Episcopal bishop
says Anglican church at crossroads over sexuality

The Anglican Communion is at a crucial crossroads as it waits for the worldwide church's leader to appoint an overseer for seven of its conservative U.S. dioceses, the head of one of those dioceses said Monday. Pittsburgh bishop Robert Duncan said if Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams does not appoint a new leader for the conservative U.S. dioceses, "any hope for a Communion-unifying solution slips away, and so does the shape and leadership of the Anglican Communion as we have known them." Duncan's remarks came in his keynote address of the Anglican Communion Network's annual council meeting in Pittsburgh. "Such oversight would certainly be an innovation for the Episcopal Church, since at present there is no direct overseer in those dioceses except for the diocesan bishops themselves," said Jan Nunley, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church, which is what the U.S. Anglican church calls itself. "I wouldn't want to speculate on what it might mean for the network dioceses to reject the oversight of the General Convention," Nunley said. Duncan and the leaders of six other conservative dioceses do not want to be overseen by the new Episcopal presiding bishop, Nevada bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected by the General Convention. Jefferts Schori was among those who voted to confirm V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, in 2003. Jefferts Schori, who also supports blessing same-sex relationships, was elected in June and is to be installed as head of the U.S. church on November 4. Although Duncan continued to stress the differences between the American church and the conservatives he leads, he urged his group to be humble and true to the Scriptures. "Our struggle is not about sexuality, it is about sin," Duncan said. In an interview with the Associated Press after his speech, Duncan said all people should focus first on their own sinfulness before pointing out the faults of others. "When people are under stress, there's a saying that psychologists have that [people] regress. Well, there's been a lot of stress and there's been some regression everywhere," Duncan said. "I'm just claiming our part." Duncan helped form the Anglican Communion Network just months after Robinson was confirmed. The conservative network includes 10 conservative U.S. dioceses and more than 900 parishes claiming more than 200,000 members. Most archbishops in the worldwide Anglican church agree with Duncan that gay relationships violate Scripture, and many broke ties with the U.S. church over Robinson's consecration. But Duncan's conservative network is a minority in the U.S. Anglican church, formally known as the Episcopal Church USA, or ECUSA. Throughout his speech, Duncan sought to underline those differences by calling his group "enduring ECUSA" and the American church "innovating ECUSA." Nunley called that a "false dichotomy. You really can't have one without the other and be authentically Anglican." Still, Duncan warned members of his group that they too could push too quickly for change in their efforts to more closely align themselves with the worldwide Anglican church. "Our preference is for a microwave church, nearly instant results, on our terms, at the moment we desire," Duncan said. "Let's face it: It is the culture of the microwave that has gotten ECUSA into the troubles that have beset her, and we too have embraced that culture." (AP)