[Mr. Authority]

NYT/Reuters: Anglican Church Sets Deadline on Gay Unions
By REUTERS
Published: February 19, 2007

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The Anglican Communion gave the U.S. Episcopal Church a September deadline on Monday to stop blessing same sex unions, but gave no clear indication of what action it would then take.

Anglican Church leaders are meeting in Tanzania to reconcile conservative and liberal views on homosexuality, exacerbated by the U.S. Episcopal Church's consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

In a statement issued in the final hour of the tense meeting, the Anglican Communion gave the U.S. church the September 30 deadline to meet the request first issued in 2004.

"If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the church in the life of the communion,'' the statement said....

***

Relations are so strained between the liberal and conservative factions that seven archbishops refused this week to take communion with U.S. presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in a rebuke at her unwavering support for Robinson and blessings for same sex unions.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who called gay relations ''an aberration unknown even in animal relationships,'' has set up a parallel conservative movement to allow disgruntled U.S. conservatives to place themselves under his oversight....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world...=1&oref=slogin