From Religion News Service:
The church’s 40-member Executive Council, which is headed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, also declined a proposal from Anglican archbishops to create a separate church structure for conservatives who reject her leadership.
The panel, meeting in Parsippany, N.J., questioned overseas archbishops’ power to “impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion or to prescribe the relationships within … our common life.”
The Executive Council declined to give a “yes or no, up or down decision,” to all of the archbishops’ demands, said the Rev. Lee Alison Crawford, a council member and rector of St. Mary’s Parish in Northfield, Vt.
But Crawford said the council provided “a strong affirmation that the Episcopal Church is not going to go backward from the commitment to our (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) brothers and sisters.”
Last February, primates — or top archbishops — in the worldwide Anglican Communion demanded Episcopalians pledge to stop consecrating gay bishops, halt blessings for same-sex unions and cede some authority to oversees Anglicans to minister to disaffected U.S. conservatives. The U.S. church was given a deadline of Sept. 30 or face “consequences.”
Generally, the Executive Council is charged with making decisions for the 2.2 million-member church between its triennial General Conventions. On Thursday, the council said the archbishops’ demands could only be considered at General Convention — next scheduled for 2009 — thus essentially putting off the primates’ demands.
“But Crawford said the council provided “a strong affirmation that the Episcopal Church is not going to go backward from the commitment to our (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) brothers and sisters.”
Why do we need to wait until September 30?
815 locuta est, causa (in)finita est…?
Sounds to me like the decision to walk apart has already been made and declared loud and clear.
To the list of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender is there any reason not to add pedophiles, bestiality preferencers, and necrophiliacs?? What you will is what you have a right to according to Nietzschean philosophy (a favorite of Hitler’s). All that is important is not morality, not Biblical teaching, not the Christian moral Tradition, but only “the Triumph of the Will.”
Libraryjim, I think that the message is abundantly clear. TEC has absolutely no intention of backtracking…..and never has. Therefore, they have effectively stated that they do not care about what the overwhelming majority of the Anglican Communion thinks; they are going to do things THEIR way, and the rest of the Communion can go pound sand, for all they care. I think the result of this is predictable.