Beyond 'regret'

Religion | U.S. Episcopalians battle over worldwide call to repentance | Edward E. Plowman

It was as if the liberal establishment in the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) woke up and smelled smoke.

It happened at last month's meeting of the ECUSA House of Bishops at a conference center in North Carolina. On everybody's mind was what would be the 2.3-million-member denomination's official response to the demands of the Windsor Report, due in June at the ECUSA triennial convention in Columbus.

Windsor's demands came from leaders of the estimated 77-million-adherent worldwide Anglican Communion, of which ECUSA is the U.S. "province." Predominantly conservatives from the global south, those leaders were protesting ECUSA's departure in 2003 from traditional Bible-based Anglican theology to consecrate a partnered gay bishop and approve same-sex blessings. Windsor called for ECUSA to express regret for violating the interdependence of the Communion, to show by its actions and faithfulness to Anglican doctrine that it wants to remain in the Communion, and to place a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex blessings until at least 2008, when all the world's Anglican bishops next meet.