The task force established to implement recommendations of the Windsor Report is unlikely to complete its work in time to have any affect on plans by the dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh and Quincy to hold second and decisive votes to withdraw from The Episcopal Church this fall.
Despite the Windsor Continuation Group’s call for swift implementation of its proposed moratoria, Archbishop Clive Handford, retired primate of The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and chairman of the Windsor Continuation Group, said he did not anticipate the group’s work having any sort of official status within the Communion until after the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in May 2009””six months after the last of the three dioceses, Fort Worth, has held its annual convention.
The six-member Windsor Continuation Group was established by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in February 2008. He had proposed formation of the group in his Advent letter to the primates last year.
Abp. Williams did such a good job of stonewalling at Lambeth ’08 that his efforts (or is that the lack thereof?) bore similar fruit with the WCG. Imagine my surprize. Not.
What a ridiculous idea, stonewalling? Too many superimpose American political ideology onto Rowan, with no support from anything he has ever said, or ever written. Disagree with him on ecclesiology and/or theology if you will, but don’t attribute things to him with no basis in his actual writings and behaviour.
It seems quite obvious that the “Pastoral Forum” idea has already been rejected by anyone who might be thought to be served by it.
And the three moritoria? Does anyone imagine they will be in force a year from now? It’s time to get realistic and start planning for a more loosely connected Communion and some sane way of negotiating property disputes instead of dreaming about a Covenant that will somehow magically turn back the clock to the period before Bp Robinson or before Women priests or before Bp Pike or back to the heyday of the Oxford Movement. It can’t happen. Let’s try to work toward a positive future instead of a moritorium to hold it off for a few more months.
Pray tell then, #2, what Cantuar+ has done with Windsor, Dar es, Dromantine, and Indaba-beth 2008. Have you not used phrases from other idioms to describe what’s going on within the one you are talking about? Whether the term is appropriate, you say, no, and I differ. That’s OK with me. BTW I sternly disagree with his ecclesiology and a good bit of his theology, FWIW, and I’ve written about that elsewhere. His behavior toward those who hold to apostolic, historic, biblically oriented Christianity within the context of the Anglican Communion IS that to which I refer. Stonewalling…
Thanks Athanasius for clearing up your thoughts for me. Perhaps we will simply disagree on the same phenomenon. It would seem to me that Traditional Anglicans perceive the good Archbishop’s actions as ‘stonewalling’ because if it was up to some of this persuasion we would simply kick the dreaded ‘liberals’ out without a tear, with no engagement, with no grief at the loss of what has been a real mark (for better AND worse) of a part of Anglican identity. ++Williams has patience where others have none, he recognizes the ‘Image of God’ in the faces of even the scary ‘liberals.’ As a traditional Anglican, I would rather error on this side than on the hyper-protestant side: “I disagree with you, so screw you, I am leaving”
adhunt,
Neither the “hyper-protestant” nor the revisionist are without fault. When that is the case, the living Word, as should be in every instance, is that to which we are all subject. Some choose stern legalism, others rudderless revisionism, where the most excellent way, [b]the way of two-fold love[/b], exhorted by Christ at Matthew 22:34-40, the narrow way, is the only eternal path. Some are by grace struggling mightily on that Way, and are seen as collaborationists, some as separatists. May God’s peace, which passes all understanding, come to both.
We are seeing separation. Lambeth ’08 did nothing to halt it. Cantuar+ did nothing to halt it. The Vinedresser is at work. It appears separation is inevitable and necessary as the house divided cannot stand. Gamaliel’s test will be how we will judge.
Athanasius,
I have posted a more thorough response here.
http://theecumenicalpapers.blogspot.com/2008/08/last-sunday-case-against-self_24.html
I would love to hear your response. Because I feel that we may end up getting a self-fulfilling prophecy here, which I think can be avoided. I am pulling for the Covenant.