Wednesday, 07.16.08

Schism Politics

Photo by Andrew Wong/Getty Images

The Lambeth Conference, which brings together bishops from the worldwide Communion once every ten years, opens today in Canterbury.

Last week, the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Britain voted to ordain female bishops, despite strong opposition from traditionalists within the church.

At a time when the Anglican Communion is already deeply divided over the American Episcopal Church's decision to ordain non-celibate gay bishops, the chattering class is breathlessly proclaiming that the female bishop vote has increased the risk of a schism within the church. Indeed, some among the clergy are threatening to convert en masse to Catholicism, and it would be rash to discount this rhetoric as hollow bluster. When the General Synod voted to ordain female priests in 1992, a small number of Anglican clergy members did in fact defect to Rome, many of whom took their flocks with them.

But neither should the threat of schism be overstated. In 1989, Barbara Harris was ordained to the Anglican episcopate by the Episcopal Church, the first woman ever to receive this distinction. While her ordination was undoubtedly contentious, there was no credible threat of a major faction splitting away. Nor was the specter of schism realized when women were ordained as bishops in Australia and Canada. Today, a woman named Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori heads the U.S. Episcopalian Church, and most of the talk about schism in Episcopal America has revolved around homosexuality, not the Presiding Bishop's gender.

Indeed, it's remarkable that the decision to allow female bishops in Britain did not come sooner. The pretext for conservative opposition to bishops of the fairer sex is that Jesus chose men to be his disciples, and thus men alone are qualified to minister to Jesus' adherents. But the logic of the conservative position was undermined the moment the General Synod voted to ordain female priests sixteen years ago. It is not merely sexist, but theologically inconsistent to let women minister to the Anglican laity as priests but not as bishops.

Theological principle does not appear to be the only motivation for conservative discontent. Traditionalists seem rankled about being left out of the General Synod's decision-making process - all of their recommendations for compromise legislation went unheeded. Of course, while no one likes feeling marginalized, hurt feelings are rarely sufficient grounds for a schism - unless you are King Henry VIII and are peeved at not being permitted a divorce, a precedent that conservative Anglicans are more likely to be embarrassed by than to emulate.

The General Synod's decision may, however, provide the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, with an opportunity to sidestep the far more divisive gay bishop controversy when he presides over the Lambeth Conference, where an unprecedented level of schism-related saber rattling is anticipated. The decision to ordain women bishops does not go into effect until 2014, and this buys the Archbishop time. By offering a noncommittal olive branch to those within his church who are against raising women to the episcopate - such as a promise to draft "acceptable" compromise legislation before the General Synod reconvenes in February to vote again on the proposed change - Dr. Williams may be able to mollify conservative bishops, making them feel that he is working with them to address their concerns. More liberal-minded bishops, on the other hand, will still be celebrating their General Synod victory and so are likely to refrain from pressing Dr. Williams to come out in support of gay bishops. In stark contrast to the media’s portrayal of the General Synod vote as schism-inducing, then, the decision has the potential to actually strengthen the church’s internal cohesion - in the short term, at least.

But the path of least resistance is inconsistent with real leadership. The Anglican Church is widely perceived as an ideologically fuzzy institution content with muddling through, but in reality the church has a record of confronting hot-button issues rather than shying away. From its early endorsement of contraception at the 1930 Lambeth Conference to the ordination of Bishop Harris in 1989, the Church has long been at the vanguard of transformative ecclesiastical change. By avoiding the gay bishop issue, Rowan Williams will be ducking the central civil rights issue of this era, rendering himself irrelevant in the debate over not only the future of the Anglican Church, but the future of religion in society.

— Stephen Bartenstein

Filed Under: Religion/Anglican Church/Schism/Archbishop of Canterbury

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