Anglican Bishops admitted on Thursday that the consecration of Gene Robinson as an Anglican Bishop would jeopardize a unified body, causing individual provinces to face potential realignments, according to a joint statement following a crisis meeting in London, England this week.
Included in that potential realignment is the Anglican Church of The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, which according to Archbishop Drexal Gomez, will not make space in the church for gay leaders.
The 38 Bishops were invited to Lambert Palace in response to the anger caused by the election of Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Conservative Bishops are also against the United States Episcopal Church blessing same sex relationships.
Suffragan Bishop, Gilbert Thompson, said now that the two-day crisis meeting is over, crucial decisions have yet to be made as the Anglican church and the world awaits to see if Canon Robinson will be consecrated as Bishop.
“It seems as if the American church is going to proceed with the consecration of Canon Gene Robinson and I think it’s going to cause a split once they do so. The American church decided to take its own course…I believe America might find itself on a limb by itself if the other 37 primates condemn what they are doing, then they will find themselves separated from the rest of the communion,” said Bishop Thompson.
“If they are non supportive of the consecration of an openly gay man, then they will withdraw themselves with the American church. Now whether that comes immediately after the consecration or they allow some committee to meet, then the finding would more less concretize what has already taken place…what they agree is not legislated, but has moral authority,” he added.
The Bishops of the West Indies will meet in Antigua in November, where they will further discuss the realities of what the Anglican church faces.
“One of the difficulties here is that America itself is split on this question. There are lots of people in America who believe it is wrong to consecrate an openly gay man who left his wife and are living with another man. It is against scripture and it will spilt the church. You’re going to have congregations split up over it. You’re going to have dioceseļ¾“s split up over it,” said Bishop Thompson.
The 37 Bishops conceded via the statement that the actions of the Diocese of New Westminster which Canon Robinson’s church comes under, not only threatens the unity of their own communion, but their relationships with other part’s of Christian community.
“Whilst we acknowledge a legitimate diversity does not mean that some of us take the authority of scripture more lightly than others. Nevertheless, each province needs to be aware of the possible effects of its interpretation of scripture on the life of other provinces in the communion,” say the Bishops.
“The mutual interdependence of the provinces means that none has authority unilaterally to substitute an alternative teaching as if it were the teaching of the entire Anglican Communion,” they said.
Recognizing that the Anglican church has reached a crucial point in its history, Bishop Thompson said no province has the authority to substitute an alternative teaching as if it were the teaching of the entire Anglican church.
“Homosexuality is incompatible with scripture. About 37 of the 38 provinces feel that way about scripture.
What we’ve always said is that homosexual tendencies are not sinful, however the practices are sinful. We believe that just as we expect single people to abstain from sex, so we expect the same of persons with homosexual tendencies,” said the Bishop.
“We’ve always maintained that we love the sinner, although we hate the sin. It’s not normal for a man to have sex with a man, neither a woman with a woman. Something is not right. They’re going against nature,” he stressed.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
