The Archbishop of Canterbury has admonished warring Anglicans for creating “recrimination, confusion and bitterness” all round.
He has punished those who have broken the rules by removing them from the body that deals with dialogue with the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and other churches, and the body that decides matters of faith.
In his Pentecost letter, Dr Williams called for Anglicans to pray for renewal in the spirit of God.
And he bewailed the failure by liberals to stand by moratoria imposed on the consecration of gay bishops and on same-sex blessings, and the failure by conservatives to observe that on boundary crossing.
I appreciate their quote of Bishop Tom Wright:
[blockquote] He said the point was that the US Anglican church decided to go ahead with gay bishops wihtout agreement from the rest of the communion. “This isn’t something a bishop, a parish, a diocese, or a province can declare on its own authority. You can’t simply say that you have decided that this is something we can all agree to differ on.
“Nobody can just declare that. The step from mandatory to optional can never itself be a local option, and the Church as a whole has declared that the case for that step has not been made. By all means let us have the debate. But, as before,[b] it must be a proper theological debate, not a postmodern exchange of prejudices.[/b]â€[/blockquote] The emphasis is mine.
I wonder if it is ever possible to have a proper theological debate once Pandora’s box has been opened? In this case the labels and ephitets thrown around make debate impossible. Compound this with the legal assaults and proscriptions and persecutions and it has been like a meat cleaver used to dissect a gnat. Now this is not even it seems about theology or authority but about power – probably it was really this way all along.