The polls by the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life provided crucial background to why North American Anglicans have been among those leading the cause for homosexual rights — and why they’re at loggerheads with evangelicals. The Pew Forum polls also helped explain the headline-making vote last week by a solid majority of Episcopalians (as Anglicans are known in the U.S.) to formally allow the ordination of homosexuals.

The issue had been disturbing some of the world’s 75 million Anglicans since 2003, when openly gay cleric Gene Robinson was elected the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.

The Pew Forum found seven out of 10 U.S. Episcopalians/Anglicans believe society should accept homosexuality as a way of life.

That compares to only 50 per cent support among the general U.S. population.

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Word came recently that the Episcopal Church national convention plans to affirm gay and lesbian clergy. Some celebrated, while others recoiled. The public pondered.

From the sidelines I say, “Hooray for the steady progress of God’s holy spirit.”

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[Bishop Ted] Gulick contended that the 2006 “restraint” pledge remains in effect.

“The moratorium would end at such a time as the Episcopal Church elected a gay or lesbian individual in a partnered relationship to be a bishop, and then consecrated him or her,” Gulick said.

If a diocese did so, bishops and diocesan committees would have to confirm the vote. Gulick said he would carefully weigh the candidate’s faith and “what gifts in ministry they have demonstrated.”

“But then I would also have to in my own prayerful concern take the impact of this on the community into my own discernment,” he added. That impact, Gulick said, was a key reason he recently voted not to approve the ordination of Northern Michigan Bishop-elect Kevin Thew Forrester.

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My new acquaintance, a self-described traditional Christian who has issues with the ordination of women (never mind gays and lesbians), shook his head. From his perspective, the Episcopal Church is out of touch with the majority and has failed to recognize its place in the world.

I would argue that Episcopalians, who number around 2 million in a worldwide church of 80 million, are acutely aware of their place on the global Christian stage….

Episcopalians know [about the global Church shift from North to South]. Whatever their views on sexuality, they speak passionately about the importance of preserving relations and avoiding a major schism.

The question then becomes how to balance the desire to remain in communion with the desire to be fully inclusive of gay and lesbian members.

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The Episcopal Church General Convention adoption of resolutions D025 and C056 is a deliberate defiance of the wider Body of the Anglican Communion. We believe this is the choice they make to be politically correct with circular popular opion which seeks continually to destroy the moral fibre of people in general as we see the decay all around us. The blessings of the same-sex unions and the ordination of practicing gay clergy is inconsistence with the Word of God written; it is theologically uninformed, incoherent with the wider church, endorsing schism in the Anglican Communion and threatens ecumenical fellowship and relations.

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We are of the view that the passing of these 2 resolutions, when on a plain and ordinary reading, constitutes an abrogation by TEC of the agreed-to moratorium on the consecration of practising homosexual clergy as bishops and rites of blessing for same-sex unions. This effectively moves TEC irretrievably away from the orthodox position of the rest of the Anglican Communion as a whole on these issues. This is a negative development. It is also a repudiation of the listening and consultation processes put in place in an attempt to resolve these issues.

We reiterate that the basis of the common heritage shared through membership of the worldwide Anglican Communion is best reflected by the proposed Anglican Covenant, which we wholly support. The proposed Anglican Covenant encompasses our basic shared beliefs and traditions. It represents the most basic statement of what we consider to be acceptable for resolving the present predicament facing the Anglican Communion and moving forward. We hope that the Anglican Covenant will be endorsed by the provinces in the Anglican Communion within the next 12 months.

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Another kick in the teeth from the Archbishop of Canterbury comes this week in his reflections on the US General Convention. It looks as if we are heading for a two-tier Anglican­ism, with the anti-gay lot being able to have “representative functions”, and the inclusive lot being edged out of any decision-making processes.

Actually, we have been something like a two-tier Church for a while, but the nature of this division is different from the one Dr Williams des­cribes. One tier is called the Church of England; the other is called Ang­lican­ism. Ordinary people in the pews are members of the former; those with “representative func­tions” ”” bishops and the like ”” are often of the latter.

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Broken bridges to the wider Anglican Communion will not be repaired by recent actions of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Archbishop of Canterbury has stated in a reflec­tion that advocates a “two-track” Communion based on accep­t-ance of the Covenant proposals.

