LONDON: The Church of England’s most senior cleric is facing an “unprecedented” attack on his authority after senior clergy condemned his more liberal stance on gay priests, the Guardian said on Thursday.
The newspaper said 17 of Anglicanism’s 38 primates had signed a “highly personal” letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, urging him to take action against “unrepented sexual immorality” in the Church.
“We wonder whether your personal dissent from this consensus prevents you from taking the necessary steps to confront those churches that have embraced teaching contrary to the communion,” the letter is said to have read. We urge you to rethink your personal view and embrace the church’s consensus. And to act on it as it is clear in the witness of scripture.”
The issue of gay clergy is one of the most contentious facing the Anglican Church, which counts about 77 million followers worldwide, particularly between more liberal Western countries and the more conservative African Churches. Divisions have been heightened since Anglicans in the US — the US Episcopal Church — endorsed the election of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the diocese of New Hampshire in 2003.
At the same time, the diocese of New Westminster in Canada, became the first in the Anglican communion to introduce a service of blessing for same-sex couples.
British bishops rejected calls for a similar service in July this year but allowed clergy to register same-sex relationships under the government’s civil partnership legislation. The Guardian said the latest row raised further the prospect of a split within the Church, particularly as the primates’ letter called for “cutting away dead branches that had failed to bear fruit”.
