BBC Radio 4 2016-01-15

BBC Radio 4 2016-01-15

Good morning. Just as I’d completed a script for this programme late yesterday afternoon, news leaked from Canterbury that the Episcopal Church in the United States had been suspended from the Anglican Communion. It sounded dramatic. If I’m honest, my heart sank. I knew I’d have to lay aside the happy piece I’d written and concentrate on an Anglican row instead. Not very inviting. Then I read the actual statement from Canterbury. It turns out that it’s a very Anglican suspension – graciously worded and limited in scope. And it doesn’t even mention the word “suspension” at all.

The Episcopal Church is told it will not represent the Anglican Communion on ecumenical and inter-faith bodies for at least the next three years. And far from suspending the Episcopal Church it’s stated explicitly that she will still participate in the internal bodies of the Communion, but not vote on matters of doctrine. There aren’t very many of them.

So it doesn’t seem quite as draconian as I’d feared. But why has it happened? Largely because the Episcopal Church now celebrates same-sex marriages, and decided to go ahead without consulting the rest of the Anglican Communion. The vast majority of all churches believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life. It’s argued that the Episcopal Church has changed fundamental Christian teaching. On its part the Episcopal Church says it’s listening to how the Holy Spirit is guiding it in its own culture. The worldwide Anglican Church doesn’t have a universal jurisdiction. It gives autonomy to its individual Churches. How far should that autonomy go?

Hensley Henson, a rather acerbic Bishop of Durham, once said that the organisation of the Anglican Communion was “a subject of portentous dullness”. So it is. But this isn’t only about organisation. It’s about people. There are many partnered gay people and others who will hear something much harsher than the Primates have written. Some theological conservatives will want something less equivocal. Michael Curry, the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, reminded his fellow Primates that he was “a descendent of African slaves, segregated and excluded in church and society”, and their decision brought fresh pain. So I’m glad that the Primates’ statement commits them to “healing the legacy of hurt and exploring our deep differences, ensuring they are held between us in the love and grace of Christ.”

At the beginning of this week it was thought that the funeral rites were about to be read over the Anglican Communion. Late yesterday I wondered if that had happened. But there’s a fresh pledge to walk together, and that includes the Episcopal Church, which gives me cautious grounds for hope.