The Archbishop of Canterbury Finally Speaks--Don't Hold Your Breath!
Well, a week after he should have said something ABC Rowan Williams has finally published a response to the actions of TEC's recently concluded General Convention.
Precisely as I predicted, ABC Williams has taken the obfuscatory statements made by PB Schori and Bonnie Anderson following the key votes in Anaheim as an excuse to do nothing. He is clearly willing to accept their mendacious statements that the resolutions affirming that the ordination process is open to non-celibate gays and lesbians at all levels and that rites for same-sex blessings can be performed as a "pastoral response" to those in need are merely "descriptive" and not "prescriptive." Even if Schori and Anderson were technically correct in reading these resolutions literally (e.g., it is true, after all, that B033 was not expressly repealed in the text of D025 and that no diocese will be forced to vote for a non-celibate gay man or lesbian as a bishop--they can still voluntarily observe the moritorium at the local level!), absolutely no one on the ground in Anaheim last week nor anyone reading the resolutions around the world could possibly take them for anything less than an abandonment of any pretense of moritoria on non-celibate gay bishops and church blessings of same-sex unions. The dancing in the aisles by the Episcopal LGBT lobby that took place following their passage is proof enough of that!
Yet ABC Williams seems to "buy it," mentioning only that "anxiety" persists around the world-wide Communion and there is not yet a consensus to move forward as TEC has done. What is the archbishop's remedy for this anxiety? The much-hyped but utterly toothless Anglican Covenant. And what is the outcome if provinces such as TEC don't want to sign onto the Covenant when it is finally ready a few years from now? Then TEC will simply go on being Anglican in a different "style" or "track" than the rest of the Communion! According to ++Williams, "The ideal is that both 'tracks' should be able to pursue what they believe God is calling them to be as Church, with greater integrity and consistency. It is right to hope for and work for the best kinds of shared networks and institutions of common interest that could be maintained as between different visions of the Anglican heritage."
Very helpful, your grace. Very helpful.
Precisely as I predicted, ABC Williams has taken the obfuscatory statements made by PB Schori and Bonnie Anderson following the key votes in Anaheim as an excuse to do nothing. He is clearly willing to accept their mendacious statements that the resolutions affirming that the ordination process is open to non-celibate gays and lesbians at all levels and that rites for same-sex blessings can be performed as a "pastoral response" to those in need are merely "descriptive" and not "prescriptive." Even if Schori and Anderson were technically correct in reading these resolutions literally (e.g., it is true, after all, that B033 was not expressly repealed in the text of D025 and that no diocese will be forced to vote for a non-celibate gay man or lesbian as a bishop--they can still voluntarily observe the moritorium at the local level!), absolutely no one on the ground in Anaheim last week nor anyone reading the resolutions around the world could possibly take them for anything less than an abandonment of any pretense of moritoria on non-celibate gay bishops and church blessings of same-sex unions. The dancing in the aisles by the Episcopal LGBT lobby that took place following their passage is proof enough of that!
Yet ABC Williams seems to "buy it," mentioning only that "anxiety" persists around the world-wide Communion and there is not yet a consensus to move forward as TEC has done. What is the archbishop's remedy for this anxiety? The much-hyped but utterly toothless Anglican Covenant. And what is the outcome if provinces such as TEC don't want to sign onto the Covenant when it is finally ready a few years from now? Then TEC will simply go on being Anglican in a different "style" or "track" than the rest of the Communion! According to ++Williams, "The ideal is that both 'tracks' should be able to pursue what they believe God is calling them to be as Church, with greater integrity and consistency. It is right to hope for and work for the best kinds of shared networks and institutions of common interest that could be maintained as between different visions of the Anglican heritage."
Very helpful, your grace. Very helpful.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 8:43 AM
2 Comments:
While I admire ++Rowan attempt to maintain the stability of the Anglican Communion, but I fear he has lost that battle. Mayby he should focus on the Church of England, because ultimately it, the COE, will have to decide which side of this debate its on - the historic and traditional, represented by FCA/ANCA or the brave new church of the Episcopal Communion. Then we will see the Anglican Communion re-emerge.
Like I said.. Judas Archbishop Williams...
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