On this last day of the Anglican Consultative Meeting (ACC-14) the delegates focused on final resolutions and the messages they will take back to their provinces. After a discussion in their discernment groups a closing plenary session was held with the members presenting positive and challenging insights from the meetings. Many commented on the quality of the worship, bible studies, and the design of the meetings, which encouraged conversation with a freedom to share ideas and thoughts.
People particularly mentioned the network groups and the ability to fully engage them in dialogue. Some concerns were raised about expectations in their provinces that they would come home with solutions to issues, which have plagued the communion for the past few years. Some of the delegates spoke about coming to ACC-14 with anxiety but that they now return home, “ with hope because of the relationships that have been built here, relationships of value that will last”. One Lutheran Bishop remarked at the end that despite everything going on, “ it feels like a communion”.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the president of the Anglican Consultative Council spoke of these things in a press briefing as the meetings was concluding.
Rowan held a post-ACC* news conference here, http://tinyurl.com/py6npx , where he said, “ACC delegates end meeting ‘more hopeful’ for future.”
[i]”hasn’t [b]necessarily[/b] dealt with the problems of the Anglican Communion once and for all.”[/i]
A little more understatement? No, that’s not possible. The ACC meeting made matters much worse, so perhaps we should stop meeting.
[i]”It has deepened our sense of obligation to, and involvement with, each other…”[/i]
This is simply prevarication. It is obvious to all that it has widened the mistrust by orders of magnitude.
[i]Asked how the process of converting the communion into a federation might evolve, Archbishop Williams said, “I have no idea how we may recast ourselves.†But he said that the ACC would have a “considerable†role to play if the creation of a federation ever happens, a notion which he reiterated was not one that he favoured.[/i]
The “Anglican Communion” is already a federation with many members not in communion with others. But he is sort of right, the ACC (or at least this last meeting) did play a role in the federalization of the AC.
And we do have an answer to the calls of the ACI, Stephen Noll, and Dean Munday for redress:
[blockquote] Archbishop Williams said that while he, like other delegates, noted the “procedural tangle†that took place during the voting for various resolutions – most notably that which dealt with the Ridley-Cambridge draft of the Covenant – “nothing irregular happened†at that vote.[/blockquote]
In other words, “Foh-getta ’bout it. Ain’t gonna happen.”