More than 900 members of the Episcopal Church, including their presiding bishop, signed a letter telling the head of the Anglican Communion that granting dissident members a new overseer would pose "a grave danger" to the worldwide denomination.
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(Photo: AP / Jacquelyn Martin-File)Phyllis Grose lights candles for a noon Eucharist service at The Falls Church in its historic chapel in this file photo from Nov. 29, 2006 in Falls Church, Va. The Falls Church, one of two of the most prominent Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly in December to leave The Episcopal Church and join fellow Anglican conservatives forming a rival denomination in the United States.
The letter was sent ahead of a closed global meeting this week in Tanzania where the Anglican archbishops of 35 provinces have convened. The invited primates are expected to hear the Episcopal Church's response to the 2004 Windsor Report that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.
"The basic issue here is what to do about those who decided they don't want to stay in the main Anglican body," said Canon James Rosenthal, spokesman for the Anglican Communion, according to the Associated Press.
Conservative Anglicans in the United States and in the majority of the Global South have distanced themselves from the Episcopal Church since divisions heightened with the 2003 ordination of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The most prominent exodus from the U.S. Anglican body occurred in December when congregations in Virginia left the Episcopal diocese and joined an alternative body – the Convocation of Anglicans in North America set up by the Church of Nigeria.
Other conservative Anglicans in the United States have requested for "alternative primatial oversight," seeking a new overseer from other countries in an attempt to realign with the Anglican Communion.
Parishes and dioceses that made the request to Williams last summer include the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, South Carolina, and Springfield. The Diocese of Quincy requested the same in September.
In opposition, Episcopal clergy and laity wrote in the recent letter that those seeking a new overseer are "in effect asking to walk away from the messiness and ambiguity of our current disputes about gays and lesbians in the church."
Granting the diocese their request would "lead to fragmentation of the Anglican Communion rather than deeper unity in Christ," the letter stated.
While conservative Anglicans within America and overseas believe the Episcopal Church has not responded adequately to the Windsor Report, Episcopalians in the letter stressed that they do not view the report as "an ultimatum." Rather, the Episcopal Church views it as "part of a process."
The letter further urged for respect for the authority of the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the "autonomy of the Episcopal Church."
This week, as Jefferts Schori faces Anglican leaders that are varied in their backing and opposition to her support for the ordination of homosexuals, Robert Williams, aide to Jefferts Schori, said the U.S. head "will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ."
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