Anglican Plan Could Lead to 2-Tier System

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, said Tuesday that “the best way forward” for the deeply divided Anglican churches is to adopt a communion-wide covenant and a two-track membership system.

Under Williams’ plan, churches that agreed to the as-yet-unwritten covenant would be “constituent” churches and full members of the communion, he said in a letter to the top bishops in each of the communion’s 38 provinces.

Those opting against it, which the archbishop called “churches in association,” would become “observers,” with no power to make decisions in the Anglican Communion.

Though the outlines of the plan remain sketchy, it seems to raise the possibility that the Episcopal Church -- the U.S. branch of the communion -- could be pushed to the margins of Anglican life if it continues its independent-minded course on matters of human sexuality.

Although the ordination of women continues to be a source of tension in the Communion, the “trigger for much of the present conflict” was the consecration of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, Williams said.

The consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson was hailed by many Episcopalians as a breakthrough for gay rights, but conservative Anglicans bashed the American church’s perceived abandonment of scripture.

One of the largest U.S. parishes, Christ Church Episcopal in Plano, Texas, said Monday that it planned to disassociate from the national church “as soon as possible.” With an average of 2,200 Sunday worshipers, the church’s size rivals some dioceses, including that of Nevada, whose bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was recently elected the denomination’s next presiding bishop.

In the neighboring Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Jack Iker has asked to place his flock under the oversight of a foreign primate because he does not accept Jefferts Schori’s leadership. Fort Worth is one of three U.S. dioceses, including San Joaquin, Calif., and Quincy, Ill., that do not ordain women as priests.

Williams said events have made it clear that the communion “lacks a set of adequately developed structures with which to cope with the diversity of views that will inevitably arise in a world of rapid global communication and huge cultural variety.”