By Daniel Burke c. 2008 Religion News Service CANTERBURY, England -- For five years, conservative Episcopalians eager to escape their liberal American church have been building ties with African Anglicans half a world away. But they have few connections with black Americans in their own back yard, say black Episcopal bishops gathered here for a once-a-decade meeting of Anglican prelates. "It's something that I like to point out," said the Bishop Eugene Sutton,the first black Episcopal bishop in Maryland, "the historical anomaly of dioceses that have nothing to do with the black community going all the way to Africa to make these relationships." Moreover, Sutton and other black bishops here say that the use of Scripture to reject homosexuality in the Anglican Communion evokes previous eras' Biblically based arguments in support of slavery and racism. African prelates, however, reject that argument, and American conservatives say it is shared theology -- not race -- that motivates their alliances. "This is just another revisionist attempt to use anything to undermine the orthodox position of the church and spread the agenda of inclusiveness," said the Right Rev. Peter Beckwith, the conservative bishop of Springfield, Ill. While the eight black Episcopal bishops here favor gay rights in their church, most Africans from the wider Anglican Communion disagree. That conflict forms a part of the larger split running through the Lambeth Co ...
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