'WE'RE BEHIND YOU': SYDNEY BACKS PRIMATES

By Madeleine Collins | The Southern Cross

The Sydney Standing Committee has bolstered the heavyweight pressure being put on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Commission to penalise the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA) over the controversial appointment of Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

After a lengthy debate in late May, the Standing Committee resolved to support the conservative primates of the Global South — representing two-thirds of the Communion — in their call to the Lambeth Commission to urge ECUSA to turn back to God and withdraw from their election of openly gay Bishop Robinson.

The Standing Committee also supported the Primates' call to the Commission to invoke disciplinary action, if necessary, that could involve ECUSA's expulsion from the Communion.

It supported the Primates' view that such extreme action was necessary because Bishop Robinson's appointment in the Diocese of New Westminster last year demonstrated that ECUSA had "abandoned" the teaching of Scripture as it relates to matters "necessary to salvation."

The Standing Committee therefore believes they need "to repent, and to rescind and revoke their election of Bishop Robinson." It also supports the maintenance of those parishes and dioceses "who are seeking to uphold the historic faith of the Anglican Communion as set forth in Holy Scripture."

The Nigerian Primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, writing on behalf of the Primates, said in a strongly worded statement that ECUSA has been deliberate in its "disobedience of the revealed will of God in the Holy Scriptures … and has wilfully torn 'the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level.'"

The Lambeth Commission, also known as the Eames Commission, is a group appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury charged with finding a resolution to the deep rift in the worldwide church over the appointment of gay clergy.

The group is due to present its findings in October. The Primates have given ECUSA a three-month deadline following the Commission's report to repent and revoke Bishop Robinson's appointment.

The 18 Primates who have challenged the Commission are a group of African, Asian and South American clergy who preside over 50 million of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

The pronouncement adds weight to a recent show of unity amongst the Australian Bishops in upholding biblical truths relating to gender and homosexuality in light of the damaging events in New Westminster. At a meeting of the Australian Bishops in March, the bishops together affirmed a resolution on human sexuality passed at the Lambeth Conference in 1998, "as conversations continue in relation to this complex and sensitive matter."