The Anglican church has a presence throughout the world.  As the British Empire expanded, the Church of England and its missionary societies went with it.  Christianity was taught in lands across the globe, and new locally focused churches were born, national churches following the general model of the Church of England. 
    These churches were like offspring of the Church of England, closely tied to their mother and to each other but, once they had a sound foothold in the world, self-governing.  Members of the Anglican family can try to exert influence over each other, but they have no power to insist, to direct what each can do.  Each national church within the Anglican family has the right to determine its own future. 
    Of course, we don’t want to fall out.  Despite our independence we want to maintain ties, to remain as family members on good speaking terms with each other.  So there are regular meetings of the most senior bishop from each church, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  And once every ten years, all the bishops of the Anglican Communion get together to meet and talk, or at least as many of them as possible.  That meeting is called the Lambeth Conference.

2008 is the year of the Lambeth Conference.  In the second half of July, Anglican bishops from across the globe will meet to discuss the current state of the church and the world, and to discuss the future of both.  But not all bishops will be there.  Somewhere around 850 would usually attend Lambeth; but this time 250 or so have decided to meet elsewhere – in fact they are meeting right now – in an alternative conference in Jerusalem.  Why an alternative conference?  Because the Anglican Communion is tearing itself apart, ostensibly over the issue of the morality of homosexuality.
    For one party, homosexuality is a heinous sin against God and nature, which is explicitly condemned by scripture and is well-nigh unforgiveable.  To denounce homosexuality is to stand out against the watering-down of the gospel, against the tendency to accept the decaying values of the surrounding culture.
    For the other party, homosexuality is not sinful but is in fact a quite natural state of being for some people.  Properly considered, scripture no more condemns homosexuality than it does the eating of prawns or the wearing of poly-cotton clothing.  To accept homosexual behaviour is to stand up for the marginalised, and express the over-riding gospel ethic of love.
    Today is not the day when I present to you the theological arguments surrounding homosexuality.  I have my own position on the subject, but I’m keeping that to myself.  That’s not what this sermon is about.  The point of this sermon is that there are people within the Anglican Communion with widely differing views.  And those on the extremes of this difference are pushing their views to the point where the Communion – and subsequently the ‘mother of this family’, the Church of England itself – may well split. 

What on earth are we doing?  Why is the church, yet again, getting itself so hung up about sex?  I mean … is homosexuality really the major issue of the day? 
    We should be talking about climate change, and about humanity’s relationship with the rest of creation – about how we balance our right to use its bounty with our duty to care for its integrity.  We should be talking about the huge inequalities in living standards, and about human beings’ relationship with one another – about how we balance our right to improve our society with our duty to ensure that no-one is excluded from that society. 
    We should be talking about the war and oppression which reigns on our planet – about how we balance our calling to protect other human beings with our calling to be a people of peace.   We should be talking about multi-cultural societies – about how we balance the proclamation of Christ’s message with the recognition that God reveals himself in all cultures.
    For me, those are the issues of our day.  Those are the issues we should be raising in our world.  But all the people of this nation hear about the church is that we are fixated with sex and gender.  Either we’re talking about gender rights in the church; or we’re arguing about homosexuality.  And we wonder why people don’t flock through our doors!

Throughout all this Rowan Williams has tried to do what he was called to do when he was asked to take on the mantle of Archbishop of Canterbury.  He has tried to find a way of holding the Anglican Communion together, respecting the views of both camps … bearing in mind that he is called to maintain unity without actually having any authority with which to force anyone to do anything.
    I know of no-one who has been in the presence of this man who does not sense that he is both an intellectual giant, and one of the most godly men they have ever experienced.  And yet he has been excoriated by those of his fellow bishops meeting in Jerusalem right now for daring to follow his perception of God’s will for the Anglican Communion rather than theirs.
    I don’t know what we can do except pray.  Pray for those on both sides of this divide that they might have the humility to meet together and talk with open minds, with an understanding of each other’s viewpoints, with an understanding of the precipice to which they have brought the Anglican Communion.  Pray for the bishops meeting in Jerusalem now, where they are isolated from any voices other than those which they want to hear; and those meeting at Lambeth next month, where they seek a way forward in unity. 
    Pray for our Archbishop, who has the unenviable calling to stand at the centre of this storm and help us discern a way to move forward, whilst being condemned by both sides.  Pray that whatever the outcome of all this, we might be focused on the real issues of our day, that the gospel of Christ will reign in all our hearts.