But the ultimate value of Lambeth””and indeed the continued unity of the communion””may depend on new instruments that Williams alluded to in his formal speeches to the bishops. One is a proposed Pastoral Forum, which would enforce a moratorium not only on all actions relating to the hot-button sexual issues but also on the creation of new jurisdictions within the territories of already existing ones. The other is a long-standing proposal for a new “Covenant for the Communion,” an explicit statement of beliefs that all practicing Anglicans would presumably have to sign on to.
But conservative Anglicans say they see nothing new in these proposals and furthermore doubt that they would be enforced any more vigorously than the existing instruments are. “I would say what Lambeth is doing is far too little and far too late,” says Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the breakaway Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Liberals have their own reservations. Robinson, a conspicuous presence on the fringes of the conference, to which he was not invited, says that the loose Anglican confederation with its tradition of tolerating divergent views is in no need of fixing “with either a covenant or a Pastoral Forum or anything of the sort.” And calling the various proposals a “series of big ‘ifs,’ ” Jefferts Schori says that the Episcopal Church “will continue to define itself through its legislative processes.”
Even church-watchers who were impressed by what they heard about the collegial quality of the Lambeth Conference fear that it only papered over the differences. “I was encouraged by the personal relationships formed by the bishops,” says the Rev. Frank Kirkpatrick, author of The Episcopal Church in Crisis and a professor of religion at Trinity College in Connecticut. “But I’m not sure Lambeth resolved anything.”
“Robinson, a conspicuous presence on the fringes of the conference, to which he was not invited, says that the loose Anglican confederation with its tradition of tolerating divergent views is in no need of fixing “with either a covenant or a Pastoral Forum or anything of the sort.” And calling the various proposals a “series of big ‘ifs,’ ” Jefferts Schori says that the Episcopal Church “will continue to define itself through its legislative processes.”
These folks have no idea what pain and discord they have caused in people’s lives…their arrogance and ruthlessness, their lack of compassion and empathy is an evil like I have never seen…it is a church possessed of which they are a part.
VGR may have telegraphed TEC’s ultimate strategy: reduce the Anglican Communion to a “loose federation”.