An amended resolution asking the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw voluntarily from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) until Lambeth 2008 narrowly passed in Nottingham, England June 22 following two hours of council debate in closed session.

A coalition of delegates from Southeast Asia, Nigeria, Congo, Kenya, the Southern Cone, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, England, Pakistan and the Sudan originally submitted the resolution to committee on June 18. It was released from the resolutions committee June 21 and presented to the delegates the next morning with 30 delegates voting in favor and 28 against. There were four abstentions and one delegate whose vote was recorded as “dissenting.” Another resolution on listening unanimously approved “a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion.”

The resolution requesting their exclusion also reaffirmed as the official Communion position on human sexuality that “homosexual practice [is] incompatible with scripture.” The section that was amended specifies withdrawl from the ACC as well as the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Committee on Finance and Administration, the two elected bodies which manage ACC business when council is not in session.

“The vote, which was contingent on the absence of the six votes of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, reveals a divide within the membership of the ACC,” said Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold in a statement released to the media afterward. “I very much hope that the listening process now mandated by the ACC will be one step in healing this divide. The work and mission of the Anglican Communion is carried out largely through international commissions and networks in which the Episcopal Church continues as a fully active and committed participant. It is through these means and our numerous other relationships focused on mission to our hurting world that we will, with God’s grace, find our way forward.”

(The Rev.) George Conger is in Nottingham, England reporting for The Living Church from the triennial meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council.

Full Coverage From the ACC Triennial:

· Council Somber After Vote to Exclude North Americans

· ACC Suspends North American Churches

· Vote on Resolution to Expel North Americans Scheduled

· Communion's Spotlight is on Presentation Panels

· Archbishop Says Common Ground Still Exists

· Status Quo at ACC Holds on Second Day

· Withdrawn Status of North Americans Noted

· ACC Opening Session Surprise

· ACC Meeting Opens with Dinner and Orientation

· Bishop Roskam to Serve in Two Capacities at Nottingham

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