Today’s meeting moved from the work of reflecting on the exercise of primacy and the purpose and nature of the Primates’ Meeting, to considering the role, purpose and composition of the Standing Committee of the Primates. In addition to attending the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and the Standing Committee, other roles suggested for the committee by Primates included “holding” the life, vision and spirit of the meeting between the Primates’ Meetings; helping to shape their future meetings; and acting as a consultative group for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Several groups also suggested that the Primates’ Standing Committee might have an ongoing bridging role between the Primate’s Meeting and the regions from where the Primates come….
Trying to be neutral, what an interesting almost final report from the meeting of the Primates. Clearly, the “biggest” news in the Communion is the strength and persistence of the Orthodox dissent. Even if I were a liberal primate, 100% behind the actions of the TEC, believing they were truly correct, and were meeting with the majority of Primates, that is most of what I would want to talk about. If I had any respect for any Orthodox, I would want to talk about what was correct about the dissent–even if mostly wrong. If I thought all Orthodox were truly crazy or evil, I would want to talk about damage control.
I appreciate that even though such talk is absent from the press releases, it does not mean that this has not been a topic–or even the topic. Some times, at meetings, the true topic is discussed informally, which they certainly have had ample opportunity to do–both before the meeting, during the meeting and after. Just because modern liberals seem adamant about transparency, does not mean they would not want the advantages of not being transparent (the Democrats went into closed session, despite President Obama’s campaign promises, to hammer out a Health Care Bill.)
On the other hand, in the United States, there has been an Orthodox dissent since our fight about the prayer book in the 1970’s (perhaps it goes back further, but I am just ignorant of it). To be honest, from the viewpoint of a liberal establishment, ignoring the dissent has worked nicely in terms of maintaining power–if you assume that the steady decline in numbers has nothing to do with the enduring ascendancy of the liberal establishment.
I think the initiative remains with the Orthodox dissent. God bless it and guide it, for His greater glory.
Barry Morgan of Wales:
[blockquote] Archbishop Barry Morgan (Wales) then shared shocking statistics about the scale of gender-based violence in the United Kingdom. He told the meeting that there were one million female victims of domestic abuse reported last year, with 300,000 sexually assaulted and 60,000 raped each year. He explained that a conservative estimate of women trafficked into the United Kingdom was 5,000 a year. [b]He said that gender-based violence was deeply engrained in societies and even in some faith traditions. [/b] [/blockquote]
Ah yes. The “faith tradition” that must not be named. Reading about our inspiring founding fathers who were usually martyrs of for the Gospel and then thinking about the tiny little men “leading” the Anglican Communion, it makes one think that it is time for the Anglican Communion to die and hopefully out of the Global South will arise a true Church that once again boldly proclaims the Gospel.