Please note that Robert Duncan is a journalist and ombudsman for foreign press in Spain. He is an Executive Board Member and Vice-President for the Organización de Periodismo y Comunicación Ibero-Americana, and Vice-President of the energy and telecommunications association, APSCE–KSH.
What is the state of the Anglican Church in the US and world, and the ongoing talks between the Anglicans and Catholic Church?
I don’t know a lot about the official conversations between the Anglicans and the RC Church, but I think the relations are still cordial, and we have received encouragement from our local bishop and from Pope Benedict XVI when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, to keep up the defense of the orthodox faith in the face of the revisionism in the Episcopal Church.
Has the crisis (related to the Robinson ordination) accelerated talks, etc. There has been some talk that this may be happening with other related groups, such as those in the Continuum?
This is certainly true here in the USA as the continuing Anglican Churches, which are not in the Anglican Communion, are very excited about meeting with the Anglican Communion Network.
There were several of the Common Cause partners at the conference last month and a great sense of hope for the future.
The key in this process is the figure of Bob Duncan as they all respect him and his leadership.
But of course it is a lot more work for him.
Really in fact the CAN has three different groups that make it up: the Common Cause, the Network dioceses and the Network parishes, which are in dioceses where the bishop is more or less unfriendly (some of these of course are no longer part of ECUSA and now come under the oversight of an African or South American bishop).
It’s quite a mess and we long to see some order restored, but have to conclude that God is doing a new thing, and this includes bringing many different denominations together in a new way. We have no idea how it will work out, but we know it is in God’s hands….