Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams held a private meeting September 2 with seven Episcopal Church bishops at Lambeth Palace, his London residence.
The bishops attending the meeting were Mark Lawrence of South Carolina, Gary Lillibridge of West Texas, Edward Little of Northern Indiana, Bill Love of Albany, Michael Smith of North Dakota, James Stanton of Dallas, and Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana.
A spokesperson in the Lambeth Palace press office confirmed that Williams had hosted the seven Episcopal bishops, but said that the meeting was private.
When asked for his reflections on the meeting, MacPherson told ENS that the bishops will have “something forthcoming soon.”
Could things be moving off dead-center? Dare we hope?
No…a meeting with Rowan is like eating Chinese food, you think something happened, but after a couple beers at the pub across the bridge you realize nothing happened at all, and you are suddenly hungry again.
Jeffersonian, yes, we dare hope! We hope for another Panel of Reference or another Windsor Report or another ECUSA/TEC controlled Covenant if we are realistic! If we are not, we can hope for Windsor Bishops to mean something, anything, or -most likely- style over substance.
What we can depend upon is the ABC’s proven past track record of doing nothing.
Jeffersonian,
While 2 & 3 are correct in principle, the fact that +Stanton was in attendance will ensure a clear picture. He knows what questions to ask and he will not sign his name to a document that is misleading or creates false hope.
I suppose it’s like Dr. Johnson’s characterizations of second marriages: A triumph of hope over experience.
Not to go off topic, but I’ve never understood that saying about Chinese food, #2. The only hunger I have after a good Chinese dinner is for ice cream, but that’s an old family tradition.
As to this meeting, I think it is good. Any communication between the Anaheim signers and the ABC is good. What will come of it, no one can say. If the last 6 years has proven anything, it is that predictions are about as reliable as the stock market. I would sooner trust a fortune cookie than any Anglican prognostication. But I think it good that a meeting took place.
May the Lord save and preserve these bishops! Mrs Schori is undoubtedly making a list and checking it twice…. and there ain’t no Santa Claus in her book.
#5 FWLIW Given that remarriage after divorce was illegal (other than by Act of Parliament) in England until 1857, Dr. Johnson was presumably speaking about entering a second marriage after the death of one’s first spouse.
For what it is worth, I have heard a bishop who spoke with the ABC say that the ABC related the fact that the Queen of England is anxious that the global Church not divide.
[Comment deleted by Elf – please maintain a respectful tone when posting and keep to the topic]
This is just the pontoon on the other side of the canoe; remember some months back when there was a ** secret ** eucharist with some unnamed gay folks? Via Large? Via Small? No….
Longleaf,
She is baptized.
And hundreds of thousands of devotees care what she thinks.
BTW, who said anything about her intervening? You’re dropping chips.
Well, even more than that #12, isn’t it safe to assume that the Queen of England was also confirmed, and we know that she was married in the Church, and she was of course crowned Queen in a (Christian) religious ceremony and among other titles, recognized as the Defender of the (Christian) Faith at her coronation. This really is the point I think.
#9 – Ha! Even Her Majesty’s staff is not dense enough to believe that speaking to Rowan Williams would have any effect on that! Though perhaps she has called Henry Orombi.
It is not bad or wrong to meet…in fact it is good. However, the problem for many of us reasserters is will it produce anything productive or simply play into the hands of the leadership of TEC. The leadership of TEC is good at twisting and turning words and phrases to mean whatever they want them to mean…and in today’s society most are quite unsophisticated and easily mislead.
In any case, God bless them all and God’s will be done.
I have this occasional fantasy.
The Queen and her Archbishop are having tea. The Queen leans over and says quietly but forcefully: “As the supreme authority over Church and State in Britain, Our dear Archbishop, We want your resignation on Our desk within the hour.”
Sometimes perhaps it is too bad that Henry VIII’s method of dealing with recalcitrant Archbishops is no longer available.
On a more serious note. I believe it to be a very good bet that ++Rowan told our good bishops everything they could hope to hear — “Yes,yes, of course you can sign onto the covenant as individual dioceses, Yes, lovely — what a good idea. We can of course discuss this further……..”
And when the time comes and the chips are down, he will do NOTHING at all to make any of it concretely possible.
And BTW —
WHAT would it take to get Section 4 of the covenant out of the hands of that pernicious committee so that the Communion can begin to deal with the Covenant at all?
Did the bishop of Central Florida have a prior engagement?
As the Queen remains the “Head of State” in many of the Commonwealth countries it would be awkward for her should the Anglcian commununion disband. I assume Canada is her biggest worry since she does not have any duties towards TEC. I am amazed that +++ABC has not reached some type of settlment – he may have thougth he had one – but now realizes he is not dealing with a “gentleman” when it comes to ++KJS.
The Queen is, in fact, an extremely devout and sincere Christian who has a genuine concern for the Anglican Church and its wellbeing. She takes her Supreme Governorship seriously.
Her leanings are apparently to the old-fashioned Protestant High Church expression of Anglicanism. (And, of course, she has to turn Presbyterian when in Scotland.) Princess Margaret was an Anglo-Catholic, and the late Queen Mother was Catholic-leaning Scottish Episcopalian. Prince Philip is reputed to pine for Greek Orthodoxy, and Charles visits Mt Athos regularly. The Duchess of Kent and Diana’s mother poped. And the younger royals are, as far as one can tell, mostly heathen.
The religious heterogeneity (and dysfunction) of the royal family doesn’t seem to offer much to the Anglican meltdown except more ways to melt down.
#18, yes, according to another post when this story first broke.
I was sent a trustworthy account from an obscure English ecclesiastical publication about 4 years ago about how Prince Philip had been quietly rec’d back into the Greek Orthodox Church (in which he was raised and in which his widowed mother died a nun) which he had left from the Church of England shortly before his marriage to the Queen.