Fresh Heresy

Church relents to head off gay split [Excerpts]
 
THE Episcopal Church in the US has made a last-gasp effort to prevent a schism in the worldwide Anglican communion, just hours after its newly elected woman head preached of "our mother Jesus".
 
In a move that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, welcomed with gratitude and what appeared to be relief, the Episcopal Church agreed yesterday to "exercise restraint" in appointing any more gay bishops after a tense day of debate and argument.
 
The resolution is unlikely to satisfy conservatives but will at least postpone schism while Anglican Church leaders continue to struggle over the issue of homosexuality in the run-up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Britain.
 
But there were immediate signs of rebellion by Episcopalians who said they would not heed the call for a moratorium.
 
Bishop John Chane of Washington, a prominent church liberal who officiates at the National Cathedral in the American capital, immediately announced he would not heed the call to block gay bishops.
 
Delegates, many wearing pink "It's a girl" badges in celebration of the Right Reverend Katharine Schori's election as the new presiding bishop, were warned by the current primate of the Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold, that if they did not make an attempt to comply with demands for a moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops, they would risk exclusion from key Anglican bodies.
 
Earlier, at the morning eucharist at the convention in Columbus, Ohio, Dr Schori signalled her feminist credentials.
 
She said: "Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation - and you and I are his children. If we're going to keep on growing into Christ-images for the world around us, we're going to have to give up fear."
 
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19560331-2703,00.html
 
[TBC: Many Episcopalians in third world nations are quite conservative and certainly more biblically oriented than those in the West. As a consequence, there seems to be no doubt that those who profess a biblical world view must inevitably separate from what is clearly apostate.]