Episcopal leader takes fellow bishops to task

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, has taken fellow U.S. bishops to task for asking Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the world Anglican leader, to intervene in their denomination's ongoing dispute over homosexuality.

Griswold said no appeals to overseas churchmen "can excuse us" from working within the U.S. church to overcome divisions.

The heads of 17 of the 100 Episcopal dioceses wrote Williams asking for a May meeting to discuss their church's "irreconcilable differences" and "mutually exclusive" theologies, which they said pose a threat to unity within the church and the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

The Living Church, an independent Episcopal weekly, released the bishops' letter to Williams and a simultaneous letter to Griswold from many of the same bishops, asking for a special commission to deal with the dispute.