(ACNS) The Most Revd Phillip Aspinall, Archbishop of Brisbane and Primate of the Anglican Province of Australia will act as principal spokesman for the Anglican Communion bishops attending the 14th Lambeth Conference which meets in Canterbury from 20 July to August 4.
Archbishop Aspinall acted as spokesman for the Primates at their meeting Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in February 2007. He will chair a daily press conference during the Lambeth meeting at which he will be joined by bishops with specialist experience in the theme of the day. The themes to be covered by the bishops in their discussions range from climate change and the Millennium Development Goals to Anglican identity and the role of Covenant in the future of the Communion.
Archbishop Aspinall said it will be both a privilege and a challenge to articulate the voice of the bishops of the Communion at a time of enormous challenge for the church and the world.
“Anglicanism has much to say about many things including the challenges of poverty, insecurity, loss of faith and increasing relativism. The Conference will be a time for listening as well as speaking, and I will be as much a part of that listening process as my fellow bishops,” said Dr Aspinall.
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury said “Archbishop Phillip is just the gifted communicator the Conference needs to tell the story of the Conference as it unfolds day by day. I am grateful to him for agreeing to take on the role of principal spokesman for the Conference”
How clever–an Aussie voice to push back at Jensen’s great representation of GAFCON. “Right then, the reasserters may have an archbishop, but we have his chief.”
Actually this appointment says an awful lot about how Rowan wants Lambeth spun — by someone known to be liberal to the core. He is continuing to live up to the GAFCON statement.
Daily Press Conferences! That says so much.
Yes, Margaret, you are undoubtedly right about that. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Aspinall has separately dismissed both the Anglo-Catholics in Australia and the Sydney Anglicans as irrelevancies, if not beyond the pale. He also has thrown full support behind the innovative developments wrought elsewhere by his liberal church wing. There is no question at all where this is headed, or what Williams signals by this appointment.
“a SPIN all” back at work after Dar es Salaam is one of many reasons why bishops refuse to go to Lambeth. Total loss of faith in the process. When will Rowan get it??