Lambeth Palace on new province

From Ruth Gledhill of the Times of London:

December 04, 2008

As the Washington Post reports, conservatives from The Episcopal Church
'have voted to form their own branch of Anglicanism in the United States and
said they would seek new recognition in the worldwide church because of
their growing disenchantment over the ordination of an openly gay bishop and
other liberal developments.' Today Lambeth Palace, although not the
Archbishop of Canterbury in person, has at last made a comment on this, and
the comment makes it clear that this new province will not receive formal
recognition. I would say in fact it is pretty brutal in its dismissal of the
Common Cause initiative. Expect much metaphorical and spiritual blood to be
shed over this.

Lambeth Palace says: 'There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican
Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12),
detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial
constitutions and the creation of new provinces.

'Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation
to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership
in Chicago, no such process has begun.'

But the big question that is being asked inside the power structures of the
Anglican Communion is: 'Do they want recognition?' Is there a desire to
maintain unity or not? This is not at all clear, and so far the guidance
from both sides on this is a bit fuzzy.

All I could establish for certain, from an Anglican Communion Office
spokesman, was this: 'There has been no approach from the Common Cause
Partnership about their proposal.'