Anglican leader urges humility over rift

The Anglicans' spiritual leader, faced with a deepening rift over homosexuality and scripture in the worldwide Anglican Communion, called Sunday for humility among bishops as the conflict threatens to fracture the church.

Leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans, meeting in Tanzania for a conference that ends Monday, traveled by boat from the mainland for a Holy Eucharist in Zanzibar, a predominantly Muslim archipelago on the Indian Ocean.

The Anglican Communion is struggling with a rift over ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions, which reached a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church _ the U.S. wing of the fellowship _ consecrated its first gay bishop. Last year, the U.S. church elected its first female leader, Katharine Jefferts Schori, fueling the divide.

Conspicuously absent from Sunday's service was Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the church and who now leads a rival network formed by conservative Anglicans in the U.S.

On Friday, Akinola led seven conservative archbishops in refusing to take communion with Jefferts Schori.

"There is one thing that a bishop should say to another bishop," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglicans' spiritual leader, told the Anglican leaders and several hundred worshippers in a packed cathedral Sunday. "That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior."

One of the leaders involved in Friday's boycott, the Rwandan archbishop, was seen again refusing to take communion Sunday, but it was unclear what the others did because all archbishops remained at their seats to receive communion.

The archbishops have agreed not to speak publicly until the conference ends.

The creation of Akinola's group, called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, has been the most dramatic step by conservatives to encourage a breakaway Episcopal group that would be outside Jefferts Schori's oversight.

An eventual breakup of the communion would be the most stunning fallout from struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others. The Anglican fellowship was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

Many conservative Anglicans believe a liberal trend could cost the fellowship significant numbers of converts _ particularly in Africa, where competition for souls is fierce.

Across Africa, with a population of about 900 million people, Islam and Christianity are both estimated to have about 400 million followers, with animist religions making up most of the remainder. And as animist ranks dwindle, Muslims and Christians are increasingly competing for converts.

On Sunday, the Muslim call to prayer was heard outside during lulls in the Christian hymns.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible's social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, many Anglicans outside the United States believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

There is no formal structure for expulsion from the Anglican Communion _ the world's third-largest Christian body behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches.

Williams, who lacks any direct authority to force a compromise, urged Christians to see and understand others' suffering as Zanzibar commemorates the 100th anniversary of the last slave sold here and the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British empire.

Sunday's service was held in Christ Church, which was built in 1874 over Zanzibar's biggest slave market and has an altar that stands over an old whipping post.

"It is so easy," Williams said, "to pretend that those dark and unacceptable parts of our history do not exist."

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