Dr. Turner’s letter, to which Noll is responding, is here: http:\/\/new.kendallharmon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/index.php\/t19\/article\/4810<\/b>
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The one criticism you make of my Open Letter that I find particularly painful relates to my call to \u201ctake the risk of breaking communion with false and lukewarm colleagues in TEC.\u201d\u009d I do not retract it, but I shall try a clarify it. \u201cFalse and lukewarm\u201d\u009d refers to two groups, not one. There are those who have lapsed into heresy (which I think is identifiable whether or not it is declared so by a Church council). There are others who \u201ctolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.\u201d\u009d Many of us have been quite willing over the years to work within a church that included worldly leaders and comfortable pewsitters. We even tolerated the Pikes and Spongs, thinking we had the historic tradition and formularies on our side. This is no longer the case. Jesus uttered a paradoxical pair of statements when he said: \u201cHe who is not with me is against me\u201d\u009d (Matthew 12:30) and \u201cwhoever is not against us is for us\u201d\u009d (Mark 9:40). The time is coming and now is, I think, when the Spirit will dictate that only one of these courses is faithful. Hence it will be necessary to break communion with \u201d\u201c not to judge the eternal destiny of \u201d\u201c those who hold a true gospel while remaining in the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n
The exercise of prudence \u201d\u201c a virtue which I know from your writings you value highly \u201d\u201c always involves making a judgement call. I am making such a judgement call in my Open Letter. It appears you are doing likewise when you state that after September 30, if TEC retains its status unreformed by the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury, then the Anglican Communion will have \u201cmorphed into another creature altogether.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
So you yourself seem prepared to set a make-or-break date for the completion of the Windsor process and the sealing of the fate of the Anglican Communion. I agree. I do not think there is anything in my Open Letter that conflicts with that timetable. I am quite content to wait until September 30 to see what happens. That date is less than two months from now, and I don\u2019t see what further division can happen in that time anyway. What I do think we need to do is to consider the outcome that the September deadline will come and go and no decision will be made at the Communion level.<\/p>\n
That nothing will be done seems likely from two realities: the adamantine stubbornness of the Episcopal Church hierarchy and the apparent unwillingness of the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the necessary steps to discipline it. The House of Bishops, I am sure you will agree, will not change course, even as it effuses about its desire to remain in the Communion. You may be more hopeful than I about the Archbishop of Canterbury\u2019s taking final action after TEC has been given its full measure of indulgence. I see little evidence of willingness from his actions and statements since the February Primates\u2019 Meeting \u201d\u201c especially if the recent statement of Archbishop of York reflects the view at the top.<\/p>\n
We shall know soon enough. There is nothing in my Open Letter that preempts the Windsor Report as qualified by the Primates\u2019 Communiqu\u00c3\u00a9 from Tanzania. There is nothing that precludes the Anglican Communion Network and Common Cause partners working within the formal structures of the Anglican Communion if the Episcopal Church walks apart; indeed, it is my hope and prayer that they may be recognized and enabled to do so.<\/p>\n