Anglican Plan Threatens Split on Gay Issues - New York Times

Anglican Plan Threatens Split on Gay Issues - New York Times: "In a defining moment in the Anglican Communion's civil war over homosexuality, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed a plan yesterday that could force the Episcopal Church in the United States either to renounce gay bishops and same-sex unions or to give up full membership in the Communion.

The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, said the 'best way forward' was to devise a shared theological 'covenant' and ask each province, as the geographical divisions of the church are called, to agree to abide by it.

Provinces that agree would retain full status as 'constituent churches,' and those that do not would become 'churches in association' without decision-making status in the Communion, the world's third largest body of churches.

Conservatives hailed the archbishop's move as an affirmation that the American church stepped outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy when it ordained a gay bishop three years ago.

The archbishop wrote, 'No member church can make significant decisions unilaterally and still expect this to make no difference to how it is regarded in the fellowship.'

Leaders of the Episcopal Church — the Communion's American province, long dominated by theological liberals — sought to play down the statement's import, saying it was just one more exchange in a long dialogue they expected to continue within the Communion."

This may be inevitable, but it is anti-Anglican if a shared "theological covenant" is required. The Anglican church has always been non-creedal. I hope the Episcopal Church stands up to the bullying from other vocal quarters of the world.