'An Anglican fudge'

There is an interesting editorial in today's Irish Times.
Readers may have missed it in the newspaper. Here it is printed in full.

An Anglican fudge

The troubled relations within the world-wide Anglican Communion, of which the Church of Ireland is a part, would seem to have taken a small turn for the better with the decision in New Orleans by the Episcopal Church to cease appointing as bishops openly homosexual priests, and to end giving blessings to same-sex couples.

At a stroke, it would seem, the issue that has caused profound division within the 77 million strong communion has been set to one side. But in reality, there are irreconcilable differences at play that are unlikely to go away as easily as proponents of this decision must surely hope.

The central issues here concern tolerance, equality, inclusiveness, New Testament Christianity and love. The fissure among Anglicans goes back to 2003 and the Episcopal Church's consecration of an openly gay bishop, Bishop Gene Robinson. Led by churchmen in Nigeria, where homophobia is enshrined in law and violence against gay people commonplace, and traditionalists in the US (where violence against gay people is also commonplace in many states), conservatives within the communion have been campaigning to have the Episcopal Church expelled or forced to reverse its position.

Episcopal bishops meeting in New Orleans, accompanied for a time by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who urged compromise, on Tuesday decided after six days' debate to rescind in effect their policy of what might be termed proactive tolerance. Henceforth, no openly gay priest will be ordained a bishop, no matter the depth of their faith or the quality of their ministry or leadership, or the degree of support they may have among their congregation.

There can be no doubting that the American church leaders, facing a deadline of next Sunday, were anxious to avoid an irrevocable split within Anglicanism. But gay activists will ask how the bishops can, as they did, reaffirm their commitment to the civil rights of gay people and express opposition to any violence towards gay people or violation of their dignity, while at the same time denying full and equal rights to gay people within their church.

The Anglican Communion is a compromise organisation, one of the defining differences between it and the Roman Catholic Church. Anglican churches in many countries - not least this one and the UK - have among their congregations and within the ranks of their clergy many gay people whose orientations are well known. They will not go away and they are likely to ask with increasing urgency if they must forever tolerate being treated as second class Christians. The issue may be fudged but it will not go away.