WILL THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH BE EXPELLED FROM THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION?

Personally, I’ve never had much interest in the Episcopal Church.  My only tie to it was my best friend in college when he became an Episcopalian.    Six weeks later, he became a Methodist.   Six years later, he became a sort of Catholic.   I had the feeling that such machinations said more about him than about any of those denominations.   Still (probably unfairly) I have long believed that any church which began with a King wanting to put one wife aside to marry another had something of a lack of credibility.   It is said that after Anglicanism originated in the sweaty bed of Anne Boleyn, it has mellowed and developed a culture of moderation – its legendary via media.   Whether this has resulted in a lukewarm locus between Protestants and Catholics is left to the judgement of the reader.  

So, what to make of the recent decision of the Anglican primates?   It seems that they basically put the American Episcopal Church on notice—a sort of probation—in which the American version of the Anglican Church is called to recant its decisions on women in the ministry, gay ordination, and gay marriage.   In other words, conform to the present consensus of the Anglican communion on these issues.   During this three year “suspended excommunication”, the American Church is to have no vote in the Church’s international conferences and various other meeting.   It is unclear if the American Church is essentially forbidden from attending these gatherings and if the Anglican primates actually have the authority to pronounce such a probation and the means to enforce it.

The meaning of the primates’ decree, naturally, depends on who you read and talk to.   To the proponents of the Episcopal Church, both nothing happened and something happened.    First, they maintain, no such suspension was put in place against the American Church.   Second, they equally claim, there is no way they will reverse themselves no the sexual issues.   If they are ejected from the Anglican Communion, it’s not only an acceptable cost, it is a badge of honor.

On the flip side, the decree is a forerunner and/or a hopeless holding pattern to the inevitable schism within the communion.   As it is unlikely the American church will repudiate their own self-styled “prophetic” actions, the majority of Anglican Churches will not tolerate it.    What majority?  The most vocal are the African churches.   Stanley Ntagali, the Archbishop of Uganda, walked out of the conference when it did not endorse his proposal to immediately demand that the Americans (and the Canadians who went almost as far as their coreligionists to the south) be required to repent and “voluntarily withdraw” its wayward decisions.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been trying hard to avoid an outright schism. A recent event, which he himself called, has made his task more difficult. The African Anglicans, along with those in other non-Western countries, have been chiefly revolted as the Episcopal Church in the U.S. sequentially consecrated an openly gay bishop, then ordained gay and lesbian priests, and most recently authorized priests to conduct same-sex weddings.

Welby had adopted a relatively moderate position after the Westminster parliament legislated same-sex marriage. He said that this was now the law of the land, and the Church of England. (unlike, the Catholic Church) would not oppose same-sex marriage through English law. But the Anglican communion will continue to hold and teach marriage as between one man and one woman, and would only bless such marriages. He pointed out that couples wanting other arrangements would have no difficulty finding other churches more than happy to accommodate them.

Unfortunately for Welby’s peace-making efforts, the General Convention (the annual legislative authority of the Church) made just this accommodation. (The Archbishop of Canterbury is a Pope) The Africans were now fully enraged.

Welby had already cancelled one Lambeth Conference because he feared that the meeting would lead to an unavoidable. He now convoked an extraordinary gathering of the same group, even adding the bishop presiding over the rather small group of American dioceses that had seceded from the Episcopal Church for the same reasons that troubles the Africans. Welby was in favor of remaking the international Anglican Communion into a much looser federation in which member churches could have wider divergences of doctrine.

Unfortunately for Welby, he failed to persuade the majority of the assembled bishops.  Instead, they voted to impose sanctions for three years on the American Episcopal Church. The gathered bishops made it clear that this sanction was in place until the next meeting of the General Convention, giving the American Church a chance to recant its vote on same-sex nuptials. Failure to recant would lead to extreme consequences.  In spite of the recent denials of many leaders in the American Church that it was so, the sanctions do apply sharp limits on American participation in Anglican Communion affairs.

Can the Anglican Church avoid outright schism by transforming doctrinal disagreement into an irenic matter of polity as it appears Welby would have it?    My own ELCA tried that gambit during its own “gay wars” by saying that allowing same-sex marriage and associated issues by leaving it to individual congregations to decide did not have implications on doctrines of sexual ethics.  Very few bought it and—given the verbiage coming out of the ELCA’s headquarters in Chicago since, the “polity” advocates didn’t really believe it either.   The Anglican bishops of what was once referred to as the “third world” aren’t buying it.   They demand action and it looks like they will get it at the next Lambeth Conference.