Evangelicals say 13m back anti-gay move

By Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent

The Guardian

December 31, 2003

Evangelicals opposed to gay people within the Anglican communion presented an email petition yesterday to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, calling on him to provide alternative oversight for those congregations which oppose bishops supporting Gene Robinson, the gay bishop of New Hampshire.

The petition’s organisers claimed it was backed by more than 13 million church-goersThe move was the latest flexing of muscles by traditionalists who have mobilised recently against any relaxation of the church’s opposition to homosexuals. It came against a backdrop of threats to split the worldwide communion which Dr Williams heads.

But there was some doubt about how many of those who had allegedly signed up either knew of the petition or supported it, since heads of families, clergy, bishops and archbishops were allowed to sign on behalf of all their family members, parishes, dioceses and provinces.

Support for the document rose from about 500,000 to 13 million in the last few days.

The organisers claimed the support of five primates, all from the developing world, eight bishops, though none from English dioceses, 4,013 individuals, 3,192 families, 249 parishes, eight of the communion’s 500 dioceses and everyone in the five provinces represented by the archbishop signatories. That included the entire church in Uganda, south-east Asia, the Congo, Central Africa, Kenya, the Indian ocean and the 22,000 Anglicans living in South America.

Described to those signing it as your Christmas gift to the Anglican communion, the petition was said to be your chance to make the Anglican communion as God intends it to be. The organisers claimed it showed a majority of  the church’s 70 million members across the world opposed the consecration o f Canon Robinson, whose election by the New England diocese was endorsed by US Episcopalians meeting at their annual convention in Minneapolis in August .

The petition dismissed the majority votes, including two-thirds of US bishops, as showing contempt by a minority group within the church.

Bishop Robinson was consecrated in New Hampshire by the head of the US church, Frank Griswold, in November and will succeed the current diocesan for the state in the spring.

The petition was organised by Anglican Mainstream, a group of conservative English evangelicals, which sprang up following the group’s successful mobilisation of opposition to the appointment of Jeffrey John, a gay priest, to the suffragan bishopric of Reading last summer.

Dr John was forced to stand down by Dr Williams, who had earlier endorsed his appointment.

The group is centred on the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, which support s evangelical theological training for students from the developing world and has received funding from the Californian fundamentalist billionaire Howard F. Ahmanson.

The petition called on Archbishop Williams to no longer recognise the ministries of any bishop who attended Bishop Robinson’s consecration and to authorise traditionalist bishops to minister to congregations which can no longer20 support their bishops.

The organisers also promised to pray for the archbishop and for all those who are confused or living in sin.

END