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The Episcopal Church should apologize for stirring disunity but will not face serious sanctions for allowing an openly gay bishop, an Anglican church panel said in long-anticipated recommendations made Monday.

The panel's 92-page report, issued by Irish Archbishop Robin Eames, stopped short of calling for the U.S. church to be excommunicated, but said the decision breached "the proper constraints of the bonds of affection" with sister churches in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

In presenting the report in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, Eames called for a moratorium on new gay bishops but said there is "no mechanism for the imposition of a discipline" after the U.S. church consecrated an openly gay priest, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.

For now, the report leaves the U.S. church in limbo as conservative dissidents mull their options. For its part, the American hierarchy emerged chastened but intact after the report failed to deliver the fatal blow anticipated by many conservatives.

The report's critique of the U.S. church was clear.

"By electing and confirming such a candidate in the face of the concerns expressed by the wider Communion, the Episcopal Church has caused deep offense to many faithful Anglican Christians both in its own church and in other parts of the Communion," the report said.

The report called on the U.S. church to "express its regret" for fracturing Anglican unity, and said the seven principal bishops who consecrated him — including Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold — should reconsider their participation in the life of the Communion.

Beyond the moratorium on other gay bishops, the report did not call on Robinson to resign, a move that Robinson has rejected. A spokesman said Robinson would have no immediate comment.

In addition, the report said U.S. and Canadian policies to bless same-sex unions are not a "legitimate application" of Christian faith and urged a halt to such rites, as well as a similar apology.

In Canada, where the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster has approved gay unions, reaction was tepid. "There's nothing authoritative about this," said Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, leader of Canadian Anglicans. "It binds no one."

Nonetheless, Eames told reporters in London that Anglican provinces "are not free to depart unilaterally from a shared faith and discipline without this affecting our shared ties as a family."

The 17-member panel said the Communion's future depended on a commitment by all sides to "walk together." If the U.S. church rejected such overtures, it could face excommunication "as an absolute last resort."

The Eames commission included bishops, clergy and lay members from across the Communion. The sole American member was retired Bishop Mark Dyer of Bethlehem, Pa., who now teaches at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.

While the report was clear in its rebuke of the North American branches of Anglicanism, it also rejected conservatives' requests for a "parallel province" that would allow them to operate outside of the official structures of the Episcopal Church. For the past year, they have sought to be recognized as the "legitimate franchise" of American Anglicanism.

The report said an Episcopal Church plan to allow conservative bishops to minister to likeminded parishes beyond their dioceses seems sufficient, and urged overseas bishops to stop meddling in the internal affairs of the U.S. church.

The Rev. Kendall Harmon, a South Carolina leader of the conservative American Anglican Council, said the report was a "nice try, but clearly insufficient."

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October (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48