Can Anglicans avoid crack-up over gay issue?

Is the Anglican Communion headed toward an eventual crack-up? The situation doesn't look particularly hopeful, based on reaction to the work of an emergency commission whose goal is preserving the worldwide body of 77 million Christians.

Anglicans are sharply divided over Christianity's age-old teaching against gay sex and, underlying that, the interpretation and authority of the Bible. The Lambeth Commission's report said it regrets five incidents that created a crisis over the issue:

• Consecration last year of an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, by the Episcopal Church (Anglicanism's U.S. branch).

• The U.S. church's recognition that Episcopal clergy "operating within the bounds of our common life" perform blessings for same-sex couples.

• Approval of same-sex blessings by the Anglican Church of Canada's Vancouver Diocese.

• The Canadian church's decision to "affirm the integrity and sanctity" of gay and lesbian relationships.

• Conservative bishops' boundary-crossing to lead North American parishes that cannot accept the authority of their liberal bishops, without permission from those local bishops.

In diplomatic tones, the commission said last month that the North Americans should be "invited" to express "regret" over same-sex blessings and the elevation of a gay bishop and place a moratorium on both practices. The boundary-crossing bishops also were asked to express regret and desist.

Since then, neither side indicated much willingness to budge.

U.S. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold responded that "we regret how difficult and painful actions of our church have been" for others, but didn't express regret over what was done or raise hopes for a rollback.

Griswold affirmed the contributions of gays and lesbians "in all orders of ministry" (bishops and priests) and added his regret that other Anglican churches repress homosexuals. He said he didn't consider his own leadership of Robinson's consecration "fundamentally wrong or contrary to the spirit or I could not have participated."

Similarly, Vancouver's Bishop Michael Ingham said his diocese "does regret the consequences of our actions, but not the actions themselves." But the heads of Africa's churches insisted that the North Americans must move beyond regretting the effect of their actions "to a genuine change of heart and mind. Failure to do so" will signify their decision to leave Anglicanism and "follow another religion," they said in a joint statement Oct. 28.