The issue was not human rights or dignity, but whether the Church was free to recognise same-sex unions by means of public blessings seen as analogous to Christian marriage, he said in Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future, published on Monday.

A “yes” would have had to be pre­ceded by “the most painstaking biblical exegesis”, strong consensus, solid theological grounding, and due account taken of the teaching of ecu­menical partners. This was not the situation, Dr Williams said. The Church did not sanction the chosen lifestyle of anyone living in a sexual relationship outside marriage, and “a certain choice of lifestyle has certain consequences.

“So long as the Church Catholic, or even the Communion as a whole, does not bless same-sex unions, a person living in such a union cannot without serious incongruity have a representative function in a Church whose public teaching is at odds with their lifestyle.”

Read it all.

Commenting on Dr Rowan Williams’ 26 point reaction to TEC’s decision to part from the moratorium placed upon them by the Communion, the Rev Giles Fraser, chair of Inclusive Church and soon to be canon chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, said he respected the Archbishop’s sensitivity on the matter but believed much of Dr William’s response to be ”˜hypocritical’. “It [the response] says that you can’t liturgically acknowledge same-sex unions because this would be, in a sense, liturgical acknowledgment of sex outside of marriage,” he said.

“But actually the latest liturgy that the Church of England has produced for the joint wedding baptism services is precisely that, it seems to me, if you are actually getting married and having your children baptised at the same time you are producing a liturgy which acknowledges sex outside marriage so I think there is a form of hypocrisy that goes on here with regards to gay people.”

Reflecting on the Archbishop’s response he said there was now an increasing demand for TEC to be further represented outside of the US and in the UK. “If members of the Episcopal Church in London find that they are not welcome in Church of England parishes then I guess the Episcopal Church has to respond pastorally to their needs.” He added that TEC had representation in Europe with a strong centre in Paris.

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Once we penetrate the complex language, the ABC is also eventually clear that the great majority at GenCon voted, in effect if not in so many words, against the two relevant moratoria. ”˜The repeated request for moratoria . . . has clearly not found universal favour’ is a roundabout but ultimately unambiguous way of saying ”˜the majority voted against the moratoria’. This puts in a different light the reference in the first paragraph to ”˜an insistence at the highest level’ (i.e. a letter from the Presiding Bishop) that the relevant resolutions ”˜do not have the automatic effect of overturning the requested moratoria’. That may be true in a strict legal sense, though many will see this as an example of typical TEC behaviour, a grandmother’s-footsteps game of creeping forwards without being noticed. But the resolutions that were passed clearly had the effect (a) of reminding people that the way was in fact open all along to the episcopal appointment of non-celibate homosexuals, and (b) of reminding people that rites for public same-sex blessings could indeed be developed. The ABC is now clearly if tacitly saying, throughout the document, that there is no reasonable likelihood, at any point in many years to come, that TEC will in fact turn round and embrace the moratoria ex animo, still less the theology which underlies the Communion’s constant and often-repeated stance on sexual behaviour. Nor is there any reasonable likelihood that TEC will in fact be able to embrace the Covenant when it attains its final form a few months from now. That is the reality with which the Reflections deal.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Of particular interest to our diocese, and indeed to many across our church and communion, were the two actions recognizing the ministry (D025) and pastoral needs (C056) of persons in same-sex committed relationships. These measures (appended below) were prayerfully and painstakingly crafted and deliberated upon, and deserve your careful reflection so that our summarization here, and the various interpretations being offered elsewhere, do not do injustice to the careful work that preceded their adoption.

D025, “Commitment and Witness to the Anglican Communion,” reaffirms our church’s commitment to mission and an ongoing listening process within the Anglican Communion, and it recognizes that lay and ordained ministry is being exercised by persons in committed, same-sex relationships in response to God’s call. It also acknowledges that we in this church and the broader communion are not of one mind about these matters. We voted for this resolution as a descriptive rather than prescriptive statement, and as such, we see it as a truth-telling contribution to the ongoing conversation in our communion.

