A quarrel over whether to install an openly gay bishop in the United States is a painful test for the Archbishop of Canterbury, seeking to avoid a schism among the 77 million Christians he leads around the world. Dr Rowan Williams, the soft-spoken Welsh cleric who took office as spiritual leader of the church earlier this year, is from the liberal wing of Anglicanism and known personally to support the appointment of gay priests. But he has taken pains to avoid a split in the worldwide church over an issue that has inflamed passions even greater than those stirred up by a 1970s debate over women priests.

Leaders of the US Episcopalian Church - one of 38 largely autonomous "provinces", nominally led by the Church of England that make up the Anglican community - dismissed sexual misconduct allegations against its first openly gay bishop on Tuesday.

It cleared the way for a vote of bishops likely to approve the installation of New Hampshire bishop-elect Gene Robinson.

In a similar case in Britain weeks ago, Williams avoided a split by persuading Jeffrey John, a celibate gay priest, to withdraw from consideration for the post of bishop of Reading.

Nigeria's Anglicans -with 17 million members, the largest province -had threatened to break away over the issue. Britain's Prince Charles views the renovation of the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, as he stands in front of The Douanier`s Post by Monet, Tuesday Aug. 5, 2003. The Monet: The Seine and The Sea 1878-1883 exhibition at the academy features 90 paintings by the impressionist master borrowed from galleries around the world and is expected to draw big crowds.

If Robinson is installed, Williams will have little choice but to express misgivings, to avoid alienating the Nigerians and other fast-growing congregations in developing countries, said British religion commentator Clifford Longley.

MAJORITY CONSERVATIVES

"If he just accepts the American decision, then he will lose the 'new Anglican' communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and so on, which are much more conservative than the Episcopalians in the US," he said.

"He will choose the majority opposition, the conservatives in the Third World, against the liberals with whom he is in much more personal sympathy. There's a Shakespeare play in here somewhere."

Some commentators say the issue should not be enough to split a church that survived the battle over women priests.

"Homosexuality is a social and cultural issue far more than a theological one. In the history of Christianity, the present dispute hardly signifies on the schismatic scale," wrote the right-leaning Daily Telegraph in an editorial.

But Longley said that view underestimates the extent to which the issue reflects the gulf between "evangelicals", who read the bible literally, and "modernisers".

Several biblical passages ban homosexuality. But liberals say those laws are like other ancient customs in scripture-superseded by the teaching of Jesus Christ himself, whose own views on homosexuality they say are not recorded.

"The problem is that the evangelicals are attached to scripture, not just over this issue of homosexuality -to them the whole of Christianity rests on the authority of scripture," said Longley.

"This is a collision between a certain kind of traditionalism and modernity, frankly, and that is very much the stuff of schisms."

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+Commentary: Don't meddle with yuan ( 2003-09-02) +200,000 troops to be cut by 2005 ( 2003-09-02) +Beijing Games marketing plan launched ( 2003-09-02) +Flood forces 10,0000 to evacuate ( 2003-09-02) +Beijing courts announce 50 major changes ( 2003-09-02)		+Medical Marijuana sold in the Netherlands ( 2003-09-02) +Hamas militant killed in Israeli attack ( 2003-09-02) +'Saddam' tape urges attacks on Iraq's occupiers ( 2003-09-02) +Police charge 3 in two India bombings ( 2003-09-01) +Myanmar denies opposition leader staging hunger strike ( 2003-09-01)