Just prior to his departure from New Orleans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told The Living Church that the primates will be consulted as part of the process of evaluating whether The Episcopal Church has satisfactorily complied with the primates’ requests, but he has not decided whether to call for another primates’ meeting before the Lambeth Conference of Bishops meets next July.
I am posting the article it is from in a second but wanted this highlighted by itself–KSH.
We don’t want those pesky GS Primates gumming up our “tea party” do we? No meeting, no discipline! We can just all continue along as we have been. London bridges falling down, falling down, falling down . . . . .
It seems to me that if the Archbishop wants to slow the already rapid disintegration of the Anglican Communion he better MEET and ACT fast. Of course, neither of those things are likely to happen. I’d guess that no matter what the Archbishop decides many will not wait until Lambeth 2008 to “respond” to the Episcopal Church. If he waits long enough (his strategy so far?) the events will (continue) to out pace him.
Personally, I believe that the Anglican Communion is passing away before our very eyes. I doubt it can be salvaged at this late date (and certainly not by the actions I see amongst its bishops). If it CAN be salvaged then the Archbishop had better shake free of his advisors at Lambeth Palace and exert some bold leadership.
I just read Andrew Carey’s comment on another post here:
“It seems clear that TEC, aided and abetted by the London-based Anglican bureaucracy is playing a long, tactical game. If the process, and the Anglican Communion, can just limp along from hurdle to hurdle without an overt split then the opposition will just melt and die.”
Yes, I think that is it. Absolutely!
Recall that +++Rowan has on at least one previous occasion asked by circular letter for the Primates to share their views on ECUSA compliance with him. This is not a particularly hopeful precedent, though, since three months after his excellent [i]Reflection[/i] he presented at Dar the infamous ACO evaluation of ECUSA’s Windsor compliance.
The advantage of collecting written comments over holding a meeting, of course, is that the “majority view” can be whatever the collator claims, while at a meeting everyone knows what everyone else has said.
Not, as I say, a hopeful precedent. It remains to be seen whether +NT Wright and his fellow CoE evangelicals can pull +++Rowan back onto the right track before the Communion explodes. Time for special prayers.
#2 has it right: If Rowan wants Primates to meet with he’d better stop dawdling and convene them soon. If not, the next Primates meeting might be in a phone booth.
Come on, ya’ll, save the carbon footprint! Internet, fax, telephone, or letter will work just as well to get the HOB response out. One can get feedback by any route. The ABC has made it ABSOLUTELY clear that ECUSA/TEC is NOT just dealing with him. The Primates are the assessors. He is one Primate. There are the others.
Will the Anglican Communion survive if the ECUSA/TEC Primate and Canada’s and all the financially supported ECUSA/TEC-fringe Primates leave to form the communion of the General Convention Communion Organization (GeCCO)? I doubt it. Will the CoE fall apart if the radical fringe of ECUSA/TEC-allies depart for GeCCO? I doubt it.
Perhaps the HOB will have the gonads to actually declare their minds and establish the GeCCO – which thus far seems their want. But supposing a saving miracle of grace occurs and the ECUSA/TEC HOB literally complies with Dar es Salaam and the Windsor Report, and actually means it in the plain sense of the words utilized by the Primates, will the true “new thangers” in ECUSA/TEC then leave to form the GeCCO?
Aye, there’s the rub!
That should be, “will the Anglican Communion survive in its present format,”
The ball has gone backwards and forwards across the net many times, and the HoB will attempt to put it once again in the primates’ court, in the hope that they do not meet before Lambeth.
All eyes now on the primates – are they willing to call the TEC bluff? Will they force a primates’ meeting? Will the GS simply depart the AC if there is no meeting? What will happen to the orthodox remnant within the liberal provinces if the GS bails out?
There are so many questions still achingly unanswered….
Playing games with the primates’ meeting would greatly increase the risk that the Anglican Communion will break up.
But regular T19 readers my recall my “general theory” of how Abp. Williams handles Anglican disputes: his highest priority is to avoid a schism in the Church of England. Thus he probably does not want to look eager to give ECUSA the boot.
Yet ECUSA has already decided to persist in defying the primates. After the HoB adjourns, Williams should begin informal consultations with the other primates aimed at laying the groundwork for a primates’ meeting later this year.
’08 is too late to wait!
I suppose it is necessary to state the obvious: The Anglican Communion has already broken up. This happened some time ago when it became clear the TEC had chosen to leave. And virtually everyone knew it then and should know it now. Has the rest of the Anglican church fallen apart? Obviously not, nor is anything serious going to happen in this respect. Why are you all so worried? For my part, I have heaved a sigh of relief.
Wha do we do now? Nothing. The ABC will simply not issue invitations to any TECnophile for any of his tea parties.The one thing that mustn’t be done is give TEC the opportunity to claim victim status. Don’t y ou see, they are already outside the doors. We need only close them quietly and they are gone.
Larry
#9. There is no risk (beyond the theoretical) of schism in the Church of England. The liberals are a noisy minority there and their influence is steadily diminishing. There is no life and no possible life for Anglicans in England outside the Church of England. It is not a factor driving the ABC’s calculations.
A bigger worry is a wealthy TEC, expelled from the Communion, but still exporting its woeful version of Christianity around the world. It would be preferable to bring about reform in TEC, if that can be achieved, than to have it in competition for the souls of the world’s Anglicans.
#9–right on several counts. Including the way +RDW will handle TEC within the Primatial logic. You are also right that +RDW must be very (rightly) concerned about wrong impressions taken away from his US meeting within the CofE context. Add to this the limits of his own office, and one can fully understand why he chose to remain silent and take notes, and that when he did speak, it was terse and vague — except for defining principles. Twin pressures (CofE context and the limitations of the office of ABC) exert themselves. Both L and R want +RDW to solve a problem — but he will defer the resolutiion for a non CofE communion member to the Primatial context, and it sounds like his intention is to consult widely enough for the decision to actually work — as well he should. Note that the ‘standing committee’ is not exercising the role of judge that some worried. I have been a bit surprised, not at +Mouneer, but at even the language of +Wale and +Australia.
Seitz-ACI, is +Mouneer correct in his published statement?