New York Times: Episcopal Church Faces Deadline

The New York Times cover next week Episcopal House of Bishops meeting and the September 30th deadline:

At the top of the agenda for the Sept. 20-25 gathering will be a directive issued by the leaders of the Anglican Communion to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbian bishops and to ban blessings of same-sex unions or risk a diminished status in the communion, the world’s third-largest Christian denomination.

The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, who is the spiritual leader of the communion, will attend the meeting. It will be the first time Archbishop Williams has met with the church’s House of Bishops since the 2003 consecration of the gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The communion’s directive asks for a response from the Episcopal Church by Sept. 30.

In interviews last week, bishops and church experts who hold a range of views on homosexuality said they expected the House of Bishops would stop short, perhaps far short, of meeting the directive’s demands. That could widen rifts, as several dioceses have said they would break away from the Episcopal Church and primates of several provinces, or regions, have spoken of leaving the global communion.

“I think the meeting will add some clarity to what has already taken place,” said Bishop Kirk S. Smith of Arizona. “I think clearly there is going to be some sort of exodus from the communion.”

Note however that Bishop Parsley gets it backwards. Read the NYT article here and Kendall Harmon's comments here.

The London Telegraph also has an article on the Archbishop of Canterbury's meeting with the House of Bishop's here, quoting "Dr Rowan Williams has confided in his closest aides that he believes his visit to a summit of Church leaders in America this week is critical to the survival of the Anglican Communion." Read the Telegraph article here.

AP has their report here on the Archbishop of Canterbury's trip to the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans here.