Leaders of Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America joined to endorse a new protest group that is trying to unite Episcopalians in the United States who oppose gay clergy.
Friday's statement came from the top officials (called "primates") of 13 denominations, which together claim more than half of the 77 million Anglicans worldwide. Their message spurns the leaders and policies of the Episcopal Church, which is the U.S. branch of the international Anglican Communion.
The action gives the new U.S. conservative organization a claim to religious legitimacy as it seeks to gain supporters.
It also demonstrates the severe division in world Anglicanism caused by the Episcopal Church's consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson last November. An emergency commission on the global split holds its first meeting starting Monday in London.
Daniel England, spokesman for Episcopal Church headquarters, said "there's nothing new here" except that these primates "have jumped the gun" on the commission's work, "which is unfortunate."
"It seems a bit premature," he said.
The protest is highly unlikely to change the Episcopal Church's acceptance of Robinson or its practice of letting each diocese decide whether to approve gay clergy or same-sex blessings. Each branch of the Anglican Communion operates independently.
The primates extended recognition to the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a group established Jan. 20 by delegates from 12 of the 107 Episcopal dioceses and from several local congregations. Each diocese must take further action to affiliate; to date, four have done so.
The primates' statement said "we offer our support and the full weight of our ministries and offices" to the bishops, priests and parishioners who are forming the network.
"We regard this network as a hopeful sign of a faithful Anglican future in North America," they said. "We invite those who are committed to the preservation of historic biblical faith and order to join that work."
The network's leader, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, called the statement "a clear sign that the Anglican realignment in North America is moving forward," offering hope to those "devastated and disenfranchised" by Episcopal Church actions.
According to the primates, the Episcopal Church took a "rebellious and erroneous" action by elevating Robinson — who has been openly living with a male partner for well over a decade — to bishop of New Hampshire.
The group said the Episcopal position is a "direct repudiation of the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures," and it separates the Episcopalians from the rest of the world's Anglicans.
The endorsing primates head provinces in: Central Africa, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South East Asia, South India, Southern Cone (six South American nations), Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and West Indies.
Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria's 17.5 million-member church, who chairs the Anglican council for all of Africa, wrote the statement with the Southern Cone and West Indies primates.
Canon Bill Atwood of the Texas-based international church aid agency Ekklesia, who issued the text, expects several more primates to endorse it. He also said 21 foreign provinces to date have declared "impaired or broken communion" with the Episcopal Church.
Last year's Episcopal Church convention confirmed Robinson's election by the New Hampshire Diocese. Many in the 2.3-million member denomination supported a diocese's right to pick its own bishop, while others believed the Bible should be interpreted to emphasize love and equality for all, homosexuals included.
Some foreign churchmen agree. Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said last Sunday that discrimination against homosexuals "for something about which they could do nothing" is as "totally unacceptable and unjust" as racial apartheid.