[Newsweek] 12 Jul 2008--Compromise means a lot to Anglicans. Over its 450-year history, the faith has stayed united by downplaying dogma. Under the benign presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the faithful have often politely agreed to disagree on a slew of issues, from the ordination of women to obscure points of ritual. But tolerance has its limits. On July 16, the leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans meet in England for their once-a-decade gathering, and the talk is of irreconcilable differences. For a powerful conservative faction of Anglicans—including many who have refused to attend the conference—the hierarchy has ducked the question of homosexuality for too long. Either it's acceptable or it's an affront to the Bible's teachings. So while schism won't be on the official agenda at the Lambeth Conference, it will be on the mind of every bishop who attends.
The fault lines in the Anglican Communion have been deepening for some time. The religion was once dominated by liberal, affluent Westerners and comfortable elites. But like many mainline Protestant faiths in the West, its membership in rich countries has been declining for years, producing a fundamental shift in makeup and practices. Even as its numbers in the North have fallen—just 1 million worshipers now show up each week for services of the Church of England, the mother church of Anglicanism—they've exploded in some of Britain's former colonies. Worldwide, more than half of all Anglicans now live in Africa. And in sharp contrast to the relatively liberal Church of England (and its U.S. counterpart, the Episcopal Church) the African Anglicans preach a fervent fundamentalist line steeped in the Old Testament message of a stern, unbending deity.
A view of current events in the Anglican Communion from the far left.
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