Saturday, November 10, 2007

'Realignment' of Anglican Communion underway

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2843228.ece

[Times Online] 10 Nov 2007--One of the largest provinces in the Anglican Church has voted to “extend its jurisdiction” to cover the whole of the US.

The decision marks the formal start of a "realignment" of the Anglican Communion in the row over gays and could help stave off actual schism.

The province of the Southern Cone, which includes Argentina, Peru and Chile and is headed by expatriate British Bishop Greg Venables, is offering itself as a “safe haven” for traditionalist US dioceses that wish to secede over gays.

The plan will allow disaffected US dioceses to leave the oversight of The Episcopal Church Primat Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori but to remain within the body of the Anglican Communion and in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

According to well-informed insiders, Dr Rowan Williams, while opposed to separatist solutions to the Anglican crisis, has described the plan of Bishop Venables as a “sensible way forward.”

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