November-December 2003 – There is a point when a frayed rope finally snaps, and if the Anglican Church were a rope, the breaking point may be very near. 

November 2 might be the moment of truth, because that’s the day when the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop is scheduled in New Hampshire. Canon Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual who left his wife and family more than 13 years ago to live with his male lover, was elected bishop at the Episcopal Church’s annual meeting, its 74th General Convention in Minneapolis last summer.

The Episcopal Church, with almost 2.4 million members, is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church. Its bishops voted by an almost 2-1 margin to elect Robinson to the New Hampshire episcopate.

The vote threatens to destroy not only the Episcopal Church, but also the nearly 77-million-member worldwide Anglican community.

Conservatives in the U.S., led by the American Anglican Council, quickly called for a meeting of like-minded Episcopalians, in Dallas, Texas, in early October. Nearly 3,000 people attended – a gathering that included 46 bishops, 46 deacons, 799 priests, 1,413 laypersons and 103 seminary students – representing 600 parishes and 105 dioceses in the Episcopal Church.

The attendees approved a declaration disavowing the election of Robinson, and demanded that the Episcopal leadership “repent of and reverse the unbiblical and schismatic” decision made in Minneapolis. The group also called on Anglican leaders worldwide to “guide the realignment of Anglicanism in North America” so conservatives could have spiritual oversight apart from the increasingly leftist U.S. church.

Also approved by the conservative meeting in Dallas: a recommendation that conservative churches redirect financial resources away from the support of the national Episcopal Church to “biblically orthodox mission and ministry.”

While admittedly in the numerical minority, conservatives in the Episcopal Church carry a lot of financial weight. Out of the U.S. branch’s more than 7,300 churches, one-third are considered conservative, according to World magazine – but those conservative churches account for 70% of the denomination’s income each year.

A looming split?
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church, summoned the individual primates of the Anglican Church’s 38 provinces to London for a two-day meeting in mid-October to discuss the crisis.

Williams’ position as Archbishop holds no actual authority in the Anglican Church, nor do primates have any authority to reverse the decision of the U.S. church to elect Robinson. Nevertheless, much of the Anglican Church outside the U. S. and Europe is conservative, and leaders around the world were horrified at Robinson’s election. Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, for example, called the election of a homosexual man to the bishopric “a satanic attack on God’s church.” 

In London the Anglican primates stopped short of any call for a drastic schism within the worldwide communion, but also placed the ball firmly in the court of the Episcopal Church and, specifically, the New Hampshire diocese. A statement issued by the leaders said that the unity of the worldwide Anglican communion would be “put in jeopardy” if Robinson is consecrated in November.

But Robinson has refused to withdraw his name – at this point the only conceivable step that could avert the crisis within Anglicanism. Concerning his appointment as bishop, he said, “I believe with my whole heart that it is God’s will.”