The leader of the world's Anglicans reportedly with conduct a "secret" communion service in London for gay clergy and their partners.
The Times newspaper in an article to be published on Tuesday says that Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams will hold the service at St Peter’s, Eaton Square. The parish is home to many of the country’s liberal and wealthy Anglican elite.
The paper said the service will take place on November 29 and include an address by the Archbishop that is titled "Present realities and future possibilities for lesbians and gay men in the Church." Those attending will be there by invitation only, the Times notes, adding that they have been warned not to disclose any of the events or discussions which take place.
A list of those attending has been vetted by the Archbishop's staff and and will be shredded.
Disclosure of the service will likely acerbate the already deep wounds between Anglican liberals and conservatives as the church appears to be inching closer to schism.
This week Williams will attend the Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. The meeting comes just ten days before a deadline imposed by conservative Anglican factions around the world for the Episcopal Church to guarantee it will not appoint any more openly gay bishops.
Tensions between liberals and conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Church have been increasing since the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.
Anglicanism's national churches, called provinces. are loosely bound to one another in the Anglican Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury its titular head. Appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government, the Archbishop is little more than a figurehead.
Rowan William's tenure has been marked by growing differences between right and left in the Church - seen mainly as a struggle between those provinces in the Developing World and those in Industrialized Nations.
When he meets in New Orleans this month with American bishops Williams will attempt to work out a statement that will be acceptable to both liberals and conservatives - something most church observers say is impossible.
Next year bishops from around the world are scheduled to meet in London for their once-a-decade meeting called the Lambeth Conference.
The Times newspaper in an article to be published on Tuesday says that Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams will hold the service at St Peter’s, Eaton Square. The parish is home to many of the country’s liberal and wealthy Anglican elite.
The paper said the service will take place on November 29 and include an address by the Archbishop that is titled "Present realities and future possibilities for lesbians and gay men in the Church." Those attending will be there by invitation only, the Times notes, adding that they have been warned not to disclose any of the events or discussions which take place.
A list of those attending has been vetted by the Archbishop's staff and and will be shredded.
Disclosure of the service will likely acerbate the already deep wounds between Anglican liberals and conservatives as the church appears to be inching closer to schism.
This week Williams will attend the Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. The meeting comes just ten days before a deadline imposed by conservative Anglican factions around the world for the Episcopal Church to guarantee it will not appoint any more openly gay bishops.
Tensions between liberals and conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Church have been increasing since the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.
Anglicanism's national churches, called provinces. are loosely bound to one another in the Anglican Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury its titular head. Appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government, the Archbishop is little more than a figurehead.
Rowan William's tenure has been marked by growing differences between right and left in the Church - seen mainly as a struggle between those provinces in the Developing World and those in Industrialized Nations.
When he meets in New Orleans this month with American bishops Williams will attempt to work out a statement that will be acceptable to both liberals and conservatives - something most church observers say is impossible.
Next year bishops from around the world are scheduled to meet in London for their once-a-decade meeting called the Lambeth Conference.
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