Dr. Lilico sees most clearly what I think all the fuss and bother at Lambeth about sexuality— now we’ll discuss it, now we won’t—is obscuring: the Church of England is coming apart right under Archbishop Rowan’s nose. The refusal of General Synod to make continued provision for its Anglo-Catholic wing means that they will not be able to stay in the same Church with women bishops: they regard the latter as an invalidation of the historical apostolic succession. The evangelicals, meanwhile, will not tolerate the election of practicing homosexuals to the episcopate in clear violation of Scripture, as I explain in this post; with the Anglo-Catholics gone, there will be no means of halting the inexorable trend that begins, as TEC has seen, with the ordination of women, and the Church of England will have at least one openly gay bishop before Lambeth convenes again. Dr. Lilico foresees a two-thirds reduction in the number of CoE priests when these two groups take their leave. At the same time, however, he does not predict that the separate groups will fall out of Communion with each other, but will remain as “sister churches”—because of the incredible complexities of property ownership going back to medieval times. (He also believes that the departing evangelicals and the Anglo-Catholics will maintain their present alliance. I am more skeptical that they will both make the break at the same time, and so think that they will end up separate because they will break off that way.)
As for The Episcopal Church, does anyone doubt that it will be a return to business as usual once the September meeting of the House of Bishops convenes? Will our bishops’ experiences at Lambeth cause them to change course, to drop the phony deposition threat against Bishop Duncan, and to work with him, San Joaquin and Virginia on a way to end all the litigation? I have seen nothing from the remarks of our Presiding Bishop thus far to indicate that. Thus if the bishops “depose” Bishop Duncan in September, the Diocese of Pittsburgh will follow the Diocese of San Joaquin out of The Episcopal Church, and the Dioceses of Fort Worth and Quincy will leave shortly after that. There will then be enough of a critical mass to organize a new North American province for those who have left TEC.
[blockquote]As for The Episcopal Church, does anyone doubt that it will be a return to business as usual once the September meeting of the House of Bishops convenes? [/blockquote]
I do. I think it’s going to get far worse, TEC having been effectively green-lighted by the lack of sanction at Lambeth.
[blockquote]There will then be enough of a critical mass to organize a new North American province for those who have left TEC.[/blockquote]
From your mouth to God’s ear.
“There will then be enough of a critical mass to organize a new North American province for those who have left TEC.’
I suggest that there is already a critical mass necessary for a new province. Further, once such a province is recognized it would provide a structure to whch Pittsburg, FW, and Quincy could affiliate.
Expect only the most rough-shod actions by TEC’s leadership following Lambeth. Over the next year we will see things that will make our heads spin with amazement. Like an alcoholic just before hitting bottom, the coming months and years of this Church will be a wild spree of self-destructive lunacy, all in the inchoate search for reality. Read St. Gregory Nyssa’s “On the Making of Man” about this. We seem to be right on script. If you think it has been crazy up until now, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”