Tomorrow's US ceremony could cause a serious rift in Ireland, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Tomorrow, All Saints Sunday, will mark a major milestone in the life of the Anglican Communion worldwide with the consecration of Ganon Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as Bishop of New Hampshire in the US. The ceremony is scheduled to take place at 4 p.m. (US eastern time) in the Whittemore Center at the University of New Hampshire.
The consequences are as unpredictable as they are expected to be far-reaching. But the great concern is for the cohesion of the communion and whether all affiliate churches will be able thereafter to maintain a relationship with the Episcopal Church in the US, which sanctioned the election of Canon Robinson last August.
Crucial to the communion's future will be how the Americans and the See of Canterbury relate to one another after tomorrow, not least as the worldwide Anglican Communion is itself defined by its relationship to the See of Canterbury.
The man charged with immediate responsibility for charting that relationship is the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames.
It was announced last Tuesday that he is to chair a 16-member commission formed to report within a year on "understandings of communion" that unite Anglicans worldwide.
From 1988 to 1993 Archbishop Eames chaired a similar international commission on the ordination of women, who now serve as priests and bishops in many of the Anglican Communion's 38 member churches.
And in 1998 it was under his chairmanship that the Lambeth Conference adapted the toughly worded resolution which had directed Anglican practice on the ordination of homosexual clergy until this year.
Then by an overwhelming majority of 526 votes to 70, with 45 abstentions, the resolution explicitly rejected homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture, and said it could not advise the legitimising or blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of those in such unions.
At the same time it recognised that there were people who had a homosexual orientation.
Earlier this year the Anglican diocese of New Westminster in Canada officially introduced a rite for the blessing of same-sex unions.
On his appointment this week Archbishop Eames said he did not accept the invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to chair the commission "easily" but that "there are times in life that . . . a situation has to be addressed". Now is just such a time. "We have got to maintain the Anglican Communion."
He called on Anglicans to "recognise . . . that \ binds us together more than what may divide some of us". Speaking on the Primates' meeting in London on October 15th and 16th last he said: "No matter what views they expressed, the bottom line was, let us remain in communion.
"The Anglican Communion enjoyed the position of being one of the most powerful communications agents in the world," he said of the global network of churches in 164 countries. "Anglicanism has got to be there as a world body, binding up its wounds, but saying . . . we have a message that this world must hear."
And addressing American Episcopalians he said the historic "bonds between my country and yours are invincible".
"There are those of us" among the Primates "who want you" and who want to maintain "communion" and shared ministries.
But no one should underestimate the task Archbishop Eames faces. And not least here in Ireland.
In his presidential address to the Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin last May he spoke of the difficulty he and his fellow Irish bishops had in achieving consensus on the issue, which was addressed at a General Synod this year for the first time since 1976 . He said there had been "much hurt" on the part of gay people who felt that the church, "let alone the wider church, has been neither understanding nor accepting of them".
That was in mid-May, prior to the crisis generated in Anglicanism by the news weeks later that a gay man, Canon Jeffrey John, was to become Bishop of Reading in the UK. Under pressure he later declined the post. By then it had emerged that same sex unions were to be blessed in New Westminster and that it was likely a man living in an openly gay relationship would be elected Bishop of New Hampshire, as Canon Robinson was in August.
Last month the Church of Ireland bishops said in a pastoral letter that "a wholesome engagement with, and open discussion of, the issues surrounding homosexuality has for too long been side-stepped by the churches".
It was evident that no clear-cut solution would be found "independently of biblical reflection, mature thinking, and patient listening on the part of the church as a whole. This process must involve prayerful and respectful consideration of views and insights within the church and beyond it".
The earlier crises referred to above precipitated the special conference of Primates at Lambeth earlier this month. They concluded that "in this case, the ministry of this one bishop will not be recognised by most of the Anglican world, and many provinces are likely to consider themselves to be out of communion with the Episcopal Church (USA)".
It would "tear the fabric of our communion at its deepest level, and may lead to further division on this and further issues as provinces have to decide in consequence whether they can remain in communion with provinces that choose not to break communion with the Episcopal Church (USA)", they said.
Archbishops Eames himself told The Irish Times then it was "a very, very serious situation". If the consecration of Canon Robinson went ahead, churches in the communion "will face realignment".
Meanwhile, his own views took on a stronger hue at the Armagh diocesan synod last Sunday where he said unequivocally that "the ordination of anyone to the diaconate, priesthood or episcopate in the Church of Ireland known to be engaged in an active homosexual relationship would be in conflict with the mind and accepted practice of this church".
He said the communiqué of Anglican Primates, following their recent meeting in Lambeth, had said that "recent events in the United States and Canada do not represent the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole".
Not to doubt his conviction on the issue, but as a strategy it is wise for him to be seen unequivocally standing by Lambeth 1998 if, as chair of the international commission on this issue, he is to keep on board his more unequivocally opposed colleagues.
In doing so, however, he has moved from the seemingly more open-minded approach of last May, and could find himself closer to and further from colleagues in the Church of Ireland House of Bishops where, as a crude rule of thumb, it can be said that those south of the border would be more liberal on the issue of homosexual clergy, while those in the North would be more traditional.
Their views range from Bishop Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare who repeated to his diocesan synod recently that he had voted against the 1998 Lambeth resolution and would do so again.
Bishop Ken Good of Derry and Raphoe told his diocesan synod this week that had he been at Lambeth 1998 he would have voted for the resolution.