Australia’s most senior Anglican said a once-a-decade conference has given him hope the church can avoid splitting over the issue of homosexuality.
Australian primate Archbishop Phillip Aspinall said while there is no quick fix to the damaging row, the Lambeth Conference in south-eastern England has pointed the way forward.
“There is enormously strong commitment among the bishops present at Lambeth to stay together and that is a very positive outcome,” Dr Aspinall told ABC radio.
The meeting, which ended yesterday, has been overshadowed by a dispute about the consecration five years ago of the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the United States.
A vast majority you say. What was the final vote on the Reflections document?
Bishop Aspinall SAID,
“”There is enormously strong commitment among the bishops present at Lambeth to stay together….”
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The key words in his statement are “…among the bishops present at Lambeth….”
The ‘key representatives’ of a huge piece of the Anglican Communion shunned, effectively, Lambeth because of the presence of schismatic bishops from North America at Lambeth.
The words “…enormously strong commitment…” may leave a nice fuzzy warm feeling. But what do they mean?
In terms of doing something to avert the oncoming train wreck, they mean nothing.
There has never been any doubt about what the VAST majority of Anglicans think or believe. That’s not the problem or the issue. The problem is what to do about a small but insistent minority who are determined to continue doing what they think “the Spirit” is calling them to do. The crisis lies in the continued failure of the leadership, especially the ABC, to respond to this situation and to reflect what the will of the majority is.
The outline of processes and ideas in the final document is not in the words of a vast majority or any other majority of the bishops in Lambeth. The words of the final document were selected, filtered, organized and spun through hand-picked designees. I wondered how long it would take for claims such as Abp. Aspinall’s to begin to be made. Not long, apparently.
At Lambeth 1998 then Archbishop Carey was criticized for participating in the debate on Resolution 1.10. If that amounted to some kind of usurpation, whatever it was seems to have been exceeded a hundred-fold by +Rowan. The “inter pares” has been excised from primus inter pares.
Who cares? Why bother reading something completely irrelevant? It has no power.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Lambeth’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Please tell me, anyone, why our esteemed leaders are so damned reluctent to call a spade a spade. It was not our Lord who said “Can’t we all just get along” It was Rodney King.
It is the ultimate defrauding of the church to say we won’t have any resolutions and we won’t vote because that would be divisive, create enmity, and then to claim as soon as the meeting has adjourned to have the majority position to stay the course for another decade…to claim victory in a democratic process that was never offered is simply dishonest…it removes the last vestige of innocence we might have had to see that in a church riddled with sexual perversion and biblical unfaithfulness that the leadership is so thoroughly unethical.
5 and 6 say it best.
Who will demonstrate with some numbers that the vast majority of bishops at Lambeth did not represent the vast majority of Anglicans? IIRC the proportions are almost inverse. +Aspinall (and the media) shouldn’t get away with making a claim that is so easily misinterpreted to suggest Lambeth spoke for most Anglicans.
Yes, this is perverse. The whole basis of their method was no quantifying (voting); now this key player quantifies in the most fuzzy way and there are no real numbers to let anyone disagree.
This is one sick communion…and TEC is a heck of a sick church.
But there are some wonderful parts…the Global South, and there are new Anglican Churches popping up every week in North America like new spring flowers.
Here in NFL, a new one started today. In 2005 in the Anglican Alliance of North Florida, there were 11 Anglican Churches and 21 clergy. Today there are 21 congregations and 42 clergy.
To see the effect of the follies of TEC with the ABCs connivance, click on any state here: http://www.shelterinthestorm.org/
And, the ABC will be feeling the heat in England pretty soon.
And, the Primates have just discovered the Communion Instruments won’t work because the leaders are liars and cheats, so they will be governing themselves with a Primates council.
…. And this “kicking the can down the road” will be the final push that sends this statistical “one” out of the Canterbury-defined Anglican path. I will not be able to bear the TECite twisting of this Lambeth outcome. It is already making my stomach turn like when I’ve eaten something bad and know it will come back up.
I hope I find a GAFCON connection someday to reconnect with the spiritual power of real Anglicanism.
I dunno, Brother M. I rather think Don Armstrong had the better conclusion.. Like dark rum, I thought, with a strong twist of lime.
Larry
And the final vote proves it. YEAH RIGHT.
We all have experienced how liberals count …. and it is miles different from mathematicians!
“‘the vast majority’ of bishops in Lambeth back central thrust of final draft”
How could anybody possibly tell, from this document, what the “central thrust” was??
The central link was “Why can’t we all just get along?” Who could disagree with that?
Yes, Rodney King theology does not work. The die is cast. May the re-alignment continue you full speed ahead.