C056, “Liturgies for Blessings,” calls for the collection and development of theological and liturgical resources for the blessing of same-gender relationships, and acknowledges the church’s need to provide pastoral response to couples in same-gender marriages and unions, particularly in places such as our own state of Massachusetts where we are ministering in the midst of a discrepancy between what our civil law allows and our church canons do not.

Before we venture an interpretation of what this action of General Convention means for us here in the Diocese of Massachusetts, and before we can form any plans for how we might proceed accordingly, we feel it is important to take some time to speak, listen and pray with diocesan clergy and leadership, including the Standing Committee, as well as with our brother and sister bishops in similarly affected dioceses, so that how we ultimately go forward in Massachusetts not only responds with integrity to the pastoral needs in our local context but also takes into account, with what we hope can be some kind of consistency, the situations of our neighboring New England dioceses. All of this we do within the bounds of our wider Episcopal Church, which took this action in unity but not unanimity. We remain mindful that what we do locally and how we do it has implications for the wider body of which we are members.

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This is as close as he comes to admitting ”˜schism’. In fact he specifically rejects the word in paragraph 24, describing it as simply “two styles of being Anglican”. Nevertheless, it envisages a future quite unlike the present, resulting from the decisions and actions of TEC and others.

Those of us who believe TEC is schismatic, who basically support ACNA and who are convinced the Covenant is a dead duck should not greet Dr Williams’ statement with automatic scorn. Its length is no more than we would expect from him, and its willingness to see both sides is intrinsic to his own theology. Nevertheless, there must still be a concern that he does not seem to accept the fundamental logic of what must happen when people pull in different directions.

Holding people together in such circumstances, whether by a covenant or by some other convention, may succeed, but it is in principle contrary to the underlying processes. Unless some means may be found by which TEC and others within the Communion can be made to pull in the same direction, then tensions will continue and a split is virtually inevitable.

Read it all.

Archbishop Rowan Williams, the leader of the Anglican Communion, has spoken to the decision of the Anglican church in the United States to go forward with ordaining homosexual bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

In his statement Monday, Archbishop Williams addressed the decisions made at the Episcopal general convention, held early this month.

The declaration, titled “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future,” expressed concern about the U.S. church decisions regarding same-sex lifestyles, noting that “a realistic assessment of what [the] convention has resolved does not suggest that it will repair the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican provinces; very serious anxieties have already been expressed.”

The archbishop said the issue is a matter of “whether the Church is free to recognize same-sex unions by means of public blessings that are seen as being, at the very least, analogous to Christian marriage.”

“In the light of the way in which the church has consistently read the Bible for the last 2,000 years,” he said, “it is clear that a positive answer to this question would have to be based on the most painstaking biblical exegesis and on a wide acceptance of the results within the Communion, with due account taken of the teachings of ecumenical partners also. A major change naturally needs a strong level of consensus and solid theological grounding.”

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In the California Episcopal Diocese, “LGBT persons have and will be ordained,” explained Thomas M. Jackson, president of Oasis, an official LGBT ministry of the local diocese.

“That wasn’t the question,” he said. “The issue was whether or not people would be given a fair hearing if they were called to be considered to be a bishop.”

The Reverend John Kirkley, rector of the St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco’s Mission District, said he was “heartened” by the approval of ordination and blessing resolutions, at the same time voicing “hopeful patience” as the most “helpful response” to the Episcopal Church’s “small but significant steps forward.”

In moving on, both Jackson and Kirkley agree: Lay persons, deacons, priests, and bishops will abide by the constitutions and canons of the Episcopal Church that prohibit any kind of discrimination against gay people.

The ordination resolution in effect removes de facto moratoria on openly gay bishops.

Read it all.

In his statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke to the entire Communion, including provinces in parts of the world where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people face serious criminal penalties and even death. We hope and pray that the Archbishop’s strong condemnation of prejudice against GLBT people, and his call to penitence for our inconsistencies on these issues, will embolden Anglicans across the world to stand against hatred and discrimination when they encounter it in their midst.

We also urge all Anglicans, including the Archbishop, to regard the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the body of Christ as nothing less than a Gospel mandate and a requirement of our baptismal vows. To understand this issue as simply one of civil liberties or human rights ”” to which the Gospel also calls us ”” does grave injustice to our sisters and brothers in Christ and our fundamental understanding of baptismal theology.

