Anglican panel seeks a halt on gay bishops

LONDON -- A commission of high-ranking Anglican leaders yesterday called for a moratorium on the ordination of gay bishops and on the authorization of public rites of blessing for same-sex unions as it tries to head off a split in the global Anglican Communion over the consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

The Lambeth Commission, made up of bishops, priests, and lay people from around the world, also called on the Episcopal Church USA to ''express its regret" for breaching the ''bonds of affection" between Anglican provinces by electing and consecrating the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson, a New Hampshire priest who is openly gay and is in a committed long-term relationship with another man.

The commission criticized leaders of the Episcopal Church USA as well as leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada, where a diocese authorized same-sex union rites. The commission said the archbishop of Canterbury should exercise ''very considerable caution" before inviting or admitting Robinson to gatherings of global bishops because of ''the widespread unacceptability of his ministry." It added that the bishops who helped consecrate Robinson, including Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts, should consider resigning from unspecified ''representative functions" in the global church.

But the commission also criticized bishops of Anglican provinces in the developing world for offering to function as bishops to conservative parishes and individuals in the Episcopal Church USA. This summer, for example, two Southern California parishes said they were leaving the Episcopal Church and joining a Ugandan diocese; in March, the bishop of northern Brazil joined five retired Episcopal bishops in confirming 110 people in Akron, Ohio, without the permission of the local bishop. And last Saturday, the conservative Anglican Communion Network announced in Providence it would support four new Anglican congregations in New England, including two on Cape Cod and two in New Hampshire, that would seek oversight from a conservative bishop from outside the United States.

''There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together," the Lambeth Commission said in its 93-page report, released at midday in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. ''Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart."

The Episcopal Church, with 2 million members, is one of 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion, which has 70 million members; 18 provinces have expressed opposition to the actions of the Episcopal Church and its Canadian counterpart.

The report was approved unanimously, despite broad ideological diversity on the panel. The commission's chairman, Archbishop Robert H.A. Eames, said the report sought reconciliation rather than punishment.

''In my pilgrimage, I have learned the hard facts of what reconciliation means," he said, reflecting on his efforts to resolve conflict in Northern Ireland.

Archbishop Drexel W. Gomez of the West Indies, a leader of the conservative wing of the church and a member of the Lambeth Commission, said the report ''represents the highest degree of consensus that was attainable."

''I am hopeful that the unanimous position of the commission will encourage the [Episcopal Church USA] to rethink its position," Gomez said. ''If they remain fixed in their views, then a confrontation is inevitable."

The report was generally welcomed by liberals.

''We were concerned that ECUSA might be expelled or not invited to the Lambeth conference," said the Rev. Giles Goddard, a spokesman for InclusiveChurch.net, a 9,000-member organization based in London that supports allowing gay bishops. ''But what is the best of this report is that it enables us to continue to speak with each other, to move forward."

The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, a Washington-based organization of gay and lesbian Episcopalians, said, ''This an extraordinary opportunity for us to tell our stories -- we've been invited to do that by the commission -- and one of the best things may be that we're going to be talking to gay and lesbian Christians, not just about them."

Robinson, who was elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire in June 2003 and consecrated as a bishop that November, declined to comment. He met with New Hampshire clergy and will ''prayerfully consider the report," according to his spokesman, Mike Barwell. Gomez said he expects that, as a result of the report, Robinson would not be invited to the next worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops, scheduled to meet in South Africa in 2008.

Conservatives said they were disappointed that the report did not go further in punishing the US church, and were unhappy the report criticized the actions of conservative bishops from Africa who sought to oversee conservative Episcopalians in the United States.

''We understand and embrace the justifiable concern for the unity of the communion, and we treasure real unity," said a statement issued by the Anglican Communion Network, a new organization of conservative Episcopalians based in Pittsburgh. ''We cannot in good conscience, however, support such unity at the expense of truth. We must not allow a desire to hold the church family together to allow us to maintain the fatal disease that grips ECUSA and by association, the Anglican Communion."

The commission's recommendations will now be considered by the primates of the Anglican provinces.

''We regret how difficult and painful actions of our church have been in many provinces of our communion, and the negative repercussions that have been felt by brother and sister Anglicans," the presiding bishop of the US church, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, said in a statement yesterday,

Griswold also praised the contributions of gay and lesbian Episcopalians.

''Given the emphasis of the report on difficulties presented by our differing understandings of homosexuality, as presiding bishop I am obliged to affirm the presence and positive contribution of gay and lesbian persons to every aspect of the life of our church and in all orders of ministry," Griswold said. ''Other provinces are also blessed by the lives and ministry of homosexual persons. I regret that there are places within our communion where it is unsafe for them to speak out of the truth of who they are."

Shaw said in an interview yesterday that he does not intend to resign from the one Anglican panel on which he serves, which is a board that advises the Anglican Communion's observer at the United Nations, ''unless my presence is very offensive." He also said he does not intend to withdraw his permission for local priests to bless same-sex couples, noting that he has not authorized a formal rite for same-sex blessings.

''My basic reaction to the report is quite positive," he said. ''I think it really gives us, as an Anglican Communion, some very important issues to work on over the next several years, about how we are going to be one communion in the 21st century. It doesn't sugarcoat any of the problems we face."

Shaw said he still thinks he did the right thing in participating in the consecration of Robinson.

''I believe that we followed the constitutions and canons of the Episcopal Church and our sense of conscience," he said.

''The fact is that my pastoral experience, my understanding of Scripture, and my understanding of the tradition of the church leads me to believe that the decision I made, while it might be offensive to people, is in keeping with my prayer and my understanding of Scripture."

Charles Sennott reported from London; Michael Paulson reported from Boston. Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.