Editorial

Anglicanism at the crossroads

Peter Westmore

Contents - Nov 2003 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Anglicanism at the crossroads - Peter Westmore John Paul II elevates Archbishop George Pell to the College of Cardinals - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Social Justice Statements: in whose name should they be published? - Richard Egan Melbourne on course despite brain drain - Fr Paul Stuart Vocations: Missionaries of God's Love congregation flourishes in Canberra - Mary Pidcock Melbourne's Caroline Chisholm Library passes ten year mark - Michael C.C. Ryan Vocations: Father James Gould and the hallmarks of successful vocations promotion - Michael Rose Tattoos and body-piercing: the moral dimension - Fr Peter Joseph Interview: Vatican Cardinal praises Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion' Letters: Cardinal Pell (letter) - Alan Hoysted Letters: Celibacy (letter) - Kim Albertini Letters: Vatican II - Peter D. Howard Letters: The Footy Show (letter) - Patricia Kelly Letters: The Mass? (letter) - Kevin McBride Education: The Catholic Church's one Founder - Fr John O'Neill Letters: Role model? - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Hypocrisy (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Letter from India Letters: Good out of evil (letter) - Brian Harris Letters: Lourdes pilgrimage (letter) - Jenny Davies Events: Vocations Camp - Fr Duncan Wong FSSP Books: A Grief Unveiled, by Gregory Floyd - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Built On A Hilltop: Good Shepherd Sisters in WA 1902-2002, by Geraldine Byrne - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Great books at the best prices! Reflection: Cardinal Pell on Pope St Gregory the Great and the duties of bishops - Cardinal George Pell

As the current issue of AD2000 goes to press, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is meeting 38 leaders of the communion in London, to discuss decisions of the General Convention of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the US which, last August, confirmed the election of an openly homosexual bishop in New Hampshire and left the issue of blessing same-gender unions to the discretion of individual bishops in their dioceses.

While the reaction of most Anglican leaders in other countries has been restrained criticism, those from Africa - where the Church is growing rapidly - have been outspoken in their opposition. For example, Archbishop Bernard Malango, primate of the Province of Central Africa, was quoted by Episcopal News Service as saying that the decision of the General Convention "has shattered the Anglican Communion".

Sydney's Evangelical Archbishop, Peter Jensen, writing in the Anglican magazine New Directions, said he believed that the limits of communion had been reached with these decisions.

In a meeting with Archbishop Williams in Rome, Pope John Paul II warned him that "new and serious difficulties" in Catholic-Anglican relations had emerged as a result of the decisions. While these were not publicly specified, United Press International reported that Rome told the Anglican Primate that if the decisions were allowed to stand, it would just about end ecumenical relations between the Churches.

However, the strongest response will come from African and Asian Church leaders, who constitute a majority of the Anglican communion, and are in no mood to temporise.

If the Anglican leaders face up to the crisis, Archbishop Jensen pointed out, it would "send a powerful moral and spiritual message to the Churches of the West that our flirtation with secularism has gone too far and we are in real danger of losing the moral and spiritual imperatives of the Gospel." If it does not, the unity of the Anglican communion could be sundered forever.

Peter Westmore is Publisher of AD2000.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 10 (November 2003), p. 2