“The General Convention’s decision to approve the appointment of Gene Robinson will inevitably have a significant impact on the Anglican Communion throughout the world and it is too early to say what the result of that will be.
It is my hope that the church in America and the rest of the Anglican Communion will have the opportunity to consider this development before significant and irrevocable decisions are made in response. I have said before that we need as a church to be very careful about making decisions for our own part of the world which constrain the church elsewhere.
It will be vital to ensure that the concerns and needs of those across the Communion who are gravely concerned at this development can be heard, understood and taken into account.”
August 6th 2003
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Archbishop to convene primates meeting
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion this autumn. The meeting will take place in London in mid-October and it is expected that invitations will be sent out in the next week.
Dr Williams said that the effects of recent developments at the ECUSA General Convention were being felt throughout the Communion and there was a need for the Primates to meet to consider them.
“I am clear that the anxieties caused by recent developments have reached the point where we will need to sit down and discuss their consequences. I hope that in our deliberations we will find that there are ways forward in this situation which can preserve our respect for one another and for the bonds that unite us.
“I hope we can use the time between now and then to reflect, to pray, to consult and to take counsel.”
August 8, 2003
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has issued a statement following the consecration of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop coadjutor of New Hampshire. The text is below.
“It was recognised fully at last month’s meeting of Anglican leaders that the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop in New Hampshire would have very serious consequences for the cohesion of the Anglican Communion. That meeting requested the setting up of a Commission which would examine these consequences in depth. Last week the membership of that group was announced and I look forward to being in close touch with it as its work develops. [See ACNS3652]
“The meeting also encouraged me to be in discussion with the leaders of the provinces concerned about provisions made for those alienated by decisions which appear to go against Catholic order or biblical teaching. Such discussion has already begun.
“The divisions that are arising are a matter of deep regret; they will be all too visible in the fact that it will not be possible for Gene Robinson’s ministry as a bishop to be accepted in every province in the communion.
“It is clear that those who have consecrated Gene Robinson have acted in good faith on their understanding of what the constitution of the American church permits. But the effects of this upon the ministry and witness of the overwhelming majority of Anglicans particularly in the non-western world have to be confronted with honesty.
“The autonomy of Anglican provinces is an important principle. But precisely because we rely on relations more than rules, consultation and interdependence are essential for our health. “The Primates meeting last month expressed its desire to continue as ‘a communion where what we hold in common is much greater than that which divides us’. We need now to work very hard to giving new substance to this, and to pray for wisdom, patience and courage as we move forward.”
November 3, 2003
In RW’s case, it doesn’t even require sound and fury to signify nothing.
We see the consequences now, after all these years of destruction of the ECUSA/TEC and the AC. See how those in TEc are their own communion.
Reminds me of a Grateful Dead song:
“Lately it occurs to me
what a long strange trip it’s been”
Well, in the latest missive, he left out any talk of real consequences, does not suggest that the “concerns and needs” of others in the Communion be addressed, and has not called a primates meeting. Of course, to do any of those things would be ludicrous at this point. Had he carried through on the 2003 messages, or for that matter, the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 or his 2009 message after GC, we wouldn’t be where we are, would we?
No action short of removing TEC from the JSC is going to save his Covenant, so in 2 weeks, things will be massively worse than they are now. Because, honestly, there is no indication that he wants to save it. In TEC, they are already celebrating its defeat.