News Brief

Conservative Episcopalians break away ahead of Eames report

-18/10/04

A coalition of conservative New England Episcopalians announced at the weekend that they are forming four new congregations that will not be part of the Episcopal Church USA.

The new group will instead seek oversight from a foreign Anglican bishop who shares their opposition to last year's consecration of a gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.

The move came before the publication of the Eames report, which could signal whether the church will fall apart over the election of a gay bishop in the US, and which sources have said will not satisfy either side in the dispute.

Many have been hoping that Ireland's Archbishop Robin Eames, experienced in the Northern Irish peace process and author of an earlier report into the equally contentious issue of women's ordination, will pull an unexpected solution out of the bag and maintain unity between the church's two factions.

The 80 page report, product of a year's deliberation by a commission of senior churchmen and theologians headed by Archbishop Eames, has been produced under tight security to avoid leaks.

However a source who has had sight of the report, has suggested to the Ekklesia news service that neither side will be happy with what the report has to say.

The decision to establish the four new Anglican congregations marks the first concrete action taken in New England by Episcopalians unhappy with the election of the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

The new worshiping communities, which are independent of the Episcopal Church USA, have just a few dozen members and are meeting in private homes. Several similar, but smaller, home-based prayer groups have also formed.

The Episcopal Church USA is the American province of the Anglican Communion, which comprises 38 provinces around the world.

At the Rhode Island Convention Centre at the weekend, about 270 of the conservatives gathered. The conservatives, some of whom are still members of the Episcopal Church, and some of whom have left to join a variety of existing breakaway groups or to form new ones - assembled to launch a regional section of the Anglican Communion Network.

The national organization brings together dioceses, parishes, and individuals who call themselves "orthodox Anglicans" and who believe that biblical strictures against homosexuality should preclude the ordination of a gay bishop.