Will Anglicanism Muddle Through?

By Richard N. Ostling

As the great organ thundered beneath the medieval arches of England's Canterbury Cathedral, 525 bishops last week joined in a sung Eucharist to conclude the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of the international Anglican hierarchy. The bishops' matching robes of red, white and black gave a superficial impression of unity, as did the compromise measures they had enacted. "Some thought this conference was impossible. Reason and experience suggested we would fall apart. But by keeping our eyes on the Lord, we have not sunk," said a relieved Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, the Anglicans' spiritual leader.

Though the latest Lambeth Conference (named after the Archbishop's palace in London) did not sink, there is rough water ahead for the Anglican Communion, with its 60 million believers. Vast cultural differences are straining the customary tolerance within this family of 27 self-governing branches, which span 164 countries. One sign of this diversity was the simultaneous translation of Lambeth sessions into French, Spanish, Japanese and Swahili. Among the current areas of conflict: doctrine, liturgy, ecumenical relations, abortion, divorce, polygamy, homosexuality and violent revolution.

Most divisive of all is the place of women. While the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and Anglicans in Canada and New Zealand have ordained 1,257 women priests since the 1970s, much of Anglicanism is not ready for that step and refuses to recognize the ordained women. Such an encroachment of women's lib upon church doctrine is positively "satanic," declared a bishop from Melanesia, where women do not even dine with men.

Despite such resistance, the more liberal Anglican branches are now determined to go beyond women priests and consecrate women as bishops. The opposition to this step is formidable: 40% of the conference voted in favor of an Australian's motion to stall elections of women bishops. Nonetheless, facing up to the inevitable, the meeting decided to let each branch do as it pleases and then directed Runcie to appoint a commission to deal with the resulting disputes.

The aggressive U.S. delegation, which held a disproportionate 25% of the voting power (though it represents only 4% of the world's Anglicans), worked fervently to promote the women's cause. Dozens of Americans and Canadians refused to celebrate Communion services while in England, where women are not allowed to serve as priests. Nan Peete of Indianapolis became the first female priest to address a Lambeth session and won a standing ovation, from half the audience, for her eloquent words. "In a world that rejected me and denied me my humanity based on my race," said Peete, who is black, "the church was the place I turned for sanctuary." Now, she added, feelings of rejection "come back when I am not accepted as a priest, this time because of my sex."

Bishops from the fast-growing Anglican churches in Africa and Asia had differing views on women but united to confront the West on other issues. The most striking example was a decision to end long-standing church teaching against the baptism of polygamists. The Africans said the traditional stand cruelly forced converts to abandon their plural wives. Now converts in polygamous societies will be allowed to keep their wives if they forswear further marriages.

With some Western opposition but fervent African backing, Lambeth also reaffirmed that sex should be confined within a "permanent married relationship." When an American proposed toleration of homosexuals, Kenya's Primate, Manasses Kuria, declared, "To support people who continue in sin and help them, only not to be infected with the disease AIDS -- that is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

The Africans, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, persuaded Lambeth to express an "understanding" attitude toward those who, after exhausting other means, "choose the way of the armed struggle as the only way to justice." That statement, obviously aimed at white-ruled southern Africa, provoked % outrage in Britain, where I.R.A. terrorists had just bombed their latest victims. The meeting hastily worked up a second resolution condemning Irish terrorism on all sides.

The Anglicans' innovations regarding women will make reunion negotiations with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy more difficult, but the more immediate problem is the preservation of Anglican unity. Bishop of London Graham Leonard, who leads the international opposition to women's ordination, underscored that threat by announcing that he will refuse to recognize any woman bishop or maintain fellowship with any bishop who consecrates one. Others no doubt will follow suit.

On many issues, Leonard sees a great divide "between those who accept that the faith is revealed and given, to which we have to listen and obey, and those who think that it is capable of being modified to meet the culture and situation of each generation." But an outright schism does not appear likely. Instead, Leonard is proposing that the Anglican Communion dissolve into a "federation" of churches that have a shared ethos and background but also "profound differences." It is unclear what that would mean for the next Lambeth Conference, scheduled to be led in 1998 by a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

With reporting by Helen Gibson/London