Prof Percy critiques Archbishop Welby’s decision to invite Archbishop Foley Beach of the breakaway Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to attend the Primates’ meeting, without consulting the official Episcopal Churches in the USA and Canada, and suggests:
”˜So the Archbishop of Canterbury could begin proceedings in January by offering an apology to American and Canadian Anglicans for his intemperate gestures towards ACNA, and his lack of consultation, which has undermined them. He should further apologise for dealing in territories and spheres of authority that are simply not his to meddle with.’
He also warns against using the widespread belief that the Anglican churches of the global south now form the majority and are the only ones growing numerically to cede ”˜more moral ground”¦to African churches”¦than might be judicious’ in divisive debates over sexual ethics.
If Dr. Percy, speaking for the liberals, declares that +Canterbury has no authority outside England, then why should the rest of us think he does? Let the American and Canadian liberal churches go their own way; it’s what they want to do anyhow, and what they are doing.
Predictable
Perhaps as an alternative, the ABC could apologise to Christ Church for such a poor steward of a dean. Were the dean to avoid speaking falsehoods, the house would be surely be blessed with silence…
Intemperate gestures? Lack of consultation? Given the way TEO has thumbed its nose at the entire Anglican Communion over the last 15 years or so this complaint can only be described as effrontery of the very first rank.