council.

"As long as the AAC remains as they have stated publicly within the structure of the Episcopal Church USA (Bishop Louttit's) not going to take any kind of precipitous action against a parish for doing this," said the Rev. James Parker.

Hein, the author and chairman of the department of religion and philosophy at Hood College in Frederick, Md., described the Christ Church vote as part of a larger denominational trend, of mainline American Protestants losing the hold they used to have on American religion.

It's being sidelined and represents fewer American Christians, he said.

"Part of this seems to be almost a death wish," he said.

"The (Episcopal Church) seems to be getting out of step with people in the pews, the people in the center."

The denomination shrank from about 3.3 million members in 1965 to 2.3 million today, Hein said.

Hein does not believe traditionalists will break from the Episcopal Church USA to create a second American branch of the Anglican Communion.

"At first I thought it might be (a schism)," he said.

"But it looks like the AAC is extremely conscious of remaining in the Episcopal Church and working to prevent a schism, partly because of the property problems.

If they left the Episcopal Church they might well lose a lot of property, and some of these traditional congregations are in parishes that go back 200 years."

Many Episcopalians who stand by the Minneapolis decision believe in honoring the decades-old majority-rules process of creating laws that govern American Episcopalians.

Those who disagree say the denomination is straying from Biblical teachings in favor of cultural thought.

So they're joining such groups as the AAC and the new network.

But one Christ Church parishioner who disagrees with the Minneapolis decision did not want to join the AAC.

"In my opinion, I find them to be too political of an organization," said Karl Bohnstedt.

"Probably the best way to solve (this) is to change the direction of the church in a subsequent convention," he said.

"I am a proponent of working within the structure of the Episcopal Church to change it around."

TEXAS: DEBATE OVER GAYS ENDS DIOCESAN CONVENTION

Delegates to the Episcopal Diocese of Texas quietly concluded their annual council meeting Saturday after an hour of often impassioned debate over biblical authority and sexual morality.

More than 40 of the 1,000 delegates attending the concluding council session argued for and against the national church's action in approving the ordination of an openly gay priest as bishop last summer.

The national church also approved the blessing of same-sex unions, further intensifying the dispute between denominational conservatives and liberals.

The American church and worldwide Anglican Communion are deeply divided over the ordination of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire and the morality of homosexual unions.

Several international churches, especially in Africa, have declared "impaired communion" with the American church in protest.

Bishop Don Wimberly, who voted against Robinson and same-sex blessings, scheduled the non-voting debate after successfully calling for the tabling of four resolutions that were critical of the action of General Convention, the church's legislative assembly.

Wimberly said he preferred the debate rather than polarizing the church further through a vote.

But some delegates, like John McGarvey of Houston's Church of the Holy Spirit, were upset with Wimberly's action.

The delegation from St. Paul's Church in Katy walked out in protest Friday.

"You have chosen to mute the voice of the Diocese of Texas on the matter," McGarvey told Wimberly.

Most of the delegates spoke against the actions of General Convention.

"The current issue of the church is not about the sin of homosexuality," said Andrea Widdows of St. Richard's Episcopal Church in Round Rock.

"This is only a symptom of the bigger problem in our church.

The issue is about the church condoning all kinds of sinful practices by allowing our leaders to continue in sin, instead of repenting and thus leading us to repentance as well."

Some delegates said the issue was not easy to decide in a vote.

The Rev. James Nutter, rector of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, said he was a delegate to the national assembly and voted against the approval for Robinson.

He said he was opposed to the circumstances surrounding the vote including the lack of theological study of the issue.

But Nutter said he was still conflicted about the issue.

"As I have looked at the five or six texts that are pertinent to this issue, the harder it is for me to discern whether or not there is a clear, absolute definitive ethic on homosexuality," Nutter said.

The Rev. Rick Benson, of St. Mark's Church in Rosenberg, defended the actions of the national church.

Benson argued that scientific research supported the view that homosexuals did not freely choose their orientation.

"Science just doesn't support that," Benson said.

He said Galileo and other scientists were condemned in their views by the church that cited the authority of Scriptures.

"We need to take Scripture seriously, but we also need to take the reality that science presents us within our deliberations," Benson said.