Gay clergy to be banned in Synod deal

By Jonathan Petre Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:04am BST 10/07/2007

The Church of England yesterday agreed to draw up a disciplinary code that could result in the expulsion of liberals from worldwide Anglicanism after it heard that the alternative was disintegration.

In an emotive debate at the General Synod in York, liberal speakers criticised the idea of such a covenant, saying it could be used like a "blunt instrument" against them.

But conservatives said that if the Church failed to define boundaries of belief, worldwide Anglicanism could never rebuild the trust destroyed during the conflict over homosexuality that has brought it to the brink of schism.

advertisementA draft version has already been drawn up by an international group appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, one of its strongest advocates.

Although no final form of words has been agreed, conservatives hope that it would prevent liberal churches consecrating gay bishops.

The chairman of the group, the Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez, told the Synod that the Church was facing a serious crisis, and it needed to agree a set of common doctrines to allow its warring factions to co-exist.

"Anglican leaders are seriously wondering whether they can recognise in each other the faithfulness to Christ that is the cornerstone of our common life and co-operation," he said.

"While some feel that there will be inevitable separation, others are trying to deny that there is a crisis at all. That is hardly a meeting of minds. Unless we can make a fresh statement clearly and basically of what holds us together, we are destined to grow apart."

A number of conservative African archbishops are already threatening to boycott next year's Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of all Anglican bishops in Canterbury, in protest at the liberal American Church's pro-gay agenda.

But leaders of the worldwide Church are hoping that the covenant can provide a way of uniting the vast majority of moderate Anglicans who want to preserve the unity of the worldwide Church, which has 70 million members.

Archbishop Gomez reassured liberals that the covenant would go through many drafts before approval, not least a debate at the Lambeth Conference.

"What I understand you are asked on this occasion to consider is this: are you willing to engage in principle with the process which seeks to find a common basis for the provinces of the Anglican Communion to move forward together?"

A number of speakers urged the Synod to resist the development because it could lead to the exclusion of Churches deemed to have breached it, undermining the spirit of Anglican tolerance and concentrating power in the hands of a few senior archbishops.

The Rev Miranda Thelfall-Holmes, from Durham University, warned that history was littered with pieces of paper that had had no effect on the subsequent behaviour of those who had signed them.

The Rev John Plant, from the diocese of Leicester, said doctrinal certainty was "not always a virtue" and Anglicans did not have access to "an infallible source of truth".

But the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, said a vote against the covenant was a vote for anarchy.

Tim Cox, from Blackburn, argued that the covenant should be strengthened to reaffirm traditional teaching that sex should only occur within heterosexual marriage.

However, his amendment was overwhelmingly rejected, and the Synod instead agreed to allow the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to respond to the draft covenant by the end of the year.

Source: telegraph.co.uk