Embattled Anglicans look to U.S. gathering

In an Easter season letter to leaders of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury set out their priorities for a once-a-decade summit planned for 2008. The note was all about survival: How do we heal the feuds over gay clergy and other rifts and manage to hold together 77 million followers around the world?

But a deeper question — being asked with increasing urgency — is whether it's worth the effort.

Some critical judgments may emerge when the Episcopal Church — the American branch of the embattled Anglican family — begins its General Convention on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.

What's at stake seems profound: A nearly 500-year-old religious tradition going back to King Henry VIII's famous break from the Vatican to establish the Church of England. But the modern reality is much more messy.

Factions have engaged in theological combat since the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Conservative dioceses are withholding money, congregations are looking for leadership — and the Anglican Communion has no central authority or doctrine to try to rally around. In short: many bricks but not much mortar.

Some are tired of unity, if all it means is more fighting, and a formal rupture would effectively mean little in the pews. Priests and followers have generally picked their sides. But theologians worry an Anglican disintegration would set a worrying example to other mainline Protestant denominations struggling over gay clergy and same-sex unions — the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) among them.

"There's a de facto split now," said Andrew Carey, a British-based commentator on Anglican affairs. "We can't say it's broken beyond repair, but it's effectively impaired. Everyone is watching what will come next."

The delegates heading for Ohio have the opportunity to seek calm or more confrontation.

In crafting a message to other Anglican churches, they could send an olive branch to conservatives worldwide fuming over same-sex blessings and the Rev. Robinson's widespread acceptance in the West. A snub, however, would reinforce perceptions that the communion is locked in a fatal battle over what it should stand for.

Liberals, including many in the Episcopal church, say issues of social justice and anti-discrimination are the priorities for the 21st century. Traditionalists, led by Africans and the so-called "Global South," insist on strict interpretations of the Bible and point to a 1998 Anglican declaration calling homosexuality "incompatible with Scripture."