NEW YORK - A crucial meeting in New York this week has failed to bring the gathered Episcopal and Anglican leaders to a common agreement on how to move the Anglican Communion forward from the controversy that continues to rage over homosexuality in the church.

The three-day meeting, which began on Monday, brought together key leaders from both churches at an undisclosed location in the city to "review the current landscape of the church in view of the conflicts within the Episcopal Church".

The meeting, at an undisclosed location in New York, came at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who had received requests from seven dioceses for a new overseer. The conservative dioceses had made the request in opposition to the increasing support for homosexuality in the U.S. Episcopal Church.

"We could not come to a consensus on a common plan to move forward to meet the needs of the dioceses that issued the appeal for Alternate Primatial Oversight," read a statement issued this morning on the Anglican Communion News Service.

Meanwhile in statement released today, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke positively of the meeting.

"It's a positive sign that these difficult conversations have been taking place in a frank and honest way," the statement read.

"There is clearly a process at work and although it hasn't yet come to fruition, the openness and charity in which views are being shared and options discussed are nevertheless signs of hope for the future.

"Our prayers continue," he said.
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Episcopal leaders scheduled the meeting to have a "candid conversation," as Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold described it, after it was made clear that Williams had no direct authority over the internal life of the Provinces in the Communion.

The meeting was also convened to discuss a resolution within the U.S. Anglican arm over a divide that conservative leaders had called "inevitable."

"We had honest and frank conversations that confronted the depth of the conflicts that we face," said the statement today. "We recognised the need to provide sufficient space, but were unable to come to common agreement on the way forward."

Participants in the meeting included Griswold, Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishops Peter James Lee of Virginia, John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, James Stanton of Dallas, Edward Salmon of South Carolina, Mark Sisk of New York, Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina, and Robert O'Neill of Colorado. Canon Kenneth Kearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, was also present at the gathering.

Tensions within the Episcopal Church had mounted after the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an active homosexual, and the adoption of a last-minute resolution earlier this summer that called church leaders to "exercise restraint" when considering gay candidates for bishops. More opposition arose as Jefferts Schori, an advocate of gay relationships, was elected to be the first female presiding bishop for the U.S. denomination. Shortly after her election, Jefferts Schori said that she believes homosexuality is not a sin and that homosexuals were created by God "with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender."

This led conservative dioceses, which hold the Church subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture, to appeal for an "alternative primatial oversight".

Conservative leaders drafted a petition letter late last month on the current state of the Anglican Communion for distribution to all bishops in the worldwide communion. The 44-page document was written by several Anglican leaders including the Rt. Rev John H. Rogers, a bishop with the conservative Anglican Mission in America, and the Rt. Rev. John K. Rucyahana, bishop of the Diocese of Shyira in Rwanda. It made clear that the issue on homosexuality and whether the Church should propound its approval is "a defining [matter] for the continued unity of the churches and bishops in the Anglican Communion."

This week's meeting did not conclude in any resolution or agreement. But the statement assured talks will continue until a consensus is reached.

"The level of openness and charity in this conference allow us to pledge to hold one another in prayer and to work together until we have reached the solution God holds out for us," it stated.




Lillian Kwon, US Christian Today Correspondent, with contributions from Maria Mackay