Read it all.

In a statement July 29, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted Archbishop Williams’ concern for maintaining the unity of the Anglican Communion through common faith and practice based on Scripture and tradition.

The Vatican office “supports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church,” the statement said.

“It is our prayer that the Anglican Communion, even in this difficult situation, may find a way to maintain its unity and its witness to Christ as a worldwide communion,” it added.

The Episcopal Church’s general convention adopted two resolutions that may further strain relations within the Anglican Communion and with the Catholic Church: One affirmed that all ordained ministries, including the office of bishop, are open to all the baptized, including gays and lesbians; the other called for the collection and development of theological resources for the blessing of same-sex unions.

Read it all.

Read it all, the sermon from last Sunday at Saint Michael’s Charleston.

Sad to say, just one year after the affirmations of Anglican Church unity made at the Lambeth Conference of 2008, the USA Anglicans have decided that one year was enough of a wait. Their recent decision to affirm same sex relationships will deepen the split in the world-wide communion. All the Lambeth conversation groups (”˜indabering’) bought only one year’s reprieve.

The efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury have proved fruitless as he admits in his 27 July reflections to the world-wide Anglican Communion, Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future which concerns the decision of the Anglican Church of the USA (TEC) at their 2009 General Convention to affirm same sex relationships.

The reflections contain his strong statement of the unacceptability of same sex relationships…

I remain convinced that a more open and robust conversation between bishops at the Lambeth Conference 2008 would have shortened the pain of separation.

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Canterbury says: “ ”¦ no Anglican has any business reinforcing prejudice against LGBT people, questioning their human dignity and civil liberties or their place within the Body of Christ.” We in CA agree with that. The “particularly bitter and unpleasant atmosphere of the debate over sexuality, in which unexamined prejudice is still so much in evidence and accusations of bad faith and bigotry are so readily thrown around” which the Archbishop describes is bitter and prejudiced exactly because of the church’s traditional teaching about homosexuality.

He then recommends a course of action which does just that ”“ reinforces prejudice and questions human dignity and our place in the Body of Christ. The Archbishop writes that it is hard to see how a partnered lesbian or gay person “can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate” requires because “a person living in such a union cannot without serious incongruity have a representative function in a Church whose public teaching is at odds with their lifestyle.”

That puts the Archbishop of Canterbury at odds not just with the supporters of Changing Attitude but with the majority of the bishops, priests and lay people of the Church of England. Members of our congregations no longer believe that the church can draw lines where it used to. The CofE I know has always ordained partnered lesbian and gay people. Bishops have turned a blind eye to the partners of lesbian and gay clergy. With the advent of Civil Partnerships the majority and priests and laity can see no reason why the church should not bless those unions and that is true even of FoCA and HTB churches. Couples are welcome by most congregations who see no reason why faithfully partnered people should not be ordained and minister to them.

Read it all.

But Jefferts Schori’s sentiments were largely dismissed by diocese officials.

At a July 19 meeting hosted at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, the South Carolina Diocese’s chancellor, Wade Logan, summarized his experience in Anaheim. “It really is a political convention, that’s what it turned into,” he told a gathering of about 250.

South Carolina was one of seven conservative dioceses attempting to affirm orthodoxy that were consistently marginalized and ignored, he said.

The Rev. Al Zadig, rector of St. Michael’s Church in downtown Charleston, summed up the prevailing attitude of diocese leaders. “The world is coming into the church, and the church says, ‘Have your way,’ and there’s nothing left of theology.”

But, Zadig said, he is thankful for the clarity of the moment, equating The Episcopal Church to Unitarianism. “We are not two denominations but two religions,” he said.

Read it all.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head cleric in the Church of England, has responded to the Episcopal Church’s decision to allow the ordination of homosexual bishops. Saying that a change in Anglican teaching, if necessary, would require broader agreement, he proposed a “two-track” church structure which recognizes “two ways of being Anglican.”

On July 14, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention voted to approve homosexual bishops. It was seen as a rejection of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s and the Anglican Communion’s call for a moratorium on the practice.

Writing in a July 27 document titled “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future,” Archbishop Williams said the wording of the resolution showed that it did not want to “cut its moorings from other parts of the Anglican family.” The two most controversial resolutions, he said, do not have the “automatic effect” of overturning the moratoria on homosexual clergy.

However, he said the resolutions do not suggest the General Convention will “repair the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican provinces” and have led to the expression of “very serious anxieties.”

Read it all.

From here:

On Tuesday, July 28, the Standing Committee, the Deans and the Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina met at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The atmosphere was prayerful, focused, intense, deeply trusting of one another and the Bishop, and with a sense that the stakes are very, very high. There was broad general agreement about the basic direction the Diocese needs to take. The Bishop will give the arguments for this direction and specific suggested steps at the clergy gathering on August 13.

For the record, the meeting went from 10:30 to about 9 p.m.–KSH.

A number of literary sayings crossed my mind when I saw that the Archbishop of Canterbury has (finally, today) issued a statement in response to the actions of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, which ended ten days ago. The first thought that came to me was a paraphrase of T.S. Eliot’s line, “This is the way the Communion dies, not with a bang but a whimper.” Because, although I pray that I am wrong, there isn’t nearly enough in Rowan Williams’ statement to reassure me that this isn’t the Anglican Communion’s fate. Indeed, the very weakness (and studied ambiguity) of Dr. Williams’ statement may be a factor in pushing the Communion toward that end.

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Ten days ago, we elves published two blog entries which gave information about how the bishops voted on the various roll call votes (related to Resolutions D025 and C056) during General Convention.

The first post was an unofficial tally of all three roll call votes (For the record, this was a T19 exclusive, the work of T19 readers (with indispensable help from the Rev. George Conger and the live reporting of bloggers at Stand Firm, BabyBlue Anglican and the Lead), NOT an exclusive by David Virtue, in spite of his claim to the contrary when he published our table without so much as even a link or a thank you.) The second blog post was a look at how the Anaheim Statement signatories voted.

We’re wanting to update both tables, but before doing so we really need to get a copy of the official roll call tally for Resolution C056. If any reader can assist us, we’d be grateful.

The other day, David Virtue published a link which appears to be the official roll call vote for D025 (it is a scan of a 4 page fax) We are happy to report that having compared that tally against our unofficial table, the results match perfectly.

It is perhaps worth noting that the two corrections we had made to George Conger’s tally at the Living Church, appear to be valid. George Conger had reported that Keith Whitmore of Atlanta (formerly the diocesan of Eau Clair) voted no on D025, however our review of the audio indicated a YES vote, and that is what the official tally shows as well. Whitmore is a YES on D025. Conger also had not recorded a vote for Scott Mayer, Diocesan of Northwest Texas (his vote was inaudible on the audio). We’d seen a published source claiming Mayer voted NO and so that was what we published. The official tally does indeed record that Mayer voted NO on D025.

It is also worth noting that the current list of Anaheim Statement signatories is up to at least 34 and perhaps 35 (Virtue adds Charles Jenkins of Louisiana as a signatory – can any reader from Louisiana confirm that?). You can see the full list of 34 names as confirmed by The Living Church here.

Again, please let us know if anyone finds the official tally for C056. Thanks.

What, after all of this, is the future for ordinary faithful Anglicans in the United States, whether in the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) or the Episcopal Church? The strong implication of Williams’s argument is that for both groups, the best and brightest future is with the Anglican Covenant. Both ACNA itself and the Communion Partners within the Episcopal Church have expressed their desire to sign on to the covenant, and while difficulties no doubt exist in both situations there is no reason to think that forward progress cannot be made by both parties. Where more serious difficulty exists, at present, is with those elements within ACNA that do not share an interest in the proposed covenant, as well as those places within the Episcopal Church that do not have the oversight of a Communion Partners bishop. Those who do have one or the other, however, can and should be confident in their ability to work from where they are for the good future of the covenanted Anglican Communion.

In my recent article, “Brave New Church,” I expressed a lack of confidence in the direction of the Episcopal Church’s leadership. But I do have confidence in the Communion Partners dioceses, both in where we stand and in where we’re going. In my case, that means the diocese of Dallas, where I’m just now finishing up a summer internship, and my home diocese of North Dakota, where I’m a candidate for holy orders. I have good friends in ACNA too, many of whom recognize just as I do the need to work for the common covenanted future of the Anglican Communion.

