Church of England members who disagree on whether women bishops should be ordained must find a way to co-exist because neither group “will go away”, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on Tuesday.
Some members may join another church, but many wanted to remain and the Anglican Church must find a way to accommodate them, he added.
Speaking at the General Synod meeting in London, the Church’s spiritual head said traditionalists and liberals recognised they had to tackle the issue.
“We may have imperfect communion, but we unmistakeably want to find a way of holding on to what we have and ‘intensifying’ it,” he said.
“We may have imperfect communion, but we unmistakeably want to find a way of holding on to what we have and ‘intensifying’ it,” he said.
Why?
Because it’s our charism as Anglicans to be willing to live with the tension of difference in order to be members of the same Body of Christ called to serve the world in His Name?
Church of England members who disagree on whether women bishops should be ordained must find a way to co-exist because neither group “will go away”,
This is the criteria for accepting something in the church? Because the other group won’t go away. So tenacity is a new Theological Virtue. This tells us a lot about how the ABC will use the Windsor Process.
[i] Agree to differ over women bishops—Anglican leader [/i]
Yet with a highly one-sided set of rules.
Note how Abp. Williams, so keen on impose his will on dark-skinned Primates, did so little for Anglo-Catholics.
must find a way to co-exist – which seems to mean legal status, preferment and anything goes for the supporters…a useless non legally binding gentleman’s code for dissenters, being forced to swear allegiance to someone you cannot accept, and a half life rotting the margins….sounds fair to me??!!
This is a situation that has seemingly intractable root premises.
Those who hold to the ‘equality’ or ‘equal rights’ premise see their goal as one of erasing archaic male supremacy in the government and in the sacremental rites of the church. ,In its current form, this is a modern view with a relatively short history, however, many of its adherents are sincere in their motivation.
Those who believe that priests and bishops must be male in gender hold to Scriptural/theological premises and tradition regarding governance and the sacrements. Many believe that a woman cannot validly conduct the Eucharistic Rite or act in apostolic succession. Its a sincere belief based upon a sincere interpretation of Scripture, theology and apostolic tradition.
Unfortunately, the ACNA has said basically the same thing.
“Agree to disagree.”
Seems such a civilized and reasonable way to live into this tension. So Anglican…
If we were required to choose only one reason each side to decide for or against women’s consecration (WC) or women’s ordination (WO) I posit we could easily make the pro WC/WO side a justice issue and the con WC/Wo side salvation issue. Certainly not two sides of the same coin, but important enough to the pros and cons to make it the hill on which they might choose to die.
For me, justice is important, but salvation is vital. WC/WO is by no means an ‘agree to disagree’ matter. Nice try on kicking the can down the road on WC/WO, but no cigar.