Today, the General Synod, the national assembly of the Church of England, meeting in London February 8-12, affirmed the Anglican Church in North America’s desire “to remain within the Anglican family.”
The Most Rev. Robert Duncan, archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, thanked Mrs. Lorna Ashworth of Chichester for bringing the church to the attention of the General Synod. “We are very grateful to Mrs. Ashworth and the scores of other friends in the Synod of the Church of England for all they did to give us this opportunity to tell our story to the mother church of the Anglican Communion. It is very encouraging that the synod recognizes our desire to remain within the Anglican family.” said Archbishop Duncan.
This General Synod voite is indeed a significant step forward and is to be applauded. Other steps, of course, need to follow, but it is encouraging that many in the C of E have responded favorably to ACNA.
The title of the ACNA article is inaccurate. The General Synod did not affirm the ACNA. It affirmed the desire.
#2 Well, it depends what you think ‘affirm’ means. The dictionary definitions are:
[blockquote]Affirm
– say yes to
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
– To agree, verify or concur; to answer positively; To support or encourage
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/affirm[/blockquote]
If you think it is superfluous as a word and merely repeats the meaning of ‘recognise’ then I can see what you are saying.
On the other hand, if the bishops put ‘affirm’ in to add to what they were saying, by not only recognising the desire but going on to say that the CofE affirmed their wishes as well, then it is a positive statement for ACNA, particularly when you consider that the motion passed by 309 to 69. In introducing the amendment Bishop Mike Hill stressed that it was intended positively for ACNA. Then there are many other positive parts of the amendment including the recognition that ACNA is Anglican and the request that the Archbishops report back to Synod on progress next year.
ACNA and most of the English think that this was a good day for ACNA and a positive result. A bad day would have been if liberal attempts to have the motions booted out or fail on a vote had been successful.
The liberal blogs started by wailing and gnashing teeth; they then presumably got a new set of ‘talking points’ emailed to them and they then sought to do an about face and stress that the unamended motion of Lorna Ashworth had not passed. A few institutionalists have jumped on the bandwagon. Meanwhile the conservative American types are all over the place.
By and large the English commenters read the motion positively:
Peter Ould
http://www.peter-ould.net/2010/02/10/general-synod-we-affirm-desire-of-acna-to-remain-in-the-anglican-communion
John Richardson:
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/25485#418953
Also noted Virginia pundit BabyBlue considers it excellent news:
http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/2010/02/breaking-news-church-of-england.html
However one looks at it, I personally cannot see this as having been a good day for the TEC machine, particularly when you see it operating on full spin cycle.
Thinking Anglicans have gone very quiet, for a bit, but then Mr Sarmiento’s unpleasant and vicious briefing paper probably back-fired on TEC when read by Christians in Synod.
On the other hand, I imagine ACNA will be encouraged by the vote as they go forward and perhaps receive encouragement from friends among the many Anglicans represented at the Global South Encounter in April in Singapore.
And the ACNA delegation seem to have been well received at Synod where people were encouraged to hear from them:
http://www.anglicantv.org/content/coe-2010-acna-press-conference
I can hardly wait to read Mrs Schori’s spin!