Global Anglican dispute remains after U.S. meeting

DALLAS (Reuters) - U.S. Episcopal Church leaders said on Wednesday they wanted to remain in the global Anglican Communion but rejected a demand they give up authority over conservative American parishes opposed to their stance on gay issues.

"It is our strong desire to remain within the fellowship of the Anglican Communion," the U.S. bishops said in their closing statement after a six-day meeting in Navasota, Texas.

But divisions seemed to widen as they rejected a "pastoral scheme" proposed last month in Tanzania that would see conservative U.S. congregations submit to the authority of traditional bishops overseas.

Their call for a crisis meeting with the archbishop of Canterbury met a frosty reception from across the Atlantic where the spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, Rowan Williams, has been treading a delicate line on the divisive issue.

"This initial response of the House of Bishops is discouraging and indicates the need for further discussion and clarification. Some important questions have still to be addressed; no-one is underestimating the challenges ahead," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Disagreements among Anglicans widened with the Episcopal Church's consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 -- the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of church history.

The Anglican Communion's presiding bishops, called primates, last month gave the 2.4-million-member U.S. church a September deadline to stop blessing same-sex unions, but gave no clear indication of what action it would take if the U.S. church refused.

It also proposed a "pastoral scheme" by which the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion, would appoint a "primatial vicar" -- a U.S.-based deputy of a conservative foreign bishop -- who would look after parishes and dioceses that want to switch allegiance to traditionalists abroad.

Some U.S. parishes have already voted to switch allegiance.

'SIGNIFICANT CONCERNS'

The American bishops' meeting in Texas objected to that idea, saying it would be "injurious to the polity (governing process) of the Episcopal Church."

"The Primates' Communique (in Tanzania) ... raises significant concerns. First among these is what is arguably an unprecedented shift of power toward the primates, represented, in part, by the proposed 'Pastoral Scheme,'" they said in their closing statement.

They also expressed concern about the divergent views on gay relations.

African bishops in particular have taken a hard-line conservative stance on homosexuality, which one has described as "an aberration unknown even in animal relationships."

"... we believe that the leaders of the Church must always hold basic human rights and the dignity of every human being as fundamental concerns in our witness for Christ," the U.S. bishops said.

"We were, therefore, concerned that while the (Tanzanian) Communique focuses on homosexuality, it ignores the pressing issues of violence against gay and lesbian people around the world, and the criminalization of homosexual behavior in many nations of the world," they said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghan)