Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has called for ”creative solutions” in his church’s bid to deal with the potentially schismatic issues of gay clergy and marriage.
He made the call in a submission to a special church commission set up to look at the issue, which is meeting in North Carolina in the United States this week.
”I fear that if we struggle to deal maturely with our internal differences, we will undermine our standing and ability to act in other areas of conflict,” said Ndungane, who as archbishop of Cape Town heads the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA).
”Our calling to bring good news to the poor, in a world where half the population live in poverty, must not be jeopardised.
”As the Lambeth Commission meets, my prayer is that… God… will lead them into creative solutions that will help heal not just our own pains, but the pains of the broken and hurting world in which we live.”
The Commission on Communion was formed as a response to worldwide tensions in the church following the consecration last year of the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in the United States.
There was also controversy in 2002 when a diocese in Canada authorised the blessing of same-sex relationships.
The commission is tasked with reviewing the legal and theological implications of these two developments, and ways the autonomous provinces of the church may relate to one another.
It has to report back to the head of the worldwide church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in October.
The CPSA has set up its own commission to examine gay issues and the church.
It allows the ordination of gay clergy, but expects them to be celibate, as it says sex should take place only within the confines of marriage. It does not have any gay bishops. – Sapa