"We express our passionate desire to remain in communion". This is the reason that drove the Bishops of the Episcopalian Church of the United States gathered in New Orleans over these days to stop consecrating gay applicants for bishopric and priesthood, as well as the ceremonies for the blessing of same-sex couples. This is the content of a release sent yesterday from the "House of bishops" of the Episcopalian Church at the end of a meeting in New Orleans, which was also attended by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who had flown to the United States in the attempt to heal the rift that had come up within the Anglican Communion following the ordination in the USA of an overtly-gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the diocese of New Hampshire. The provinces of the south of the world Africa, Asia and South America have always stated they are against gay couples and gay ordinations, and since then the matter had come into the limelight of a debate that has endangered the union of the Communion itself. To remain in communion, the American Bishops therefore accepted "not to authorise the consecration of applicants to bishopric when such applicants have a lifestyle that might challenge the Church and cause a rift in its communion".
