Q: In Dar es Salaam there was a call for a fourth moratorium for a cessation of litigation. We now have only three moratoria but both TEC and the ACoC claim to be missional churches; how does the spectacle of lawsuits look to the unchurched?
\nKJS: the reality is that sometimes the church does need to resort to civil courts to assert its rights. It\u2019s not just TEC and the ACoC, the church in Jerusalem is in court with a former bishop who absconded with assets belonging to the Diocese of Jerusalem. Similar things have happened in Sudan, in Mexico, in Columbia, Ecuador, it\u2019s not unique to North America….<\/p>\n
Q: Has the ABC responded adequately to cross border interventions?
\nKJS: I don\u2019t think he understands how difficult, painful and destructive it\u2019s been, both in the ACoC and TEC. When bishops come from overseas and say, well, we\u2019ll take care of you, you don\u2019t have to pay attention to your bishop, it destroys pastoral relationships. It\u2019s like an affair in a marriage: it destroys trust and I believe it does spiritual violence to vowed relationships. It is a very ancient teaching of the church that a bishop is supposed to stay home and tend to the flock to which he was originally assigned.<\/p>\n
Q: you mentioned in your Pentecost letter \u201d\u201c from the duelling Pentecost letters \u201d\u201c \u201cwe note the troubling push towards centralised authority \u201c in response to Rowan Williams. Is not the resistance to cross-border interventions a similar push towards central authority on a smaller scale?
\nKJS: The resistance to cross-border interventions is for the reasons I\u2019ve pointed out: it destroys pastoral relationships. It prevents any possibility of reconciliation; it prevents growth in understanding among people who disagree. The idea that one person in one location in the world can adequately understand contexts across the globe and decide policy across the globe, I think contravenes traditional Anglican understanding of local worship in a language understood by the people. This is what we were arguing about 500 years ago.<\/p>\n