Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - The head of Australia's largest Anglican Church diocese has suggested that Anglicans, including himself, who object to the Archbishop of Canterbury's handling of the homosexuality issue could seek alternative spiritual leadership.

Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, an outspoken conservative, said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was in danger of forfeiting his moral authority because of his response to the controversy in the Episcopal Church of the U.S.

The consecration of Gene Robinson, a clergyman who is living in a same-sex relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire, has roiled the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Particularly strongly opposed to the move are Anglicans in what's called the "global south" -- developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America -- where the denomination has experienced its main growth in recent decades.

Williams responded to Robinson's Nov. 2 consecration by saying he regretted divisions arising from the move. Those who had consecrated him had "acted in good faith on their understanding of what the constitution of the American church permits," he said.

For Jensen, that was not the appropriate response from the titular head of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

"He is against it because he doesn't like the disunity that has been caused," Jensen said in an interview broadcast by Australia's Channel Nine at the weekend. "I'm hoping he would speak against it because it's wrong in itself."

The Sydney leader has spoken in the recent past about the possibility that two distinct "Anglicanisms" could develop as a result of the sexuality row.

This time, however, he went further, saying it was conceivable that a diocese like Sydney, finding more in common with the "global south" churches than those in the West, could look for alternative leadership to that provides by Canterbury.

Jensen mentioned Nigeria, which is home to almost 20 million Anglicans, as one possible source for an emerging alternative leadership.

Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola has been at the forefront of opposition to Robinson's appointment. The Nigerian church last week formalized the decision to severed ties with the American Episcopal Church.

Jensen made it clear he did not believe such a realignment to be inevitable. Much would depend on "what Canterbury does" in the time ahead.

Legal action foreseen

Although their archbishop holds strong views on the ordination of homosexuals, not all Anglicans in Sydney agree.

Among those who don't are members of an organization called Anglicans Together, which says it seeks to promote "traditional Anglican tolerance."

Approached for its views on Jensen's stance, the group's president, the Rev. John Cornish, said Monday the Sydney diocese was "intolerant of difference."

"Homosexuality is such a difference, as is the issue of women priests and bishops," he said.

"The Bible says, they say, that homosexuality is an abomination and that women should be subservient to men in all things. The God I believe in is a God that accepts all persons no matter who they are," Cornish said.

"God is not locked back in the distant past. Our understanding of God evolves with time."

Anglicans Together strongly disagrees that the homosexuality debate has to do with the "authority" of scripture - as Jensen believes - arguing instead that it about "the meaning and interpretation" of scripture.

Asked his views about the possibility Jensen could look for alternative leadership to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cornish predicted that would result in "extended and expensive legal action" over the considerable assets of the diocese.

The Sydney diocese is the wealthiest in Australia, with church properties in high-value areas of the city worth an estimated $2 billion or more.

"If it can be proved that the diocese of Sydney no longer is a part of the Anglican Communion then the assets will revert to those congregations who are still a part of the Anglican church," Cornish said.

He added that any move to deny that the Archbishop of Canterbury was the church's titular head would constitute the diocese having left the Anglican Communion.

Jensen's views are also not shared by the liberal Anglican primate (national leader) of Australia, Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth, who has played down the possibility of a split within the Anglican Communion, and has not ruled the possibility of homosexual ordination in Australia at some future point.

Dividing the Uniting Church

It's not just the Anglicans in Australia who are torn over homosexuality.

For the country's third-largest denomination, the Uniting Church of Australia (UCA), the issue has hit even closer to home, after its national assembly voted last July to allow individual congregations the freedom to ordain practicing homosexuals as ministers.

A number of individual congregations have revolted, more than 20,000 parishioners have signed a protest petition, and at least one state UCA synod has passed a resolution stating that a practicing homosexual lifestyle is incompatible with Christian principles.

In his television interview, Jensen raised the possibility that the Anglican church in Sydney could offer support and help to dissenting members of the UCA.

"I do think that there will be Uniting Church congregations who leave the Uniting Church over this," he said.

"That certainly seems possible, and if so, they will probably set themselves up in some sort of network of independent churches and in that way, we will do what we can to help them."

In unusual criticism of one denomination by a cleric of another, Jensen said he hoped the UCA would reverse the decision.

"The Bible lays down very clear rules about the nature of Christian ministry and the sort of people who ought to be in Christian leadership positions and if I understand the situation correctly in the Uniting Church, there's been a departure from those rules."

Approached for comment Monday, the UCA provided a statement saying the church's national president, the Rev. Dean Drayton, had held a "most cordial" meeting with Jensen to discuss relations between the two denominations "on the issue of the ordination of people in same gender relationships."

Drayton said Jensen had, during their talks, "acknowledged the importance and place of the Uniting Church in Australia, and urged people not to leave but stay within the Uniting Church."

The UCA leadership recently announced that the church would undergo a period of theological reflection, to enable church structures and members to "seek to discern God's will" on the ordination of homosexuals issue, ahead of an assembly planned for 2006.

"I believe this period of response and investigation is a road map leading us forward," Drayton said in his statement. "It will enable all Uniting Church presbyteries and congregations to engage the issue at a doctrinal and spiritual level."

The Uniting Church was created in 1977 in a merger of Methodist, Congregational and some Presbyterian churches.

In Jensen is right in his view of how the future may unfold, there could be more major denominational changes ahead, as evangelicals split off from various different churches over issues like homosexuality, and find common ground.

"This whole business is a very significant problem for Australian Christianity and we must do what we can to support those who want to be biblical in their approach," he said.

See earlier stories:
Asian Anglicans Dismayed at Election of Homosexual Bishop (Aug. 7, 2003)
Major Church in Australia Okays Homosexual Ordinations (Jul. 17, 2003)

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