Lutherans from around the world are converging on the German city of Stuttgart for the 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, where on July 22 Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will deliver the keynote address.
Williams, the spiritual leader of the 78-million-strong Anglican Communion, may offer advice in his keynote address on how to deal with the issue of clergy who are in same-sex relationships, as this issue has left his communion verging on a schism and has triggered fierce debate among Lutherans.
The Geneva-based LWF comprises 140 member churches in 79 countries, representing more than 70 million Christians, and it is expecting an estimated 1000 people, including 418 delegates from Lutheran churches, to participate in the Stuttgart assembly.
[i]Williams, the spiritual leader of the 78-million-strong Anglican Communion, may offer advice in his keynote address on how to deal with the issue of clergy who are in same-sex relationships[/i]
Forgive my cynicism, but is ++Rowan in a position to offer advice? I don’t think he has “dealt with” the problem in the Anglican Communion at all, so what advice could he possibly have for the Lutherans? Perhaps he could say: “at all costs don’t imitate me”?
The Good Archbishop cannot even offer advice on a haircut and a shave let alone same sex issues…..
Intercessor
This will be very interesting, particularly as it is a day before the Standing Committee of The Anglican Communion will begin meeting.
I totally agree, Karen B #1. The way to “deal with” clergy in sexual relationships outside of marriage is to counsel them to repair their behavior or leave their clerical positions. (Serial divorce and remarriage is also a matter for concern.) What Williams and TEC bishops have done is to figure out how they can bend standards to allow what people want to do.
It will be interesting to see if they can figure what it is he is getting at.
#1 and #5 have propositionally stated the actuality of the incumbent of the chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury having an actual impact on the Lutherans should he deign to address an issue to which he would allegedly be competent to speachify upon given his occupancy of said cathedra, however, it behooves all who might auriculate any consonantal et vowelizations that emerge from the said oral cavity with the utmost puctiliousness in regard to grammar and phraseology, not to mention logia, with a very large mass of sodium chloride given the efficacy of his erstwhile “management”of the matther in his own, as it were, bailiwick. Alternatively, the can watch the splintering of the ELCA since it followed TEc’s aberrations and judge for themselves and skip the verbosity.
I would be surprised if he said anything much on same sex relationships beyond very general descriptions of the difficulty of things in the Anglican Communion at the moment and maybe a little bit about the tensions its causing amongst the Porvoo churches. I could imagine he might major on the importance of ecumenical relationships despite (and because of) their difficulty and thus the value of the Porvoo Agreement despite its evident strains. We’ll see.
#6 Is that the abstract of Rowan’s planned address? 😉
While I heartily agree with #1, 5, and 7, I’m interested in looking at this invitation from another angle. The LWF is often held up as a desirable model for the future of the AC by those who want us Anglicans to admit frankly that we actually aren’t a worldwide Communion in reality, but merely a loose Federation of completely autonomous national or regional churches. The noble ACI team has been arguing the opposite case forcefully, but perhaps futilely, for years. [b]The Fate of Communion[/b] by the ACI’s Philip Turner and Ephraim Radner is all about that momentous choice we must make.
So one way of framing that fateful choice is this: Will we degenerate into, or settle for, being merely a world federation, like the Lutherans? Or will we instead take the other fork, the more demanding (and rewarding) way, and thus grow into a true worldwide Communion of churches?
Put another way: Has our customary, traditional language as Anglicans of being a world “Communion” just been a mirage, a fond illusion, or will we make the hard choices necessary to turn that lofty dream into a reality at last?
Or will the AC split, with the liberal provinces remaining just a loose federation, and the orthodox ones morphing into a true Communion?
Unfortunately, by largely abdicating his unique responsibilities as ABoC, and occasionally thwarting the GS primates’ attempts to resolve the crisis along conservative lines, ++RW has probably done more than anyone else to turn the AC into a federation that’s even looser than the LWF, since we don’t have the same confessional/doctrinal bonds to hold us together that the Lutherans do.
David Handy+
All the Williams “thing” – there are several here – are indicative of the disease with no hope of cure. There is talk, talk and talk and talk and talk. The cure requires action and the orthodox are not more able to act decisively than the left wing. They can withdraw from TEC or form an ACNA, but NO ONE has undertaken to alter the basic stance of the church, which Williams continues to be the thermometer for. The Anglican identity remains unaltered; it runs to talk.Williams palters, TEC bullies and, durst I say it, sins unashamedly, and Anglicans continue to talk about communion. forgiveness, unity, possibilities of reunion, prayers for change of heart, the whole nine yards. Not only do good guys not win ball games, but they are held up to contempt when they lose. Hard choices? What hard choices? And who in the western world would make any such thing. Larry
In short, we wait and wait. The bad guys then act, and we react. Our posture is one of reaction or inertia. When do WE act, and let the others react? Gafcon posed hopes, and what not of this? Larry