Bishop says gap is closing over gays in Anglican church

The danger of a schism in the global Anglican Communion appears to be lessening, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, said yesterday.

Shaw, responding to last week's gathering in Northern Ireland of worldwide leaders of the Christian denomination, said he would oppose a moratorium on consecration of gay and lesbian clergy as bishops. ''It's a very bad idea," he said. ''It scapegoats the gay and lesbian community."

But Shaw said he would support complying with a request by the Anglican primates that the Episcopal Church USA and Anglican Church of Canada temporarily withdraw their representatives from the Anglican Consultative Council, a panel of clergy and laity from around the world. Shaw said that the panel has only one meeting scheduled between now and 2008 and that at that meeting the US and Canadian churches would be invited to explain their support for gay rights in the church.

''I think it makes sense to withdraw from this one meeting, especially if we're going to be talking about why we did what we did," Shaw said. ''This is not the way it was reported in the press. It is not the first step toward separation of the Anglican Communion at all. It's probably the lightest thing they could have done."

Shaw, a leading liberal voice in the American church, was an active supporter of the 2003 ordination of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

That ordination triggered debate over possible schism, or split, in the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is one of 38 provinces. Many primates, or chief bishops, of Anglican provinces in the developing world, particularly in Africa, oppose the ordination of noncelibate gays and lesbians.

Despite the huge gulf in attitudes toward sexuality between the North American provinces and many of those in the developing world, Shaw said he believes it is important for the Anglican Communion to stay together.

''I believe in church unity, and I think the larger we are and the more cultures we represent, the more we really are the body of Christ," he said. ''We need the developing countries and Africa to help us confront issues in the American church, and they need some of the talents and resources that we can give."

Unlike some bishops in the United States, Shaw has made a point of reaching out to conservative parishes in his diocese, acknowledging their membership in a national network of conservative parishes and allowing one parish, in Marlborough, to be supervised by a conservative bishop from Canada.

The conservatives oppose the ordination of gays and lesbians as bishops and oppose blessing of same-sex unions.

''Some bishops have said their clergy cannot be members of the network, but I deliberately have allowed for that," Shaw said. ''They feel really isolated in the church, and they ought to have a group of people they can feel some support with."

Asked about the chance of schism, Shaw said, ''I wouldn't say it's passed, but I think we're in a better place. . . . In the primates' communique, there was a piece about how the discussions are going to be 'longer term,' and I think that's a good sign."

Shaw also said he was pleased that the primates' declaration that 'we assure homosexual people that they are children of God, loved and valued by him and deserving of the best we can give of pastoral care and friendship'."

But Shaw's relatively upbeat perspective on the state of the Anglican Communion is not shared by some local leaders on both sides of the debate over homosexuality.

''The spin -- that things aren't so bad, and this is not that big a deal -- is not going to work," said the Rev. William L. Murdoch, who is the New England dean of the Anglican Communion Network, the alliance of conservative Episcopalians. ''The fracture of the Anglican Communion is still very much a great and terrible threat upon us right now."

The Rev. Anne C. Fowler, a leading supporter of gay rights in the church, called the primates' statement ''a terrible shame."

''I am just very sorrowful that they don't respect our faithfulness," said Fowler, who is rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain and cochairwoman of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry.