Six out of ten senior Church of England bishops could boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference of more than 800 Anglican bishops and archbishops from around the world because of the row over gays.
Such a boycott would be unprecedented in the history of the Anglican Church and would be an indication of how deep the divisions go, in England as well as in the rest of the communion.
The fifth most senior bishop in the mother church of the Anglican Communion warns today that a majority of English diocesan bishops could consider a boycott if the US does not row back on its pro-gay agenda.
A UK boycott would confirm the gravity of the splits within even the Church of England, traditionally the model for Anglicanism’s “via media”. It would effectively spell the end of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s dream of maintaining unity.
Update: there is more here.
Wow! :bug:
Will Sentamu declare them excommunicated?
That’s really quite shocking. I am not sure how to respond to that…
+Winchester. On the ACI Board.
I posted this in our “group”, but suggested a “large grain of salt”.
Gloria
Just out of curiosity…
Has that, in fact, been confirmed? The last statement I heard on it was merely that the possibility was being considered.
I’d hope that these same bishops will each inform the Queen that if the current officeholder in Cantebury isn’t soon removed, that the Anglican Communion will be in worse shape than it is now. In short, that an Archbishop who believes in the Scriptures and will uphold the teachings of the Anglican Communion is needed to keep as much of the Anglican Communion together as possible.
And the stakes just keep getting higher and higher.
the snarkster
I wonder who these English bishops might be?
Someone from England thinks the likely ones include: +Carlisle, +Liverpool, +Bristol, +Lichfield, +Bradford.
Dang.
I wonder of +Durham is involved. He has been close to ++Rowan…
#7 – Yes, I must say that what seemed to me shrewd and understated manuevers by the Archbishop may well have been just well-intentioned dithering.
Well, there ya go. More proof that probably the last remaining chance to save the Communion is to dis-invite the reappraisers and preserve the Communion for those who actually believe what the Church teaches. Good for them!
#9
And Rochester would be a good bet
Now, the tocsin bell is ringing in England again…. this is something that +Cantaur may not finesse.
This is not angst from the southern hemisphere …. this is a gauntlet thrown down at +Cantaur’s feet, by his fellow princes of the Church of England. They will not be fobbed off apparantly with meaningless platitudes and fudge and now solidly and publically, stand with their fellows of the GS in defence of orthodox Anglican Christianity.
Chose this day, who you will serve.
If this is true, this is big! It would certainly light a salutary fire under the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
Kendall’s headline (same as the Times) does not match what you’ll find in The Gazette which is Gledhill’s source. There’s no group making the threat. There’s one bishop making a forecast, a bishop who has an incentive to inflate the numbers and who does not have a good forecast record. And even he says, in the Gazette, that loyalty to Williams would overwhelm considerations not to attend.
There is one hope for the Anglican Communion under Canterbury: Abp. Williams should scrap plans for a retreat style of meeting and announce that the issues are going to be decided.
Same-sex relationship issue were decided in 1998, so the next questions are what to do about provinces which reject that decision. TEC, in particular, must be affirmed (and the GS walk out), placed on probation or kicked out. That resolves the problem of open rebellion against the sexual ethics of the Anglican Communion.
In the case of probation, Lambeth establishes a parallel province; if TEC is removed from the Communion, the conference creates a replacement province, to which the extra-canonical groups – AMiA, CANA, etc. – are invited to join, or become formally outside the Anglican Communion. That resolves the boundary crossing.
Personally, I think all diocesans should be invited, including Bp. Robinson, and concerned non-diocesans (i.e., the “missionary bishops” in the U.S.) invited as observers and consultants.
If Abp. Williams is unwilling to bring together all players to resolve the two issues once and for all, the Anglican Communion is finished.
This isn’t news….some bishops are THINKING of boycotting??? Big deal. When they actually boycott, that will be news. Here’s something they can think about: TEC is not moving backward……..so get used to it and frankly, they’d be better served thinking about the mess in their own church where gay priests can have unions but must remain celebate. If they think that is really happening, I say, think again!
Fred – Yes, TECUSA is moving and not going back. That much is obvious. Just as a planet that continues to move in a straight line will leave the orbit of the sun, so TECUSA will leave the orbit of the Son unless it repents – goes back.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Some here thank that this is big news; I am one of these.
Others think that this is not big news, merely posturing.
I guess that time will tell which category this statement from +Michael Scott-Joynt falls into. So, let us be patient. My crystal ball is at the cleaners this week, so I make no predictions as to end results.
However, it is clear to me that those marching down the reappraising road in England, now have a logical expectation of meeting some domestic guard posts on the way.
However, one thing that cannot be avoided, is the understanding that there is now a huge crack in the collegiality of the C of E, all over the reappraising ideas being in tension with orthodox reasserter ideas. That is obvious and to imagine it otherwise, is an exerecise in foolishness.
So 1 C of E Bishops says that he thinks that several Bishops may or may not attend Lambeth. Is he even sure what he will do? Ruth Gledhill – the Rita Skeeter of the Church of England!;)
oooops – should read “1 C of E Bishop”
It has to be remembered that the English are not particularly adept at being “in your face” and so much more subtle signals are given. This is one such signal. It gives the Archbishop plenty of warning in as gracious a way as possible, that perhaps things need to be handled a little bit differently than he is handling them at the moment.
And to our brother who thinks that the Queen has any say in whether the ABC keeps his job or not, it doesn’t work that way any longer — any more than she appoints or disposes of her Prime Minister…
So far, no one has mentioned that The Episcopal Church could very well move out on its own and constitute what some would call The Episcopal Church World Wide; in effect, an “Episcopal Communion,” should things not go their way and if their membership in the Anglican Communion is reduced to that of second-class membership.
I’m not at all surprised at the possibility of half a dozen or so Church of England bishops boycotting Lambeth. THis should serve as a warning to Rowan Cantuar.
Before getting their hopes up, orthodox readers should pay close attention to John Chilton’s comment #16:
“[The headline] does not match what you’ll find in The Gazette which is Gledhill’s source. There’s no group making the threat. There’s one bishop making a forecast, a bishop who has an incentive to inflate the numbers and who does not have a good forecast record. And even he says, in the Gazette, that loyalty to Williams would overwhelm considerations not to attend.”
++Rowan is either a genius or absolutely the most foolish ABC in memory.
Everytime I click on a read more link that comes from Casale media, my computer freezes and I have to shut it down. Does anyone else have this problem? Larry
21. Brian from T19 wrote:
So 1 C of E Bishops says that he thinks that several Bishops may or may not attend Lambeth. Is he even sure what he will do? Ruth Gledhill – the Rita Skeeter of the Church of England!
[i]Well done, Brian![/i]
[b]”The point I was making was that they are having to think about it”. [/b] The small coin of empty words.
It is agreed by all that the headline of the Gledhill piece implies more than the content of the piece itself. Who wrote the headline? An editor? As pointed out above, the Brits are not known for their ecclesiastical boldness (sorry Rev. Kew!). The fact that this statement was made is a loud reminder to the ABC that the “all is well” mantra won’t work on his home turf either. There are many in the CoE that will be displeased if he works to allow the TEC to continue in their arrogant, intransigent ways.
“Reliable Sources Say Dumbledore Behind Realignment”
–Headline from [i] The Daily Prophet [/i]
There is a curious difference in the wording of Ruth’s prose in The Times and that which appears in the copy on the Anglican Mainstream website:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=1933
[b]Up to 10[/b] Church of England bishops could boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference of more than 800 Anglican bishops and archbishops from around the world because of the row over gays.
And later on..
…[b]between six and ten[/b] English bishops could stay away.
This certainly seems more probable than 60% of the entire CofE college of bishops.
I put more stock in what Richard Kew has to say than Brian or Padre Wayne. Kew is in England, knows the players, has served in the US for many years, and is in a much better position to access what is going on. Of course, Kew, like Brian and Wayne has a bias. The difference is that he knows what he’s talking about.
I tend to view this as a fairly strong message, in a UK sense, of unhappiness by the evangelical contingent with the apparent favoring by the ABC of TEC over the global south, and something of a rebuttal to York. No one knows which CofE bishops might not attend, if any. But a global Anglican split between evangelicals and revisionist portions of the communion cannot fail to have significant repercussions within the CoE due to its own significant evangelical minority. And there are many ways one can leave a relationship without formally ending it.