We recognize that now is not the time for animosity and division; now is the time to work for the good of the entire Communion, wherever we may stand on the issues. That, I think, is where Rowan Williams is pointing us, and it’s my hope and belief that he’ll be in our corner as we work together for the Anglican future.

Read it all.

“We are frankly tired of being told we ‘haven’t done the theology,'” said Integrity President Susan Russell, “when the truth is that there are those in our wider Anglican family who do not agree with the theology we have done. But what we can do is keep doing it. We can keep reaching out. We can keep working together with our communion partners on mission and ministry all over this Worldwide Anglican Family of ours with those who will work with us. And we can stay in conversation with those who won’t.

Because we recognize that those who have been waiting for the casting-out-of-TEC-into-outer-darkness are not getting what they want. And as we continue to move forward in mission and ministry with those who embrace historic Anglican comprehensiveness, we believe those “outer darkness” threats are going to ring more and more hollow until they fade away altogether.

And meanwhile, we can live into the liberated-for-mission message our General Convention sent home from Anaheim and bless those who come to us asking for the church’s blessing on their already-blessed-by-God relationships and raising up into ALL orders of ministry those who God calls into vocations of deacon, priest and bishop.

Read it all.

Today, the Bishop, the Standing Committee, and the Deans are having a meeting of real importance. This is a matter of public record and I take the call to pray for such meetings very seriously.

Here is a list of current Standing Committee members (Jeff Miller is the chairman). The current deans are John Barr, John Scott, Ed Kelaher, Peet Dickinson, Craige Borrett, Chuck Owens and John Burwell. I am quite sure Jim Lewis, our new Canon to the Ordinary, will be there and, yes, I have been asked to be present.

You all know we are not gathering to have tea and crumpets. There is no way we as a diocese can function in the way we have before. How to move forward–together–in a truthful, loving and godly way is the issue. This is a considerable challenge, but we worship the God who is able to do far more abundantly than anything we can ask or imagine (Ephesians) and God has brought us together now for such a time as this (Esther).

It would mean a lot to me if you could pray by name for the people in this meeting–KSH.

Here is the subtext: “In other words, +Katharine and Bonnie, your way leads to a federation of autonomous churches. I want no part of that. What I lead is a community of churches in the Anglican tradition, and I am not about to let you hijack it. See those words ‘the possibility of a global consensus among the Anglican churches’? A global consensus, ‘such as would continue to make sense of the shape and content of most of our ecumenical activity’? That is what is driving me. It is spelled ‘C – o – v – e – n – a – n – t.'”

Dr. Williams uses the word “ecumenical” no less than eight times in his response. That is no accident. Remember that he had a “friendly meeting” with the Pope in May 2008, and that he arranged for a deliberately strong ecumenical delegation at Lambeth later that summer, including the Vatican’s Cardinal Dias, whom he invited to speak to the assembled bishops. He has his eye on the main ecumenical prize — a greater unity between Canterbury and Rome (not a complete reversal of the Reformation, but a full recognition of Anglican orders would be a good start). The path of ECUSA leads emphatically away from this prize. (The Church of England itself threatens to derail it as well, if it approves women as bishops; but remember that Dr. Williams weighed against the measure in Synod, reminding everyone about the “heavy and serious ecumenical cost” of going forward.)

He not only says that the path of ECUSA is contra-ecumenical; he suggests that bishops of ECUSA will no longer be appropriate representatives for the Communion in ongoing ecumenical talks….

Read it all.

Still, he foresees a future “not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication, but plainly as what they are: “two styles of being Anglican” pursuing their mission “with greater integrity and consistency,” even as they work out issues.

[Susan] Russell was untroubled by this idea. Ever since the Revolutionary War, when the U.S church broke with the Church of England, “American Anglicans are used to re-inventing structures in order to proclaim the Gospel and move forward,” she said.

And Duncan said Communion divisions already “outpace Williams. The speed at which the Archbishop of Canterbury has dealt with the crisis in the Anglican Communion is something faster than glacial ”” but it’s not too much faster. We’ll see where the whole Communion goes, but we are far more interested in doing the mission of the church in society than occupying ourselves with what the old structures will do.”

Read it all.