The Anglican Communion has deep differences over homosexuality – but a process of dialogue, known as ‘via media,’ has helped hold contradictory beliefs together
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Tuesday, April 23, 2024
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In the past six months, hundreds of congregations voted to leave the United Methodist Church over same-sex marriage and whether LGBTQ+ people should be clergy.
Key Points:
- In the past six months, hundreds of congregations voted to leave the United Methodist Church over same-sex marriage and whether LGBTQ+ people should be clergy.
- With over 80 million believers in 160 countries, the Anglican Communion has been grappling with LGBTQ+ issues since the 1970s.
- It is a long-standing process for navigating disputes called the “via media,” or middle way, which has thus far succeeded in holding together people with contradictory beliefs.
Controversies in the Anglican Communion
- For decades, diverging points of view over homosexuality and rumors of schism have both confused and polarized believers in the global Anglican Communion.
- This is part of a larger struggle within the Anglican Communion to renegotiate imbalances of power and authority left over from the colonial era of the British Empire.
- In the 21st century, these churches still have most of the money in the Anglican Communion, but congregational numbers are dwindling.
- That is the orthodox Anglican position.” Views like these carry great weight in the Anglican Communion, even today.
- But they remain within the Anglican Communion.
- The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has ordained openly gay bishops – most controversially Gene Robinson, former Bishop of New Hampshire, in 2003.
- In 2016, the primates – the most senior leaders of the Anglican Communion – voted to suspend the Episcopal Church from decision-making on Anglican governance and policy for three years.
The via media
- Despite such heated conflicts, the Anglican Communion holds together through the via media.
- Via media was first mentioned by English reformers who broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.
- It is this Church of England that eventually spread globally with the British Empire to become the Anglican Communion.
- In the 19th century, via media became a way of thinking about internal, rather than external, challenges, such as resolving debates over how to interpret scripture.
Holding together
- It is this understanding of via media, I argue, that is holding the Anglican Communion together thus far.
- Instead, it seeks to include people with deeply held but contrary beliefs within the same church through common worship and life.
- The Church of England, for example, made plans for negotiations between people holding differing viewpoints before the Synod meets again in July 2024.
Lisa McClain is affiliated with her local Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Idaho. She is a professor of Gender Studies and a member of the international think tank The Inclusion Crowd as a gender expert.