THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has blamed liberal North American churches for causing turmoil in the Anglican communion by blessing same-sex unions and consecrating gay clergy, as he attempted to chart a way out of the crisis that has been engulfing the Anglican Church. On the final day of the Lambeth conference, a 10-yearly gathering of the world's Anglican bishops, Dr Williams said practices in certain US and Canadian dioceses were threatening the unity of the Anglican communion.
"If North American churches do not accept the need for moratoria (on same-sex blessings and the consecration of gay clergy) we are no further forward. We continue to be in grave peril," he said.
Nearly three weeks of discussion aimed at preventing a break-up of the worldwide Anglican communion over homosexuality ended on Sunday with agreement to seek a pact among all parties to the controversy.
Dr Williams — the supreme voice of a church that is reckoned the third-largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic and Orthodox faiths — announced a consensus to seek the pact, known as a covenant, in the absence of a formal vote.
He had decided before the meeting to avoid resolutions and votes in the hope of preventing a schism that might well rupture worldwide Anglicanism more severely than at any time in more than 450 years.
The push for a covenant amounted to a stratagem for finding both short and long-term solutions to a dispute that has bitterly divided an estimated 80 million Anglicans worldwide.
Making his third and final presidential address, Dr Williams said the "pieces are on the board" to resolve the wrangling over homosexuality. He put forward the idea of a "covenanted future" involving a "global church of interdependent communities".
But even as he was speaking, disaffected primates from developing countries expressed regrets about the conference.
A statement signed by more than a quarter of the world's Anglican archbishops said theological voices outside the West had been missing from some key sessions.
"We are concerned with the continuing patronising attitude of the West towards the rest of the churches," they said.
Dr Williams also faced disenchantment at home, with some English bishops questioning the nature of the conference.
Conflicting views on homosexuality have pushed liberals and conservatives apart, with 230 boycotting Lambeth and realigning themselves with a breakaway movement, the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon).
Throughout the conference there have been pleas for churches in the US and Canada to refrain from pursuing progressive agendas. A statement from the Episcopal Church of Sudan said the actions of the American and Canadian churches had "seriously harmed the Church" in Africa and elsewhere, opening it up to ridicule.
The African Primate Daniel Deng was the first church leader to issue a position statement on homosexuality. He was followed by the presiding Bishop of Egypt and Jerusalem, Mouneer Anis, and several primates from South Asia, all voicing their pain at the fractures caused by the issue.
Dr Williams announced that he would convene a meeting with all the Anglican primates, to take place early next year, and that the objectives and composition of the pastoral forum would be unveiled within three months. In addition, he said, the Gafcon bishops absent from Lambeth would be involved in policy shaping.
Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angles, was clear that calls to stop blessing same-sex relationships would be received with "fear and trepidation" in his diocese. "I can only say that inclusion is a reality," he said. "For people who think that this is going to lead us to disenfranchise any gay or lesbian person, they are sadly mistaken."
Susan Russell, president of the US campaign group Integrity, was angry with Dr Williams' remarks, which she called an "11th-hour sucker punch".
"It sends the wrong message — that gays and lesbians are still strangers at the gate," she said.
"It's not going to change anything on the ground."
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