Anglican mediator hopeful can avoid church schism
LONDON (Reuters) - The Anglican Archbishop trying to mediate between warring liberal and conservative clergy believes schism can be avoided in the deeply divided church over gay priests.
"My cup is half full as opposed to half empty," said Archbishop of the West Indies Drexel Gomez, heading a group of clerics who hope they can end the bitter battle of words with a formula aimed at placating both sides.
But he conceded that he did not expect 100 percent attendance at the Lambeth Conference -- the summit of Anglican leaders that is held every ten years in Britain.
"I think schism can be avoided but I think it depends on the willingness of parties involved to sit down and discuss the proposals and attempt to come to a common mind," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from his base in the Bahamas.
The consecration of openly gay U.S. bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 has pushed liberals and traditionalists -- many in developing countries -- close to breaking point.
Several Conservative U.S. parishes have switched loyalty to Third World Archbishops who, spearheaded by Nigeria's Peter Akinola, are to stage their own summit in Jerusalem in June, just six weeks before the Lambeth Conference.
That could irretrievably fracture the 400-year-old church which, unlike the regimented hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, is run by broad consensus with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as first among equals.
But Gomez, who at meetings in Nassau and London has drawn up a so-called covenant which he hopes could act as a kind of doctrinal umbrella for all to shelter under, refuses to be despondent.
The loose structure of the Anglican Church could in the end be its salvation. He does not echo the doom merchants who have for four years been prophesying its demise.
Gomez, himself from the traditionally conservative wing of the divided church, said: "I am a positive person by nature and I believe that what we have produced is a good starting point."
Media reports have spoken of a compromise formula whereby errant churches would be disciplined while the traditional autonomy of the Anglican Church's 38 provinces would be respected.
He refused to be drawn on the content of the Covenant that will be published later this month. "We made a commitment. We cannot discuss the details," he said.
But he did urge Anglican leaders to study it, come to Lambeth and try to hammer out their differences, not just score endless doctrinal points off each other by declaiming their scriptural differences from the pulpit.
Reflecting on the prospects for the Lambeth Conference, he said "I don't think it will be a full house. Sydney (headed by Archbishop Peter Jensen) have said they will not come. But I think it will be sufficiently full to represent the mind of the communion."
