Is an Anglican schism really happening?

News stories are written so poorly nowadays that I can’t be sure if this is true or not, but this article seems to be saying that the central administrative body of the Anglican Church has asked the Episcopal Church USA and its Canadian counterpart to withdraw from that body. The ambiguity consists in two factors: the story says that “members” of the Anglican Administrative Council, not the Council itself, requested the withdrawal; and it is not clear if expulsion from the Council would be tantamount to expulsion from the Anglican Communion. If such an expulsion is indeed happening, that is truly astonishing. It means the Anglicans are finally going beyond their endless calls for mutual “listening” and “reflection” and are drawing a line against the ordination of homosexual bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. As I said when the Episcopal Church ordained an openly practicing homosexual as bishop in 2003, a church that formally approves of homosexuality in this way has ceased to be a Christian body. Apparently the Anglicans, notwithstanding their extreme liberalism, feel the same.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 24, 2005 08:00 AM | Send