Anglican Conference Gay bishop calls speakers promoting a Biblical Anglicanism 'voices that are speaking for division' By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Monday, November 14, 2005 PITTSBURGH, Pa. – While 2,000 participants were celebrating "the rebirth of a Biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism" in Pittsburgh, the gay bishop whose consecration in 2003 set off seismic shocks in the worldwide Anglican Communion was criticizing one of the Pennsylvania event's featured speakers as one of "the voices that are speaking for division." The Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, primate of all Nigeria, has been fearless in criticizing the Episcopal Church USA and the Archbishop of Canterbury over what he has called their failure to uphold the Church's historic stand on sexual morality. Akinola was one of the main speakers at the first-ever international conference "Hope and a Future." It was sponsored by the Anglican Communion Network, created by conservative bishops after the denomination consecrated a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire and gave tacit approval to same-sex blessings. The Rev. Dr. Leslie P. Fairfield, a professor of church history at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Penn., said those and other changes within the Episcopal Church had made it "a non-Christian religion" and its leadership had "embraced a foreign, alien and pagan religion." Conservatives, said the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, are in a battle "for the soul of the Western church. It's a battle for the shape of Christianity in the whole world." The Church Times in London reported Friday that Robinson said primates such as those who spoke in Pittsburgh do not necessarily speak for their provinces. "It's a fallacy to assume that Peter Akinola speaks for the communion. Will a listening process change Peter Akinola' s mind about this issue? Probably not." "It's no surprise to me that Peter Akinola has trouble comprehending the context in which we find ourselves in America," Robinson told the newspaper. "To be a homosexual in Nigeria is to be arrested and imprisoned, so how would Peter ever have the opportunity to meet a faithful and loyal and prayerful Anglican who also happens to be gay or lesbian, and get to know them and have his heart changed by that?" Robinson was in London to participate in Saturday's tenth anniversary of Changing Attitude, an advocacy organization that seeks full affirmation for gay and lesbians in the Anglican Church. Restrictions had been imposed on his visit, said the Rev. Nicholas Holtam, vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He said it was important that "we keep to the ground rules," as agreed with the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Bishop Robinson will be one among us during the service and will speak afterward," he told The Church Times. On Thursday night, Robinson met informally with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The newspaper reported that the meeting was part of Williams' commitment to listening to all sides of the debate in the Anglican Communion about homosexuality. No details of the meeting were released. Robinson told The Church Times he has no doubt that the danger facing the Anglican Communion is serious and deep, but he does not believe that the Episcopal Church USA is heading toward "an inevitable train wreck." "We are irreconcilable only if we choose to be. Reconciliation is the ministry we are all called to, and so to declare ourselves out of communion with one another is simply an infraction against God." The rest of the world, he said, does not understand how the American church works. "In our polity, the church speaks only when the laity, the clergy, and the bishops speak at the General Convention. It's what makes our church so very different from the provinces of the Anglican Communion." Asked if he would he have done anything differently, Robinson said, "It's very difficult to say. On the one hand, we have learned that to make such a momentous decision without more consultation was perhaps inappropriate on our part. But you have to understand, that consultation could not have happened until I was elected, and no one knew I was going to be elected. Being nominated is easy; being elected is hard." "All I can tell you is that the General Convention prayerfully and thoughtfully considered this and agonized over it. It was not some flippant or mindless or prayer-less action." He told The Church Times that he could be wrong and maybe should not even be speculating, but his personal view is that he does not see the American church moving backward. "I can't be unmade a bishop," Robinson said. "We will continue to nourish these relationships around the globe, and trust that the Communion that is there will actually win over the voices that are speaking for division."

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