Feuding Anglicans might pray apart

11 January 2016 - 10:22 By The Sunday Telegraph

The global Anglican Church faces "dire consequences" unless it enforces a traditionalist line on homosexuality at a crucial summit in Canterbury, England, this week, say leading clerics. Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, convenor of Anglican primates in the "global south" - the bulk of the church's 80million members - said that unless the issue was resolved there would be "irreparable" splits, not just between countries, but even parishes.The heads of almost 40 separate churches meet for the first time in more than a decade in what Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby sees as a "last roll of the dice" to save the Anglican Communion.The split is said to be so deep he is providing separate chapels amid fears the groups will not even pray together.The archbishop hopes to avert a schism between liberals and conservatives after the turmoil of the past 12 years - caused by the US branch, the Episcopal Church, ordaining an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson.Welby wants national churches to be linked only to Canterbury, rather than to each other, to let them disagree on issues without severing ties.One of his aides likened the move to "separate bedrooms" rather than divorce. ..

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