City of Confusion

Some say it began this July. Others say it started in 2003. Some say it began in 1989; some say 1988. Some say 1976; still others 1930. But the demise of Anglicanism could be said to have truly begun in the 1530s, when King Henry VIII in effect “nationalized” the Catholic Church in England in order to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, thus inaugurating what would eventually become known as the Anglican Communion, currently home to 77 million souls worldwide.

It was in 1930 that the Anglican Communion approved artificial contraception for married couples. In 1976 the Communion approved the ordination of women. In 1988 the Communion paved the way for female bishops. In 1989 the first openly homosexual man was ordained an Anglican priest. In 2003 the first openly homosexual man was consecrated an Anglican bishop.

This July, in defiance of a 2006 moratorium, the Episcopal Church (TEC; formerly ECUSA), the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, approved a resolution to continue consecrating homosexual bishops. So now there is a lesbian candidate for the Anglican bishopric of Minnesota, and a “gay” male and another lesbian candidate for the assistant bishopric of Los Angeles.

Since the 2003 consecration of “Vicky” Gene Robinson, an open and active homosexual, as Anglican Bishop of New Hampshire by TEC, the Anglican Communion has been experiencing a deepening crisis, an increased fracturing. Alternative Anglican groups have sprung up worldwide, including the Anglican Church in North America this year, a more traditionally minded alternative to TEC that is seeking recognition from Canterbury, England, the primary “see” of the Anglican Communion.