Anglican leaders to discuss gays

Leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans on Thursday were to discuss the liberal stance on gays taken by the church's American wing, as concerns about gay priests and same-sex unions threaten to break apart the Christian denomination.

The primates, or leaders, of most of the global Anglican Communion's 38 provinces are holding a closed meeting this week, and the U.S. position on gays is at the top of the agenda.

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but became a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church _ the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion _ consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The problems mounted last year with the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports ordaining gays and is the first female leader of the U.S. church.

Anglican officials said Thursday's meeting would be spent reviewing the U.S. response to the 2004 Windsor Report by an Anglican panel, which called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions. The church has apologized for not consulting more with other Anglicans on those issues, but has not apologized for consecrating Robinson.

Conservative Anglicans have formed a rival network in the U.S., under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the church. Other conservatives have called for a parallel church within the United States.

The conference was sure to be highly charged over the rift.

"The basic issue here is what to do about those who decided they don't want to stay in the main Anglican body," Canon Jim Rosenthal, a spokesman for the Anglican Communion, said Wednesday.

Akinola gave a letter this week to the spiritual leader of the communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which is believed to demand some concessions to head off a schism. Africa is home to half the world's Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders.

Rosenthal confirmed the letter but said it was private.

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

Williams has struggled to hold off one of the biggest meltdowns in Christianity in centuries, but he lacks any direct authority to force a compromise. The Anglican Communion is the world's third-largest family of Christian churches behind Roman Catholic and Orthodox.

Bishop Martyn Minns of Virginia _ one of the most prominent U.S. clerics to leave the American church for Akinola's group _ said Wednesday that it would be best for the U.S. church to "back off and reconsider" its stance on gays. But, he said, that was highly unlikely.

"It's been tragic, the amount of time and energy that has been spent on this issue that was initiated by the American church," he said.

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.

Several delegates at the six-day conference, which brings together the archbishops who head the 38 provinces in the Anglican Communion, have threatened to refuse to sit with Jefferts Schori over the issue of gays.

But Rosenthal said Wednesday she is welcome and was invited by the archbishop of Canterbury.

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