Evangelicals were swift but mixed in their reaction to the historic ban of the United States and Canadian churches over their pro-homosexual stance, reports GEORGE CONGER from Newry, Northern Ireland.

Evangelical reactions to the Primates' communiqué from Anglicans across the world were mixed. Some endorsed the report, others condemned it, while still others took a wait and see approach.

The Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh called the communiqué an "epochal" moment in the life of the Church while the liberal Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham, urged the American and Canadian Churches to reject it.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams summoned the Primates to the Dromantine Conference Centre near Newry, Northern Ireland to discuss the Windsor Report: a study commissioned after the Diocese of New Westminster authorised its clergy to perform same-sex unions and in the wake of the American Church's approval of the election of a non-celibate homosexual priest as bishop in 2003.

Following four days of closed-door meetings the Primates unanimously agreed to "request the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw' from the Anglican Communion's consultative council for three years.  During the suspension the churches were to reconsider their actions and amend their ways or provide an acceptable theological rationale for normalising homosexual behaviour. 

In the meantime a committee will investigate alternate episcopal oversight for dissenting parishes in the US and Canada.

Some liberal leaders praised the communiqué. Bishop John Chane of Washington noted while the call for a short-term exclusion "pains me', it "does not seem too onerous a price to pay for the preservation of the Communion".  American Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold agreed, noting the Episcopal Church had not "been thrown out of the Communion'.

Asked what Sydney Anglicans should take from the report, the Australian Primate, Dr Peter Carnley told Southern Cross "they should rejoice with us and celebrate the fact that the Primates of the Global South are very pleased with the outcome and so are the North Americans".

Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, whose authorisation of same-sex blessings brought Canada under the Primates' eye, rejected the communiqué. "The Primates' call…is carefully worded, and intended to appease the angriest voices in the Communion, but it should be firmly resisted."

US traditionalist Bishop Duncan, however, read the communiqué in a different light, saying the authority of Scripture had been upheld.
Archbishop Peter Jensen was more circumspect. He "cautiously welcome[d] this decision and communiqué from the Primates" but noted that "everything now depends on how effective and speedy' the reforms are.

"It should be seen as a victory for the Archbishop of Canterbury…in that it buys time for a full resolution of this serious theological and pastoral problem in the life of churches and congregations of the Communion," he said.

Other evangelicals were disturbed by the lack of vigor in communiqué, saying that it was simply another "line in the sand" and a "fudge'. The Rev David Phillips of the Church Society, a leading English evangelical group, stated his group was "alarmed' that the Primates failed to discipline the wayward American Church.

Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, however, noted that the Primates "made it quite clear that the Church's teaching on the issue was biblical'. If the Episcopal Church wishes "to remain Anglican they have to do it the Anglican way,' he said.

Next month in Southern Cross the Primate of Uganda, Archbishop Henry Orombi, speaks out on homosexuality, Sydney Anglicans and being the leader of eight million believers.