Interesting article - Anglican Church news

June 28, 2006

Some may question: what does this news have to do with ISKCON?

And yes, that's a good question!

But here's the answer: ISKCON, in both India and more so in the West (but

how much more so is anybody's guess!) is influenced by Society - the Society

that it finds itself "surrounded by" and living within!

So, if that's true - and I'm sure that it's debatable by some - then this is

"good news"! Because we ought to stand with "the conservatives", in as much

as much of "so-called liberalization", is in direct conflict with the

teachings of Vedic/Vaishnava/Hindu scriptures!

And ISKCON is an institution that was founded to spread the teachings of

those scriptures, such as Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/us/28episcopal.html?ei=5070&en=a74f7457e6b

1cf49&ex=1152072000&pagewanted=all

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Anglican Plan Threatens Split on Gay Issues

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and NEELA BANERJEE

Published: June 28, 2006

In a defining moment in the Anglican Communion's civil war over

homosexuality, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed a plan yesterday that

could force the Episcopal Church in the United States either to renounce gay

bishops and same-sex unions or to give up full membership in the Communion.

The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, said the "best way forward"

was to devise a shared theological "covenant" and ask each province, as the

geographical divisions of the church are called, to agree to abide by it.

Provinces that agree would retain full status as "constituent churches," and

those that do not would become "churches in association" without

decision-making status in the Communion, the world's third largest body of

churches.

Conservatives hailed the archbishop's move as an affirmation that the

American church stepped outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy when it

ordained a gay bishop three years ago.

The archbishop wrote, "No member church can make significant decisions

unilaterally and still expect this to make no difference to how it is

regarded in the fellowship."

Leaders of the Episcopal Church — the Communion's American province, long

dominated by theological liberals — sought to play down the statement's

import, saying it was just one more exchange in a long dialogue they

expected to continue within the Communion.

The archbishop said his proposal could allow local churches in the United

States to separate from the Episcopal Church and join the American wing that

stays in the Communion. But that process could take years, and some American

parishes are already planning to break from the Episcopal Church. Entire

dioceses may announce their intention to depart, as soon as today.

The 38 provinces that make up the global Communion have been at odds since

2003, when the Episcopal Church ordained Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a gay man

who lives with his partner, as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire.

The archbishop's statement is the most solid official step yet in a long

march toward schism. Twenty-two of the 38 provinces had already declared

their ties with the American church to be "broken" or "impaired," but until

now the Communion had hung together, waiting for guidance from the

Archbishop of Canterbury. He is considered "the first among equals" in the

Communion but does not dictate policy as the pope does in the Roman Catholic

Church.

For the proposal to be enacted would take at least half a dozen major church

meetings spread out over at least the next four years, the Rev. Canon

Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, said in a

telephone interview.

What should be included in a covenant could become the next focus of debate.

The idea of a covenant was first proposed in the "Windsor Report," issued in

2004 by a committee commissioned by the archbishop. Canon Kearon said, "Many

churches welcome the idea of a covenant, but they didn't particularly

welcome the text that was proposed." He said he did not regard the

archbishop's proposal as a step toward schism but as a means to clarify

"identity and common decision-making procedures" in the Communion.

Church liberals said that any "covenant" would be crafted with the

participation of the American church and other provinces that favored full

inclusion of gay people.

"I think the archbishop takes a long view and underscores the fact that we

are involved in a process rather than a quick fix," Presiding Bishop Frank

T. Griswold of the Episcopal Church said in a telephone interview.

Several church officials in communication with the archbishop's office said

he wrote his six-page communiqué, which he called a "reflection," after the

close of the Episcopal Church's convention last Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio.

At the convention, the church fell short of the demands in the Windsor

Report for an explicit apology and a full "moratorium" on ordaining gay

bishops. Instead, the church approved a conciliatory statement encouraging

American dioceses to refrain from ordaining gay bishops.

But the convention also offended the conservatives by electing a new

presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, who has been an

outspoken advocate of full inclusion for gay people and who allows gay union

ceremonies in churches in her diocese.

Bishop Jefferts Schori, who takes office after Bishop Griswold retires in

November, will represent the American church in meetings with the world's

primates, some of whom do not approve of women as priests or bishops.

She said in an interview yesterday that she was heartened by Archbishop

Williams's comments in the letter that he would not be able to mend rifts

over sexuality single-handedly.

"There were expectations out there that he would intervene or direct various

people and provinces to do certain things, and he made it quite clear that

it's not his role or responsibility to do that," Bishop Jefferts Schori

said.

The Anglican Communion has about 77 million members in more than 160

nations. Members in conservative provinces far outnumber those in the

liberal provinces. The Episcopal Church has about 2.3 million members but

contributes a disproportionate amount to Anglican Communion administration,

charities and mission work. The Anglican Communion Network, a group leading

the conservative response, said it had 200,000 members last year.

The archbishop's proposal was greeted with satisfaction by conservative

leaders in the United States, who had formed a powerful alliance with

prelates in many of the provinces in Africa and in Asia, and in some parts

of Latin America. The conservatives have insisted all along that it is the

American church that destabilized the Anglican ship and should be pushed

overboard if it will not relent.

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the conservative American

Anglican Council, said: "We really believe that the Episcopal Church wants

to follow a course that takes it out of both Anglicanism and Christianity,

as Christianity is historically known. So a two-tier approach looks good in

theory."

Canon Anderson said the plan could be difficult in actuality, because many

parishes and dioceses were ready to sever ties with the Episcopal Church

now, years before the archbishop's plan for reorganization could take

effect. He said that churches and dioceses had already asked to be put under

the authority of bishops in Africa and Latin America and that many more

would do so in coming months.

"The floodgates are starting to open," he said.

The division has already led to legal battles over church property. Under

Episcopal Church bylaws, parish assets belong to the dioceses, but churches

in some states have challenged that in court.

Archbishop Williams said in his statement, "The reason Anglicanism is worth

bothering with is because it has tried to find a way of being a church that

is neither tightly centralized nor a loose federation of essentially

independent bodies."

But that decentralization will continue to be a cause of conflict unless it

is addressed, he said, adding, "What our Communion lacks is a set of

adequately developed structures which is able to cope with the diversity of

views that will inevitably arise in a world of rapid global communication

and huge cultural variety."

June 28, 2006

Aren't the Hindu scriptures silent on calling homosexuality an abomination (term the Bible uses)? Remember the Christians do not believe in past lives, so they can't understand that these sexual issues can be caused by a gender switch from their previous past life, that has left them sexually confused in their subconciousness. Because of our understanding of past lives, compassion is a must from the Hindu perspective on this matter.