Posted on 11/17/2005 3:36:15 PM PST by sionnsar
More and more, Bob Duncan talks like a man whose mind is made up:
“We are going to do what we can to help [the leadership of the Episcopal Church] talk about the Windsor Report,” the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the network, told The Living Church after the closing Eucharist. “We would love for them to commit to the Windsor Report, but we don’t think that is at all likely. The truth, then, is that we have no choice but to listen to what the Primate of Nigeria has said that you are going to have to make a choice.”
Bishop Duncan was referring to comments made by the Most Rev. Peter Akinola during a “Global South Primates Panel” presentation. In response to the written question, “What would you like to see the bishops of the network do that they have not yet done?” Archbishop Akinola said in part, “We have indicated this is your kairos moment to make up your mind of exactly what you want to do. Many of you have one leg in ECUSA and one leg in the network. With that, my friends, comes disaster. If you really want the Global South to partner with you, you must let us know exactly where you are. Are you ECUSA or are you network?”Archbishop Akinola did not attend a press conference scheduled immediately after the panel presentation. In a brief address delivered the following Sunday at Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., Archbishop Akinola said his comments about a “choice” in Pittsburgh concerned theology at present, not the ecclesial structure of the Episcopal Church.
“I’ve said this very clearly to the rest of the network,” Archbishop Akinola told the congregation. “If we’re going to be working together as members of the same Anglican Communion, then we must be on the same platform.”
UPDATE: Other Network bishops on Peter Akinola and a timetable for walking away
“I think to a large extent [Akinola] was reinforcing the fact that the Episcopal Church has voted itself into irrelevance,” said Quincy Episcopal Bishop Keith Ackerman, a bishop of the traditionalist Forward in Faith, North America (FIF-NA), which forms a non-geographical convocation in the Network. “Its failure to repent and its willingness to proceed with a business-as-usual mentality has caused conscientious primates to recognize that [ECUSA] has separated itself from mainstream Anglicanism. Those Americans who do not want to be part of a protestant sect as opposed to being a part of a worldwide Communion have to make a decision,” Ackerman told TCC.
“I’m not completely sure what Archbishop Akinola meant,” said Springfield (IL) Episcopal Bishop Peter Beckwith, another prelate aligned with the Network. “If he believes we should all leave now, I would disagree as I think it would be premature. We need to stay at least until after General Convention 2006 and probably until after [the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops]—mainly because that was the timetable the Windsor Report established. And though I would have had that timeframe be much less, there is good reason to be patient. On the other hand, I…made a decision a long time ago to go with the ACN. At best, my communion with ECUSA and Frank Griswold and company is impaired. I do not support him or `815’ in any way…
“After ’05 or ’08, if ECUSA chooses to continue to `walk apart,’ I would expect the ACN to be the official Anglican presence in the USA,” Beckwith told TCC. “If Canterbury and/or the primates do nothing in response to ECUSA’s inappropriate action or inaction [at General Convention], I would expect the global South to leave the Anglican Communion. At that point I will have a choice to make, and I believe my decision would be to go with the global South.”Echoing Beckwith in part, a third Network bishop, the Rt. Rev. Jack Iker of Fort Worth, said: “The first question to be answered is: ‘Will the Episcopal Church walk apart from the Anglican Communion?’ It is then that we must answer Archbishop Akinola’s question.”
“The problem is that [Akinola’s comments] encourage [a] breakaway,” said Pittsburgh Assistant Bishop Henry Scriven. “We need to be patient enough to see [ECUSA] break itself away from the Anglican Communion.”
I suspect that the break will come after GenCon 2006 when ECUSA makes its apostasy permanent. I can't see how it would be possible to wait any longer than that. Too much ground has been lost already.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. The only bishop here worth the name is +Peter.
I'm just glad I have no involvement in this. IMHO as a cradle Anglican the matter is now beyond Anglican deliberation, so very Entish in the absence of haste.
"...the matter is now beyond Anglican deliberation, so very Entish in the absence of haste."
LOL! Excellent!!!
I thought you would be amused. I, however, am less so. *\;-)
"I thought you would be amused. I, however, am less so. *\;-)"
I am, as they say, an insensitive and loutish fellow...but then again only a simple Balkan peasant so what do you expect!
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