BRITAIN: The worldwide Anglican Communion yesterday looked set for a slow-burning schism after its leader proposed a two-tier membership that would exclude the United States church for consecrating a gay bishop.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of 77 million Anglicans, laid out the plan after the Episcopal Church declined to repent for appointing a homosexual prelate.
The plan, which would have national churches agree to stay full members or opt for a lesser "associate" status, could also end up isolating liberal Anglican churches in Canada, Scotland and New Zealand that support blessing for same-sex couples.
Media in Britain believed the Anglican communion could break up over the issue of whether members can unilaterally decide on reforms opposed by others. "It is schism in all but name," the Times said in an editorial on the plan, which Dr Williams unveiled on Tuesday.
The communion would probably debate the plan for several years before taking a decision. A schism could create serious financial and property conflicts as factions separate.
The Anglican communion, a loose federation of national churches, has struggled since 2003 to hold together its liberal minority and the conservative majority - mostly in Africa - vigorously opposed to the naming of gay bishop Gene Robinson.
The row deepened last week when the Episcopal church only agreed to try to avoid consecrating new gay bishops. It also alienated conservatives abroad by choosing a liberal female bishop as its first woman leader.
In a lengthy statement, Dr Williams said the Communion's 38 member churches should be asked to sign a formal covenant allowing some to be fuller members than others.
"We could arrive at a situation where there were 'constituent' churches in the Anglican communion and other 'churches in association' . . . not bound in a single and unrestricted sacramental communion and not sharing the same constitutional structures," Dr Williams said. He can propose but not impose a solution.