Posted on 02/28/2007 7:38:10 PM PST by Huber
Apparently, Dar es Salaam was a lot nastier than some of its participants let on. Selections:
The Anglican Communion teetered on the brink of collapse throughout the final day of the primates’ meeting, Feb. 15-19 in Tanzania, with conflicting theological and philosophical views jousting for control of the future of Anglicanism.
A split was averted in the final hour when a compromise solution brokered by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola gave traditionalists the doctrinal standards they desired, while permitting a temporary structural latitude that allows all parties to remain part of the Communion’s conversation, for at least eight more months.
The high point in the meeting for The Episcopal Church came with the presentation of a report authored by a sub-group of the joint primates-Anglican Consultative Council standing committee and chaired by Archbishop Williams. It concluded the 75th General Convention had responded substantively to two of the three requests of the Windsor Report, and advocated a moderate course of action toward the American church.
The report’s unexpected conclusions were met with skepticism, several primates told a reporter for The Living Church. Completed six months earlier, the failure of Archbishop Williams to distribute the report ahead of the meeting caused it to be discounted, and its influence faded as the meeting progressed.
Looks like I have to go back to using ECUSA again.
Bishop Jefferts Schori was pressed by one primate to explain why the U.S. church had changed its name from the “Episcopal Church in the United States of America” to “The Episcopal Church.” The Presiding Bishop’s response, that the name change reflected the multinational character of the province, while an accurate description of events from an American perspective, jarred a number of primates who heard in the Presiding Bishop’s response echoes of “American empire.”
Staking out a claim to be “The Episcopal Church” of the Anglican Communion, when there were also Episcopal churches in Scotland, Brazil, the Philippines, Jerusalem and the Middle East, Rwanda, Sudan and Spain, was not well received, one centrist primate said. It was an “extraordinarily parochial” move for The Episcopal Church to have made given the international church and political climate, he said.
ECUSA seems to have taken a beating.
In deliberations spread over Friday and Saturday, the ground began to fall away from under The Episcopal Church as the debate shifted toward a discussion of what must be done, with the Global South favoring immediate action against a plea for continued deliberation. By Saturday evening the drafting committee had completed its work and unanimously agreed upon a communiqué to present to the entire group.
The Sunday service in Zanzibar put a face upon the primates’ divisions with no group photo, no con-celebration of the Eucharist, and six primates refusing to receive the sacrament with Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori. When the primates returned to business on Monday morning, the meeting’s final day, all signs pointed to an impasse with the Global South coalition refusing to endorse the joint communiqué.
From the sound of it, ECUSA has until September, polity or no polity.
The two-church solution proposed by the Global South at the start of the meeting had been softened to a church within a church structure with a primate-led Pastoral Council exercising de facto jurisdiction on behalf of Bishop Jefferts Schori. The Global South’s call for an immediate expulsion of The Episcopal Church had been softened to an eight-month reprieve.
Considering all the ECUSA bishops who have come out against the Communique, I once again doubt that Kate will get this through the House of Bishops either next month or in September. So it's looking more and more like work will soon begin on a liberal "Anglican Communion."
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. They're a bunch of Ents.
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