October (Web-only) 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

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One day after the release of the much-anticipated report from the Lambeth Commission on Communion, the state of the world's third largest Christian communion remains uncertain.

Conservative global leaders of the Anglican Communion welcomed the recommendations—in what is being called the Windsor Report—from the 17-member panel, but only if the report's recommendations are "taken seriously."

The Windsor Report "represents a genuine way forward for the future of the Anglican Communion," states Bernard Malango, a member of the Lambeth Commission.

"If the recommendations of our report are not taken seriously, then the question of our future together in the Anglican Communion will remain, and greater division may result," said Malango, head of the Anglican Church of Central Africa, which includes Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

The 93-page document, which spells out the Communion's response to the contentious consecration of openly gay cleric Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church (USA) last November, urges ECUSA to apologize for the consecration's consequences, invites those who took part in the consecration to consider self-initiated resignation, and suggests a ban on any future consecrations of any candidate who is "living in a same-gender union."

The report also reprimands the ECUSA, along with the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada, for developing rites for same-sex marriages and authorizing gay marriage, which "constitutes action in breach of the legitimate application of the Christian faith."

"The Episcopal Church (USA) has caused deep offense to many faithful Anglican Christians both in its own church and in other parts of the Communion," the report states.

The Anglican Communion is a global body of more ...