The Anglican Communion is ridiculed as “the Gay Church” and is losing members over homosexuality, say bishops meeting in Canterbury.Mission is being damaged and confidence in the validity of the Anglican Communion is being hurt, they say.
The bishops’ comments appear in a draft of the final Reflections document of the Lambeth Conference.
About 670 bishops from 38 provinces worldwide have contributed to the document after meeting in African-style indaba, or discussion, groups during the 2½ week conference at Kent University.
The final document will be published tomorrow. It is the main report to emerge from the conference, which has been designed to enable debate without votes or resolutions that might widen divisions.
The document lists unexpectedly strong concerns about the liberal direction that the Anglican Church in the West is taking over homosexuality.
The report says: “We wish this wasn’t the big issue because there are bigger ones. But we can’t now avoid it.”
It says that some provinces feel the teaching of the missionaries who brought the faith from the West has been betrayed. “It is experienced as a new form of colonisation.”
The report cautions that the liberalisation of the Western Church is seen as leading to sexual licence: “Confidence in the validity of [the] Anglican Communion is severely damaged.”
It continues: “Bishops cannot be a symbol of unity when their consecration itself divided the Church.”
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