anglican priest

The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans raised questions Monday about the legitimacy of plans to create a global network of conservative Anglicans that would challenge his authority and the teachings of liberal North American churches that are more gay-friendly. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said proposals to set up a separate global council of bishops who would train priests and interpret Scripture would create more problems than they would solve.

A well-known Anglican cathedral dean in the United Kingdom and his male partner have entered into a domestic partnership.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the first authorized biography of the Nobel peace laureate, says he was ashamed of his Anglican church's conservative position that rejected gay priests.

Two American priests were consecrated Thursday as Anglican bishops in Nairobi, Kenya--the latest in a string of conservative priests who are defecting to African churches in a dispute over gay clergy.

At this week's meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England, the U.S. Episcopal Church reaffirmed its support for the 2003 ordination of gay bishop Gene Robinson and appealed to the bishops, priests, and laypeople present to not allow the contentious issue to split the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion.

In closed-door talks with the archbishop of Canterbury, Episcopal leaders are confronting demands that they roll back their support for gay priests or lose their place in the world Anglican fellowship. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has a more liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas. Tensions over Bible interpretation erupted in 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

An Episcopal priest from a Boston suburb who has chosen to leave the church will travel to Nairobi next month to become a bishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya. The Reverend William L. Murdoch is part of a growing trend of priests and parishes that are leaving the Episcopal Church USA over its appointment of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire.