Among the issues Williams and the U.S. bishops will hash out in New Orleans are:
Has the Episcopal Church promised that it will not elect any more gay bishops?
Will Episcopalians pledge not to authorize any rites for blessing same-gender couples?
Will the Episcopal Church create a separate leadership structure for dissident conservatives?
Some Episcopalians argue that the church answered the first question last summer when it called for “restraint” before electing bishops “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on the Communion.”
And the national church has never authorized any rites for same-sex blessing, said the Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. (Some local dioceses do permit the blessings.)
Still, people looking for easy answers may leave New Orleans disappointed, Douglas said. “All too often, those who are fostering division within the Anglican Communion seek to make international Anglican meetings lines in the sand,” he said. “As Anglicans we believe that life in the body of Christ is much more complex.”
But conservatives in the U.S. and abroad ”” particularly leaders in the Global South””say Episcopalians must go further to bring themselves in line with the rest of the Communion.
Read it all. And the national church has never authorized any rites for same-sex blessing says Ian Douglas. This is a preview of the kind of games which will be played with C051 in New Orleans, which were played in 2003 and have been played since. That resolution led more dioceses than before to get involved in the practice of blessing same sex unions. That is the issue, it further legitmized the practice in more and more dioceses, official denials or legerdemain notwithstanding.
Tobias Haller rightly sees that what the Tanzania Communique asks for is this practice to cease. The key phrase is from Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10 which says:
[Anglicans] cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions
.
This is what will be the key issue in New Orleans BEFORE any proposal about any primatial vicar can or should even be considered, because this is the mind and teaching of the Anglican Communion which TEC is being asked to embrace–KSH.
It’ll be the thickest fudge known to Anglicanism served up on the bayou! Unfortunately, I expect it to work in the sense that it will be good enough for the ABC. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, huh?
Casting a blind eye, a wink-and-a-nod, don’t ask don’t tell, “legitimizing,” “authorizing”…It’s all such a mishmash of verbage and I, for one, recognize and disclaim the lack of clarity. The Episcopal Church House of Bishops should simply say “We cannot authorize ssb’s, as that must only be done by GC. We will, however, allow our clergy to make such pastoral decisions as are appropriate in the lives of their people; those decisions may include one to bless the faithful and monogamous, lifelong-pledged union of two men or two women.” Or they may say, “Our clergy are hereby forbidden to bless same-sex unions of any sort.” Or they may say, “Our clergy are hereby forbidden to bless [i]marriage[/i] of any sort until there is standard agreement within the Communion.”
Anything less is gravely disappointing.
Folks, I really believe that TEC is and will continue to be the place where same sex couples go to get ‘married.’ All the rest of this stuff is a waste of money on travel expenses.
Philip, remember this is New Orleans! It won’t be rich fudge coming out but delicious pralines (pronounced prawleens by the way.) But they will have those fancy nuts in them so it will amount to the same thing.
Step 1–Bishops confirm that they (for a time) will not consecrate any actively gay Bishop. Simple. Ordaining of gay priests or deacons wasn’t on the table to my recollection. This does not involve a constitutional issue.
Step 2–Bishops agree (for a time) not to allow same-sex blessings in their dioceses. Simple. This does not involve a constitutional issue.
Step 3–This is more difficult in that it does involve a constitutional issue. The purposed primatial oversight structure would need General Convention approval. However, there is an indication that a proposal will be offered at the Bishops’ meeting which would pass constitutional muster and allow alternative oversight.
The big question. If the bishops are able to complete the above to the satisfaction of the AOC, and within the constitutional structures of TEC, will the conservative factions get on board and work toward a new Anglican covenant in which we (including TEC) can work together in community?
If Protestant history is any indication, this will not happen. Protestants fragment and conservative Protestants fragment exponentially. Schism is in their blood!
I must confess that PadreWayne and I are in agreement. We want different outcomes to be sure, but some basic honesty would be nice.
Virgil’s suggestions may meet the letter of what was asked, but he acknowledges that the measures would be temporary only and/or only reflect a paper difference not a real one. That being the case they are no solution. Unless the reappraisers are willing to totaly back down, which they will not, then there is nothing here in reality for reasserters to hold onto.
#5, Virgil, you say “simple” in describing your steps one and two, but if the last HOB meeting is any indication, those are not simple measures and they will not come to pass. Additionally, I don’t see a PV in the cards at all. First, it is not a constitutional issue, per se. A bishop can allow any church in his/her diocese to come under the personal jurisdiction of any other legitimately elected bishop without any say from the HOB or the HOD. The claim of constitutional problems is sheer obfuscation. Second, where is it written that the HOD can decide what jurisdiction bishops have? If you have supposed “centrists” and supposed “Windsor bishops/Camp Allen bishops” like Dorsey Henderson writing things like this “new” 6 bishop/lawyer 98 page report, then there is no hope at this meeting for any sort of compromise. I have always held out hope. But folks, I think it is over. TEC will hold on to its pride, while the African bishops make US (and CAN) a mission field, as they have already started doing. In 10 years, maybe less, TEC will be less than 400,000 ASA (and less than 1,000,000 actual membership, though they will claim more because they haven’t taken anyone who went to an African Anglican church off the rolls), and the foreign Anglican churches will be about the same size, and few of us will care anymore. This is going to be a disaster, pure and simple. But all the purple shirts will still have their mitres and staffs, and walk around like they are special, instead of knowing they have destroyed a church of God. God have mercy on us all.
Wouldn’t the money spent on pralines better be given to the MDGs? Or, Katrina relief considering the location? On the other hand, the humidity in New Orleans may cause a great deal of difficulty with getting the fudge to set properly. That is a plus.