Anglican mediator hopeful can avoid church schism

By Paul Majendie

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.