Archbishops Rowan Williams of Canterbury and John Sentamu of York have suggested that the Church of England and the Anglican Communion ought to be in “an open-ended engagement” with the Anglican Church in North America.
Archbishops Rowan Williams of Canterbury and John Sentamu of York have suggested that the Church of England and the Anglican Communion ought to be in “an open-ended engagement” with the Anglican Church in North America.
The ENS spin continues – we get “Breakaway Anglicans” in the title and “breakaway entity” at the end of paragraph four. In the entire article the ACNA is never referred to as a Church or Province always an entity or organization.
Maybe, however, there is a slight thaw — the words “dissident” and “schism” never appear once!
I will give them credit for one thing in this story, which is this sentence:
“The divisions occurred over the decisions of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada related to full inclusion of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people in the life of the church, the ordination of women and the authority of scripture.”
This is, I think, the first time I have read in an official TEC release that the issue of “authority of scripture” is one of the principle reasons that people are leaving TEC for other entities. It is about time they faced up to the reality. TEC as an entity no longer recognizes that authority, although we need to recognize that a few bishops and clergy, and perhaps to this day, the majority of the laity in many dioceses, still do.
On the WO part of the quote, perhaps one day they will realize it was TEC’s unwillingness to tolerate any other position that led to 3 entire dioceses leaving. Had they stayed, their bishops and clergy would have all been deposed under the new title III and title IV canons (arguably, they could have been deposed under the canons any time after 1997- as with the attempt to depose +Schofield in 2005-06- that was blocked by the senior bishops- who no longer have any say in the matter). With Anglo Catholic priests being eradicated from one diocese after another through deposition or withheld license, the writing had been on the wall all through the decade preceding the various parishes and dioceses, or in many more cases, individual clergy, taking action to leave TEC.
The comments to the ENS article are instructive. Long may the liberals in TEC continue in denial!