US bishops' cash threat as split over gays widens

[emad]

Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Monday September 20, 2004
The Guardian

Snip

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is being warned that North American bishops will cut off funds from the Anglican church in Africa if they are disciplined for supporting the election of a gay bishop, in a row which threatens to split the worldwide church.
A commission headed by Archbishop Robin Eames, the primate of All Ireland and made up of senior churchmen from across the world, has recently completed a year-long deliberation into the future of the church.

It is due to publish its report next month, and there is speculation that bishops who supported the US Episcopal church's decision to endorse election of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire last year will be disciplined.

Conservative evangelicals and traditionalists in western churches have backed church leaders in the developing world in demanding that supporters of Bishop Robinson, the church's first openly gay bishop who lives with a partner, should be expelled from the communion.

Among the moves the commission has considered is excluding the American and Canadian bishops from meetings such as the 10-yearly gathering of all 780 bishops for the Lambeth conference in Cape Town in four years' time. They also want sanctions against bishops of the Anglican church in Canada, who are considering authorising blessings services for gay couples.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1308286,00.html

[gratuitous]

1. How incredibly childish

Boy, if I or my congregation decided to withhold our contribution every time the General Board did something we disagreed with . . . Well, let's just say they'd be in a bigger world of financial hurt than they are.

Time to see if the Anglicans can figure out which master they want to serve: God or mammon.