The bishops are discussing the setting up of a Pastoral Forum to tackle disputes within the Anglican Communion; the proposals are due to be debated by the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica in May 2009. Cindy Kent asked the Archbishop whether people in the outside world wanted to see answers and solutions much earlier than that.
Dr Williams replied: ”˜They do, and that only works when you’ve got a highly centralised, highly organised top-down organisation where somebody like the Archbishop of Canterbury can just snap his fingers and say ”˜let it happen’
He admitted that he sometimes wished he was able to do that; but ”˜not very often.’
”˜But not a lot of the time because it’s not the church I belong to. And deeply frustrating as that is it is the price we pay for being decentralised.
”˜We’ve probably paid too heavy a price in the last few years for that and the question is can we just draw things together; can we have a more coherent way of operating can we have a bit of a better clearing house for our problems. But, as I say, we’re not the kind of organisation where a chief executive just says “do it”’.
The Archbishop admitted that this coming weekend was ”˜make or break’ for certain levels of the Communion and added: ”˜We’ve got to come out with something about our problems with some steer for the way forward; but that being said there remains the question how do the Christian relationships of understanding and co-operation that have been created here survive. And I think they will, whatever happens in the next few days. And it’s not as though I feel entirely cosy about the next few days – it’s going to be very hard work. But also I’m aware of the depth of what has already been achieved.’
“The bishops are discussing the setting up of a Pastoral Forum to tackle disputes within the Anglican Communion; the proposals are due to be debated by the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica in May 2009.”
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The ACC is the least trusted and least respected of the four Instruments of Communion. Many believe that the ACC has been ‘bought and paid for’ by ECUSA.
In addition, May 2009 is too far into the future. The crisis in the Anglican Communion is ‘right now.’ Regardless of the fact that issues involving the entire Communion require measured measured deliberation, the Communion at this moment is teetering on the verge of unilateral actions being taken by Anglicans and their primates who feel that three the four Instruments of Communion have failed miserably in resolving critical issues.
The only Instrument of Communion that has come up with crisis resolving decisions and resolutions, the Synod of the Primates, has been under ‘passive-aggressive’ attack by the other three instruments.
If Lambeth doesn’t act to discipline the churches in North America, then the primates representing the large majority of the Anglicans in the Communion will act using GAFCON and a new province in North America as their structure for taking immediate and specific action.
The great loser will, over the long run, be ECUSA which will become known throughout the United States as the politically motivated and non-religious organization that it has become over the past fifty years.
EUCUSA’s credibility and membership will continue to drop sharply because Americans seeking spiritual guidance and solace will avoid a politically oriented organization.
Excuse me….diocese of Lichfield? It would appear that this is an interview with ++RW himself.
If it genuinely is that, then ++Rowan is being somewhat more realistic about the situation than I have been giving him credit for. However:
“He added: ‘I think a number of people will go away saying “I still disagreeâ€. The question at the moment is whether they go away saying “I disagree and frankly I don’t think it’s worth investing in the relationship†or whether they go away saying “I disagree and that means we’ve got an awful lot of work to do.â€
He has obviously missed the point. Most TEC bishops will come home, renege on any representations they made in their indaba groups, and get about the business of un-canonically deposing +Bob Duncan, inhibiting +Iker and +Ackerman, and carrying on with SSBs. All the while wearing their new t-shirts that say “++Rowan says I am a real Anglican bishop!”
In my comment #1, please change
“…who feel that three the four Instruments of Communion…” to read
“…who feel that three of the four Instruments of Communion…”
and
“…require measured measured deliberation,…” to read
“…require measured deliberation,….”
The Archbishop said [blockquote] that only works when you’ve got a highly centralised, highly organised top-down organisation where somebody like the Archbishop of Canterbury can just snap his fingers and say ‘let it happen’[/blockquote]
Actually, few leaders work that way. It is sad that our Archbishop’s education is so lacking that he thinks so.
Let the record show that where Rowan Williams did have power, where he did wield leverage, where he did have an option that would lead to a resolution; he consistently and uniformly used those nexuses to prolong the agony, to undermine orthodoxy, to enable heresy and to stoke the furnace of rancor and division.
As PJ O’Rourke said, sometimes there’s just no getting through to the highly perceptive.
So the Archbishop thought that the speech by Rabbi Sachs and the Walk were the highlights of the Conference. I think that is very telling in and of itself.