A task group of the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council will propose June 14 that Council tell the Anglican Communion that no governing body other than General Convention can interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny “future decisions by dioceses or General Convention.”
A draft of the statement, titled “The Episcopal Church’s Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion,” says it “strongly affirm[s] this Church’s desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers.”
The draft would have the Council decline to participate in a so-called Pastoral Scheme proposed by the Primates of the Anglican Communion for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses. In March the House of Bishops said the plan “would be injurious to The Episcopal Church” and urged the Council to decline to participate.
The draft of the statement was released to Council members and staff the afternoon of June 13 at the Council’s meeting in Parsippany, New Jersey. The draft, and three proposed accompanying resolutions, will be discussed by the entire Council June 14.
No surprise here. And then we will discover that not even GC can act. It’s delay after delay until the whole thing crumbles.
This is nice. Because TEC(USA) told the Anglican Communion that only a General Convention could make decisions for the national church, TEC(USA) was given until GC 2006 to respond to the Windsor Report. GC 2006 delivered an intentionally ambiguous response, which may or may not have responded to the requests of WR. The Primates at DES then gave TEC until Sept 30 to clarify that response. In plain unequivocal English, did TEC at GC 2006 intend to fulfill the conditions of WR or not? TEC(USA)’s response to this request for clarification is that only another General Convention can tell us whether or not the previous General Convention did or did not do what it was requested to do by WR.
Sorry. That in itself is the response. If not even TEC can tell whether or not GC 2006 intended to fulfill WR without another General Convention, then it is clear that TEC’s response was inadequate. If GC had intended to fulfill the WR conditions, there would be no need for another General Convention to clarify what the first one meant.
We are members of your club. But we go by our own rules.
The TEC and the Primates are clearly talking on different levels.
The Primates are saying, “Give us evidence that you are repenting of what was an unfaithful, communion-breaking action in GC2003!”
The TEC Exec. Council is saying, “We want to stay in the AC, but we reserve the right to believe and practice whatever we believe is prophetic and true for us in our context”.
Since TEC has said “no, we will not repent”, the Primates will be justified in considering TEC to be outside the Faith and recognize and encourage the development of a new representative of Anglican polity that is accountable to the AC
News you can use-
The Episcopal Church today has formed a subcommittee to study the draft of the communique whose responsibility will be to draft the report for the subcommittee to study. This draft, known as the Draft of Anglicanism or DOA, will be referred to the HoB for final rejection on Sept 30.
PB Schori was quoted as saying, “Everyone’s mind is made up, the only issue for debate is how to say no and go to Lambeth. Now that we have all been invited, this challenge to our faith from those who would exclude some of us in pluriform truth seems not to be too small of a box.”
Details at 11:00.
And the clarity just keeps on a-comin’.