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Even if so, it's not a problem, Hopkins toldThe Scotsman. "As a priest who happens to be gay, I can live with this statement because it doesn't require me to do anything different in my parish, exercising my own ministry," he said. "I accept the fact that much of the [Anglican] community doesn't agree with me. That's fine, I can live with that."

Some liberal Episcopalians, in fact, even see the primates' statement as supporting the consecration of Robinson. Bishop of Virginia Peter Lee said the primates merely expressed their concern, said, but promoted "the right of the Episcopal Church to have made that decision. … The Primates recognized that as Episcopalians and as Anglicans we do not believe there is only one way to interpret Scripture."

Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, denied that the primates had criticized him, and claimed victory. "Pressures from certain parts of the Communion to have dioceses such as ours … expelled from the Communion have been firmly rejected by the Primates. … Instead, the Primates have reaffirmed 'the teaching of successive Lambeth Conferences that bishops must respect the autonomy and territorial integrity of dioceses and provinces other than their own.'"

In describing the document, at least one primate denied that they took decisive stances. "We have agreed to disagree, but there are dark days on the horizon," said Michael Peers, the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada who is widely perceived as liberal. "We will now proceed in our own way just as the Church in Nigeria, for example, will proceed in [its] own way."

Such an attitude reflects the "very wishy-washy" nature of the primates' statement, said Brett Lock, spokesman of another homosexual activist group, Outrage. The primates, he said, "have agreed to disagree and given the North American branch of the church a slap on the wrist. [The document] seems just to be saying 'Anything goes if you feel it is OK' … It seems to be saying what could be a sin in Nigeria is not a sin in the U.K. It makes no sense. … Surely the Church needs to take a committed stand."

Orthodox outrage
Many conservatives agree with Lock, including David Phillips, general secretary of the Church Society, which has been the most prominent organization in the U.K. fighting to maintain orthodox teachings on homosexuality and the clergy. "We are profoundly disappointed that the primates as a body have not yet taken decisive action," he toldThe Scotsman. "They have not rebuked false teaching. We had looked for a categorical statement from the primates."

Such a move was impossible, said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the church and convener of the meeting. "The primates' meeting has no legal jurisdiction," he said. "All that our meeting could do was to state the situation as it is: These are the actions that have been taken, these are the consequences that are likely to follow."

But limited efforts served "merely to state the obvious," mourned the orthodox British organization Forward in Faith. In what is perhaps the bleakest outlook of any Anglican group, it suggested that the primates neglected their duty, and called for conservatives in the Episcopal Church USA to break away from the church: "Forward in Faith U.K. profoundly regrets the corporate failure to address those present dangers at this meeting and has no hope that such a Commission will adequately address them in the future. We note that various bodies in the United States threatened substantive action if no substantial result came from this conference. We await that action with interest."

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47