From The Economist
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11900567
August 7, 2008
The bishops got on fine for a while-but was it only a holiday romance?
BY ITS own unusual lights, the Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops was a great success. Its self-imposed task was to avoid any nasty rows between 650 purple-clad gentlemen (and a few purple-clad ladies) who hold widely diverging views on issues which they see as matters of principle, not detail. And a "surprising level of sheer willingness to stay together" was finally reported, on August 3rd, by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury-after nearly three weeks of well-choreographed confraternity in which participants took no votes and made no firm decisions. (Such a luxury would hardly be possible for a body like, say, the International Telecommunication Union, where success is judged by earthly yardsticks.)
Still, the Anglican leader's own standing as a mediator, doing his best to hold together the almost irreconcilable, rose as a result of the gathering. And in a very Anglican way, the thorny issues facing the church were artfully concealed by euphemism and arcane procedures that will unfold over several years. Minds were distracted from trickier subjects by a hyper-inclusive march against poverty.
But the apparent lull in the storms buffeting Anglicanism looks temporary. Among the bishops who attended, there was broad agreement that it would be a good idea to maintain a moratorium in respect of the three actions (two by liberals and one by conservatives) that have nearly split the Communion. These are the consecration of openly gay clergy and, in particular, bishops; the approval of marriage-like rites for same-sex couples; and the "intervention" by conservative bishops (above all from Africa) in the affairs of liberal-dominated dioceses (often in North America). In other words, bishops in the southern hemisphere should stop taking traditionalist parishes or dioceses under their wing and consecrating new bishops for benighted, liberal lands. It was proposed that the woes of conservative communities who feel trapped in liberal dioceses should be addressed by a Communion-wide "pastoral forum" overseen by Mr Williams.
The trouble is that the bishops who are keenest on intervention (from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda) stayed away from Lambeth because they would not share the communion cup with gay-friendly Americans. It is unlikely that the proceedings will dampen their zeal.
Even among the bishops who did attend, there were moderate conservatives who showed up only in the hope that steps would be taken to rein in the liberals. They got some satisfaction, albeit in the form of a slow-burning fuse known as a "covenant" to which all Anglicans will be asked to subscribe in exchange for full membership of the Communion. The draft covenant contains tough Christian theology and robust words in favour of Christian mission; signatories would vow to avoid hurting Anglican unity. There is an appendix that provides, amid a web of elaborate procedures, for dissenting churches to be expelled. Archbishop Williams said it might take a year to perfect the covenant, and another four before all the Communion's 38 provinces consider it. It is hard to see liberal Americans or Canadians signing up; and despite the happy mood at Lambeth, nobody would bet much money on the American Episcopalians refraining from approving same-sex unions at their General Convention next year.
On the brighter side (from the Communion's viewpoint), some Americans who went to Lambeth do now have a better sense of the social and political constraints on bishops in traditional societies. (One African bishop recalls that after news reached his country of the gay-friendly stance of America's bishops, a senior Muslim asked him, in bewilderment, whether he too had ceased to be Christian.) "I came to understand as never before that there are places and cultures where it is not possible to discuss ," said Bishop Jeff Lee of Chicago.
As the conference proved, human chemistry can change when people committed to the ideal of loving one's foes hold long private meetings in small groups. It is hard for them to go on saying, afterwards, that their interlocutors are not only mistaken but bad and dishonest. But indaba-the Zulu practice of open consultation, which the conference borrowed-can't go on for ever; ultimately bishops return to their respective local realities.
Gene Robinson, the gay American bishop whose consecration in 2003 triggered the current crisis, was kept out of the Lambeth conference; his presence would have led to a larger boycott. Had he been inside, he might have refrained from his recent, rather startling statement that he was "not interested in becoming a martyr". That would have been a tactless thing to say to the face of any African prelate from a war zone, who faces daily calculations about the price of his life.
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