The worldwide Anglican Church is expected to split radically by the end of the year under plans being drawn up by a leading conservative archbishop to “adopt” a breakaway group of American dioceses, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
Under the unprecedented proposals, the archbishop would allow the conservative dioceses to opt out of the liberal American branch of the Anglican Church and affiliate with his province thousands of miles away.
It is understood that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been informed of the plans.
[blockquote]The Americans are also expected to suggest the creation of a new pastoral council made up of members from across the worldwide Church representing a spectrum of opinions to sort out disputes and preempt conflicts.[/blockquote]
Now that would be surprising. I’m assuming that the Americans he is talking of here are the HoB, which would certainly be an about face for TEC, which has been having a hard time even permitting a flying bishop just for the purpose of confirmations. Perhaps they would like to revive the panel of reference, which has not only been largely moribund, but rejected by TEC bishops even when it deigned to dip a toe into TEC waters. So that hardly sounds like a winner. I suppose it could describe something similar to the DES proposal. That just seems very unlikely. Though that is what I suspect the global south will pursue with or without the cooperation of TEC’s bishops.