The Anglican Communion’s divided views upon female bishops
and homosexuality have launched a serious crisis that could probably lead to
the point where the idea of an irrevocable schism is taken into consideration.
The Times communicated Tuesday in a first-page article upon
the quit threat the 1,300 Anglican clergy made over women bishops that “the
crisis is unprecedented since the Reformation devastated the Roman Catholic
Church in England
in the 16th century.”
The conservative bishops disapprove of what they consider to
be a religious decline, and reject liberal attitudes towards homosexuality and
the approval of female bishops.
This is the reason why on Sunday 300 conservative bishops
and archbishops made public the foundation of a new grouping that does not
acknowledge the authority of the Anglican leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
They also proposed an assembly of primates, consisting of five African and one
South American clergy to be converted into its utmost authority.
Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church
of England's highest-ranking cleric encouraged the dissidents to join the
Lambeth Conference of Bishops, Anglicanism's meeting held once in every ten
years, in order to discuss the two positions and take measures.
The convention is to take place in Canterbury,
southeast England,
from July 16 to August 4. However, the majority of the conservatives who were
present at the Global Anglican Future Conference have announced that they will
not attend the conference.
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