By: RACHEL ZOLL (Thu, Oct/16/2003)

LONDON - Anglican Communion leaders, struggling to find consensus before they end a two-day emergency meeting, said they hope to preserve their global association of churches despite bitter divisions over homosexuality.

The 37 church leaders - or primates - were in seclusion for two days of talks at Lambeth Palace, where the 77-million-member communion was formed. The talks began Wednesday and were to end Thursday.

"Everybody is saying we believe in communion. It's very important for the world for the church to be one," Australia's primate, Archbishop Peter Carnley, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"The church," he said, "has a mission to develop networks of reconciliation and human unity. If we can't do that, we're falling down on our mission."

The bishops are under enormous pressure from conservatives to rebuke North Americans who have moved toward accepting gay relationships.

"I am optimistic that the Anglican Communion will emerge from this stronger," Irish Archbishop Robin Eames told reporters during a break in the talks Wednesday. "What I would also like to predict is that there will be much greater honesty than perhaps we have had to now."

The communion's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, called the unprecedented gathering in August after the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, ratified the election of its first openly gay bishop.

The Episcopalians also acknowledged that some of their bishops allow blessing ceremonies for same-sex unions. Separately, the Diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, British Columbia, authorized the ceremonies in its parishes.

The primates discussed their "cultural differences" over homosexuality and how their provinces responded to the North American actions, Eames said. The talks were conducted with "openness, frankness and honesty," and were moving toward a consensus, he said.

One primate, Bishop Ignacio C. Soliba of the Philippines, did not attend because of a previous commitment, a communion spokesman said.

Conservatives worldwide have condemned the moves in the United States and Vancouver as unbiblical. They have threatened to divide the 136-year-old communion if Williams doesn't discipline the North Americans - though he has little power to do so.

U.S. conservatives already have started planning for a total break with the Episcopal Church. The conservative Church of Nigeria, home to 17.5 million Anglicans and the communion's second-largest province, has severed ties with the diocese in Vancouver, and parishioners in Nigeria who oppose homosexual relationships have been fasting and praying.

Evangelicals fear that pro-gay decisions anywhere within the communion will undermine their evangelism, especially in socially conservative places where they are competing with Muslims.

"If nothing comes out of the conference, people will leave the Episcopal Church," said Canon David Anderson, head of the American Anglican Council, which represents U.S. evangelicals. He is among several U.S. conservatives in London who met with like-minded primates before the summit.

Anderson has presented the church leaders with a petition asking them to "guide the realignment of Anglicanism in North America." The council has not said what form that should take, but some council supporters have said they want Williams to expel the Episcopal Church and recognize conservatives as the true Anglicans in North America.

U.S. parishioners and clergy who support gay rights also traveled to London. They joined pro-gay British Anglicans at a worship service Wednesday, where the Most Rev. Walter Makhulu, the former archbishop of Central Africa, compared the exclusion of gays to the racist apartheid system.

"The notion of an exclusive church is utterly abhorrent to me," Makhulu said.

Williams' options are limited. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, there is no centralized authority in Anglicanism. Each province is autonomous and Williams cannot settle issues of doctrine. The primates also have no collective legislative authority and cannot vote to punish a member.

But Williams does have the right to decide whether a denomination can affiliate with the communion, and the primates can band together to influence him.

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On the Net:

Anglican Communion: http://www.anglicancommunion.org

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http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/89-10162003-178843.html