WHATEVER IS DRIVING Dr. [Rowan] Williams’ strategy, it would seem in the wake of the HOB meeting to have reached a crossroads. The primatial jury is still out, of course, but it is already evident that the HOB statement will not fly with a significant segment of the global church. The Communion’s future will pivot heavily on how Williams now handles key matters going forward.
Of course, even Archbishops of Canterbury must contend with historical forces beyond their control. In all probability, TEC’s long recurrent role as artful dodger of orthodoxy, even if it has slightly receded for now, has set in train fragmentation and realignment among Anglicans that cannot now be averted.
Did the Episcopal Church Bishops clarify all questions in New Orleans?
Actually, yes they did, both by what they said in their released statement and what they did not say; not to mention the general disregard they show to the requests of the orthodox majority in the Anglican Communion. The answers:
More non-chaste bishops? We’re willing to wait until 2009.
Approval of same-sex blessings? We like our fudge well-mixed.
Alternate primatial oversight? No way José.
Br_er Rabbit,
You forgot “Sue until the cows come home!”
Or “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war.”
Point taken, William.
Excellent and thorough analysis by Auburn Traycik. And yes, a few significant tidbits most of us have not seen before.
IMO, she is one of the most perceptive but under-recognized journalists/analysts reporting on TEC and Anglican currents
Thanks for posting this, Kendall. Nice to have it “all” so far in a single document.
w.w.
I found the money factor assertion interesting. Once dioceses start leaving and as some already restrict funds from TEC, the American church isn’t going to be the Miss Moneybags that the others are counting on. Maintaining those grand, mostly empty churches costs, too!
[blockquote] Williams “no ultimatum†assertion … seems calculated to keep an unreformed American Church in the Communion and thereby provoke conservative hardliners into absenting themselves from Lambeth ‘08 and perhaps ultimately from the Communion. [/blockquote]
As TEC goes, so goes the CoE. If TEC is removed, orthodoxy becomes the de facto leadership of the Anglican Church. Before long, the CoE would be brought to heel or disciplined just like TEC. And who can imagine the leadership of the CoE submitting under such circumstances? The humiliation of the British being displaced as first among equals in the Anglican Church would be enormous. But even greater would be the humiliation of discipline. This I think provides Williams’ motivation to protect TEC. Doing so protects the very vulnerable left flank of the CoE.
carl
A very thoughtful analysis. This part, to me, most clearly reflects where things stand at this pivotal moment:
[blockquote]Clearly, however, his bid to try to save TEC, while it has yet to prove itself to the wider Communion, has meant flirting with disaster. His handling thus far of the Lambeth Conference issue, for example, seems to have destined that meeting – short of its postponement or a change in current arrangements for it – to be an expensive embarrassment, with perhaps hundreds of bishops staying away and maybe attending a rival Lambeth.
All of which has evoked deeper questions, noted earlier, about why, to save the U.S. Church (which has given no sign of fundamental change), Williams has appeared willing to risk inviting, on his watch, a much larger fracture across the Communion than would be represented by the exclusion of TEC.[/blockquote]
My own conjecture is that both sides (primarily TEC versus the orthodox in TEC plus the global south) are poised to act, merely waiting the ABC’s next report on the HoB statement, and whether it is satisfactory. If he manages to fix a response that TEC’s response is adequate, the communion will split pretty immediately (well, it will be a transparent set of falsehoods, thus deservingly so), and an alternative province will be set up by those primates so inclined to implement Dar es Salaam on their own. Now, I’m not convinced that the split will be formal. I suspect that the global south will simply proceed to do what it wants to do, and stop participating in many things, such as Lambeth. It will be up to the ABC to call it over and the orthodox out of the communion. Which TEC at Lambeth may well then pressure him to do. They have no use for the global south.
On the other hand, if the ABC does not accept the HoB statement as adequate, it becomes even less clear what might happen. Ask everyone to Lambeth to talk it over? He’d have to disinvite TEC, and possibly invite the American global south bishops, for that to happen. A primates’ meeting? Many have called for it. but the ABC almost seems to have precluded one under threat by TEC and the hard left, since they can guess that it would not go well for them.
Indeed, the ABC seems to have been flirting with disaster only to find it in his house. He should not have let things get to this point.
#7, your last two sentences frame the coming catastrophe perfectly. It’s hard to imagine how this situation could have been handled less competently by ++Rowan. His indecision and double-dealing have turned an uncomfortable problem into a crisis that will almost surely fracture the AC along any number of fault lines. History will not be kind to his maladministration.