US Episcopal Church – badge of honor to support LGBT marriage and rejection by UK Anglicans and God.
After 13
years of rancor over conflicting views on homosexuality, the archbishops of the
Anglican Communion have voted to impose sanctions for three years on the
Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Communion, for its decision last
summer to allow clergy to perform same-sex marriages, church officials said.
News of the
archbishops’ decision to discipline the American church leaked out near the end
of a weeklong meeting in England called by the Most Rev. Justin Welby, the
archbishop of Canterbury. He had summoned the archbishops to Canterbury in an
effort to break the bitter impasse that has divided the Anglican Communion
since the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.
The
sanctions — essentially limiting participation in Anglican Communion affairs —
do not call for any change in policy by the American church. Conservative
Anglican archbishops said that while they were pleased by the sanctions, the
move did not go far enough. They also said they expect the sanctions to
continue if the Americans do not change course in three years.
Still, the
disciplinary action is the most serious setback for the Episcopal Church and
other Anglican provinces that support gay rights since the conflict erupted in
earnest over how to interpret what the Scriptures say about gay people and same-sex marriage. About two-thirds of the 37 archbishops
at the meeting voted to sanction the American branch, according to
conservatives who supported the disciplinary action.
The Anglican
Church of Canada, which has allowed some clergy members to perform same-sex
marriages but has not adopted a policy for the entire province, escaped
sanctions.
But the
archbishops’ resolution fell short of the demands of conservative primates to
evict the Americans and the Canadians from the Communion. The archbishop of
Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, said he walked out of the meeting on Tuesday after his proposal for the
Americans and Canadians to repent and “voluntarily withdraw” did not gain
traction.
The
Anglican Communion, with about 85 million members in 165 countries, is the
world’s third-largest body of churches after the Catholic and Orthodox
churches. It has its roots in the Church of England, whose missionaries planted
churches around the world. But unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican
Church has no pope. The archbishop of Canterbury is considered the “first among
equals” among the other primates, or archbishops, but does not have the power
to fix doctrine or rules, or impose unilateral discipline.
The resolution adopted by the Anglican Communion’s
archbishops said the Episcopal Church’s decision at its general convention in
2015 to allow a marriage rite for same-sex couples was a “fundamental departure
from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our provinces on the doctrine
of marriage.”
For the
next three years, the Episcopal leaders will not be allowed to represent the
Anglican Communion at meetings with other churches or other faiths, will not be
appointed or elected to internal committees and will not be allowed to participate
in decisions in the Anglican Communion “relating to doctrine or polity.”
The
presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, said before the vote
that “this decision will bring real pain” for all Episcopalians, but especially
for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, according to the Episcopal News Service.
“For many
who have felt and been rejected by the church because of who they are, for many
who have felt and been rejected by families and communities, our church opening
itself in love was a sign of hope,” Bishop Curry said. “And this will add
pain.”
The
archbishop of Canterbury permitted the participation at the gathering this week
of Archbishop Foley Beach, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, a
breakaway group formed in the United States and Canada to protest the moves
there to ordain gay bishops and recognize same-sex marriages. The Anglican
Church in North America counts just over 100,000 members.
A group of
conservative primates said in a statement that they were “pleased” at the
sanctions and the inclusion of Archbishop Beach, but that they were
disappointed the meeting did not call for “repentance” from the provinces that
support same-sex marriage and gay bishops.
The Rev.
Susan Russell, a senior associate rector at All Saints Church in Pasadena,
Calif., was among the Episcopalians who said sanctions would not change their
position: “As a lifelong Episcopalian and a married lesbian priest, I think
it’s not only an acceptable cost, it’s a badge of honor in some ways.”
But the
sanctions may be more than a temporary measure. The Rev. Canon Andrew K. Gross,
a spokesman for the conservative Anglican Church in North America, said the
sanctions were imposed for three years because that is when the Episcopal
Church holds its next general convention and could reconsider its actions on
gay marriage.
