London, England - The archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday created a panel to deal with one of the most explosive issues in the Anglican Communion — bishops who cross boundaries to support rebellious congregations.
The issue was related to a wider debate about homosexual clergy that threatens to split the global union of 35 national churches.
Archbishop Rowan Williams announced that the Panel of Reference would be led by the Australian primate, the Most Rev. Peter Carnley.
The panel is likely to pay particular attention to the United States, where some conservative Episcopal congregations have rejected the oversight of their diocesan bishop and instead affiliated with like-minded bishops from Africa and other areas. These cases are known as "extended episcopal oversight."
Eight more members of the panel are to be appointed next week, the Anglican Communion office in London announced.
Williams empowered the panel to "enquire into, consider and report on situations drawn to my attention where there is serious dispute concerning the adequacy of schemes of delegated or extended episcopal oversight or other extraordinary arrangements."
A spokeswoman for presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the U.S. Episcopal Church, said he considered the formation of the panel a "splendid idea."
Griswold repeatedly has said he is committed to providing alternative pastoral care for Episcopalians of differing views. However, conservatives have complained the plan still leaves them vulnerable to the authority of their local bishop.
In the U.S. Episcopal Church, a group of conservative bishops led by the Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, have formed a "network" to insist that the church affirm traditional teaching against same-sex relationships.
Some of these conservative bishops have antagonized other bishops by conducting confirmation or ordination services outside their dioceses.
Williams called on all the leaders of the national churches to report within 14 days on all instances of extended oversight in their territories.
He asked "each bishop of the Communion to respect fully and in accordance with its spirit any scheme of delegation or extended oversight established in his or her province."
Williams called on any parish that is unhappy with its bishop to work first of all with the bishop to resolve any dispute about oversight.
The appointment of the panel flows from the feud over the election of V. Gene Robinson, who is living with a male partner, as bishop of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire. Blessings of same-sex unions in some places in the United States and Canada have added to the tension.
Meeting in Northern Ireland in February, leaders of the national churches asked the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council for three years — a move some feared could be the first step toward a permanent split in the 77 million-strong communion.
The two churches also were asked to explain the theological reasoning behind the consecration of Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and the decision by the western Canadian diocese of New Westminster to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.
The bishops' communique said Anglican teaching on sexuality had "been seriously undermined by the recent developments in North America." A 1998 resolution adopted by all Anglican bishops declared that gay sex was "incompatible with Scripture" and opposed gay ordinations and same-sex blessings.