October (Web-only) 2003

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Talk says "consensus," but announcement won't come until later today
Journalists aren't being allowed in the London meeting of worldwide Anglican leaders. Neither are any other outsiders. Still, a few of the Anglican leaders (called primates) have talked about what's going on. Ireland's Robin Eames addressed British media outside Lambeth Palace, while Australia's Peter Carnley talked exclusively to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. They both talked about how each primate was given several minutes yesterday to give an opening statement. Today is the day to come to a consensus action.

That action, says the buzz and analysis of what little has come forth so far, won't include booting the Episcopal Church USA out of the Anglican Communion, as some orthodox Episcopalians had hoped. The church may still be censured in some form.

But so far, all of this is rumor, conjecture, and speculation—and the tea leaves would certainly be read differently if the primates speaking had been conservatives from Global South rather than liberals from the West. (If you're into the speculation, though, be sure to check out comments from David Virtue and Christopher Johnson.) The official announcement will come around 9 p.m. GMT today (about 4 p.m. Eastern). Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's the latest from the mainstream press:

Anglican woes:

• Anglicans hopeful that summit has prevented split | One insider said that the conservatives no longer had majority support for their demand that the liberal American Episcopal Church be expelled for appointing Anglicanism's first openly homosexual bishop (The Daily Telegraph, London)
  
  
• Anglican leaders work to avoid a split over gay U.S. bishop | Moving toward consensus (The New York Times)
  
  
• Anglicans seek unity, contend on sexual issues | Upcoming consecration of openly gay bishop has conservatives asking for U.S. church's expulsion (Los Angeles Times)