SEATTLE — A historic joint statement by leading Roman Catholic and Anglican theologians on the doctrine of the Virgin Mary is scheduled for announcement in February in Seattle. It is the latest agreement in a little-noticed but promising ecumenical process, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

Until recent days, it was thought that once the theologians completed their work under the commission, the ecumenical process would go to a higher plane by means of an International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission. Through that commission, the Vatican and Anglican officials would meet to formalize the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission agreements as joint official doctrine.

But then today's culture war got in the way.

Movement toward theological union quietly picked up speed in recent years as new accords displayed common purpose between the Vatican and the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, of which the 2.2 million strong Episcopal Church in America is a part. Agreements largely resolved such previously divisive issues as salvation by faith, the meaning of the Eucharist and the lead teaching authority of the Pope.

The theologians’ progress potentially would affect not only the Anglican Communion — sometimes called a “bridge church” — and the billion-member Catholic Church but also some Protestant denominations. But the ordination in November of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an Episcopal priest openly living in a homosexual relationship, as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire and preparation of a liturgy for same-sex unions convinced the Vatican to suspend the long-term theology dialogue.

The Russian Orthodox Church already has replied to the Robinson ordination by severing ecumenical ties to the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

According to Catholic and Episcopal sources who spoke confidentially, Vatican officials debated for weeks how they should respond to what they regard as a violation of a Christian moral position on sexuality that is grounded in Scripture, Church Tradition and natural law and that, furthermore, was the subject of aposition the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission adopted 10 years ago.

Called “Life in Christ,” that agreement holds that the physical expression of sexuality finds its only proper fulfillment “in the covenanted relationship between a husband and wife.”

In 1998 the Lambeth Conference, a global conclave of Anglican bishops held in London's Lambeth Palace every 10 years, voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm traditional Christian doctrine on sexuality. That stance was emphasized yet again in October at an emergency gathering of international Anglican leaders called specifically to address the crisis regarding the Robinson ordination and a related issue in British Columbia.

Catholics believed these declarations and the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission endorsement of the teaching authority of the pope in matters of faith and morals meant the Anglicans could be relied upon to adhere to a consistent policy.

But, as an English cleric close to Canterbury said privately, the Catholics might not have realized how disorganized the Anglican Communion has become on theological matters. Some of its leaders pay little attention to the church's body of precedent even when they lend their names to its affirmation. And there is no authority to exert discipline.

Thus, no sooner had the October statement been issued than one of its signers, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold III, who also happened to be co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, returned to the United States to ordain Robinson.

At last, the Vatican advised the Anglicans that long-term ecumenical plans must be suspended and that unless Griswold stepped down from his ecumenical post, the Catholics would cancel even their participation in the upcoming International Commission announcement in Seattle. After a painful meeting at the end of November in Rome, Griswold stepped down.

The sexuality issue is only the most prominent instance of theological heterodoxy now afflicting the United States and certain other Western provinces of the Anglican Communion. For years there has been reluctance to discipline bishops who dispute such fundamental Christian tenets as the incarnation of Christ and his resurrection.

Anglican author Os Guinness commented, “The revisionist leaders of the Episcopal Church [exhibit] … infidelity to their own beliefs and teaching.”

Anglican bishops from the “global south” (Africa, Asia and Latin America), where most Anglicans now are found, are of similar opinion. They urged the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the titular head of Anglicanism, to find an orthodox replacement to co-chair the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission's February meeting alongside Roman Catholic Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle.

They might not be entirely pleased with that replacement, Archbishop Peter Carnley, primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, who was announced Dec. 9.

Archbishop Carnley has taken a liberal stand on many issues. In 2002, for example, he voiced support for allowing embryonic stem cell research in Australia, saying that since he saw no ethical problem in using “unwanted” in-vitro-generated embryos in frozen storage for research purposes, he saw no problem in creating new ones for research.

On other points Archbishop Williams seems to be letting matters take their own course.

According to a London source familiar with attitudes at Lambeth, Williams realizes Anglican ecumenical relations have been “incinerated.” Yet his main response to the Robinson crisis has been to appoint a commission to study the matter for a year. Unwilling to wait for yet another study, many national provinces of the communion have broken relations with the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Oddly enough, orthodox U.S. Episcopalians have found more sympathy in Rome than in Canterbury. When the orthodox American Anglican Council held a 2,700-person national conference in Plano, Texas, on the church's future this fall, Anglican Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh brought the crowd to its feet when he read a letter of greeting on behalf of Pope John Paul II from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Long ago, such a letter might have been seen as outside interference. At the American Anglican Council conference, it was received as an enormous consolation and encouragement.

In recent weeks, at least one Episcopal diocese (thus far unnamed) has contemplated coming into full communion with Rome.

That's according to a newspaper interview with Archbishop Brunett. A spokesman later called the report exaggerated.

There already are several Anglican-rite parishes operating under Catholic administration in Texas and Massachusetts. Such churches retain the flavor of the Anglican liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer. Certainly the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission process, which began in 1966, has made the theological basis for such reunions more visible, if not inevitable.

There also is a rising sense of urgency to move beyond old theological differences and hasten the day of unity.

Bruce Chapman, president of Discovery Institute, writes from Seattle.