The Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, said that he had been “exhilarated and moved” by the Conference, and found positives in the “definite steer” towards commitment to a Covenant process and in “recognition that a covenant clearly has to have some teeth”. He described the developÂment of structures as “a huge achievement. . . The Anglican Communion has not had overÂarching structures capable of bearing this strain.”
The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Michael Perham, said that “people came to realise that they wanted us at all costs to find ways of staying together in one Communion, recognising the huge loss if we do not.”
There had been some shifting of ground between “the liberal bishops who came to Lambeth very doubtful about the concept of the Covenant; the more conservative bishops and provinces clear it was needed”. Moratoriums had best been described as “a gracious season of restraint”, Bishop Perham said.
He observed: “One of the key changes in the Anglican picture as a result of Lambeth is the enhanced authority of Archbishop Rowan. Conservatives and liberals alike, as well as all those of us who don’t fit either label, were inspired by his scholarly, gentle and holy leadership.”
Kick the can is leadership? More like absolute failure of leadership. Just no one can say that the evident Rift Valley in the Anglican Communion has “official” recognition. That’s not leadership, that’s avoidance.
It seems that the recent Lambeth Conference was engineered from the beginning to infuriate conservatives. The format assured that nothing could be done, not votes, no statement of the mind of the communion, only the pathetic whimpers of ABC. The Unity at all costs folks are going to find themselves in a moral abyss before it is over. The unity at all costs theory seems “lukewarm” at best. Either you support the Gospesl of our Lord Jesus Christ or you don’t. You can not be sort of pregnant, you can not sort of believe and have faith in Christ. You can say you know about him and follow the revisionist lead, but I don’t think you can know Christ as your Lord and Saviour and follow Queen Kate and the ABC. They are heretic at best, blasphemous at worst. Either way, I don’t want to go there.
And WHEN are we going to hear something — anything — [b]substantive[/b] from the bishop of Albany??!?
This is a matter of perspective, not reality. How anyone of an even somewhat conservative bent can gush about Lambeth ’08 is clearly looking through rose-colored glasses/setting the bar of expectations very low.