Commentary
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
12/10/09
Increasingly commentary from around the world, but especially from the UK, is that the Anglican Communion as we know it is over, brought on by the latest actions of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles when they elected an avowed lesbian to the episcopacy.
The determination by The Episcopal Church to snub its ecclesiastical nose at the vast majority of Anglicans who are orthodox in faith and morals is relentless. On the one hand, The Episcopal Church wants desperately to remain in the Anglican Communion, but it wants to do so on its own terms and without a moratorium on its actions. On the other hand, it is willing to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Anglican Consultative Council and a Listening Post in London, while pouring equally large sums of money into African provinces to gain a foothold on that continent. At the same time, they are happy to accuse African Anglicans of being bigots, homophobic, biblical literalists and much more.
It's a bit like a spoiled adult saying he will only eat his dinner as long as it consists of filet mignon with a bottle of Lafete Rothschild, but he won't touch macaroni and cheese with a glass of cold water.
The Episcopal Church has been repeatedly warned at Lambeth '98 with Resolution 1:10, GC Resolution B033, The Windsor Report, (and with it the call for a moratorium), The Dromantine Communique and a potential Covenant that there is a price to pay for disobedience. The Episcopal Church doesn't think so. Dr. Williams has not enforced any of the procedures put in place to discipline The Episcopal Church. Had he done so perhaps ACNA might not have come into being. He failed to act and so ACNA was formed.
Judging by the arrogant and high-handed remarks of Los Angles Bishop Jon Bruno against those who would oppose Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool's appointment and his threat to bring presentment charges against those bishops who do, the agony on Archbishop Rowan Williams can only be ratcheting up.
A number of the largest African provinces like Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to name but a few have declared themselves either in impaired or broken communion with TEC. They have no plans to reverse that. The actions of the Diocese of Los Angeles this week will only serve to reinforce their mindset.
The question is: what happens now?
The truth is it all depends entirely upon Dr. Rowan Williams. He has the option of excluding The Episcopal Church and its Presiding Bishop from future meetings of the Primates and announcing publicly that he is no longer in communion with TEC. But will he? Secondly, he can abolish the Primates' meeting if he chooses, by simply not inviting it to meet. Will he? Who knows? Every time he does call them together, the number of primates who will take Holy Communion with TEC's Presiding Bishop's grows, which leads gleeful sodomite Colin Coward of Changing Attitude to say, (as he did in Alexandria, Egypt) "we will wear them down."
(In Ireland 22 Primates would not have communion with Frank Griswold. That figure was reduced to eight in Egypt). There might therefore be some truth to Coward's assertion that holding Primate's meetings is a win win for pansexualists. Coward also said he knew of two Primates who were homosexuals but refused to name them.
Following the action of TEC to consecrate Gene Robinson, the Anglican Consultative Council called on TEC to step back from certain committees as a sort of punishment for its behavior. This was roundly deplored. TEC was restored largely because no one really wanted to enforce it and secondly because TEC holds a large portion of the purse strings. To make a de facto schism into a de jure one, the African provinces really ought to withdraw from any contact with the Episcopal Church, unfortunately they are not united. As one shrewd observer noted, "they will be picked off one by one."
The birth of ACNA and its Canadian counterpart, the ANiC, are proving effective in mission. They have the potential over time to compete on equal terms with the "official" provinces.
Some observers believe that if they continue with Women's Ordination they will simply fall victim to the same fault-line which demolished PECUSA / ECUSA. Still others believe that the 1979 Prayer Book fails to truly express the liturgical mind of the worldwide Anglicanism. What will happen to the three Anglo-Catholic dioceses in ACNA? Uniate status with the Roman Catholic Church? Some form of link with Orthodoxy? Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Iker told VOL recently that his diocese would withdraw from ACNA if women are ordained bishops. Such ordinations seem unlikely. One can't imagine that Archbishop Robert Duncan would be so foolish as to test that issue. Nonetheless, it hangs like a Damoclean Sword over the fledgling province.
The truth is there is no mechanism for splitting the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion does not have a pope who can say who is in or out.
The formal announcement by individual provinces that they are in broken communion is the closest to a split we can get. In truth, both ACNA and the ANiC are signs of the brokenness of the Anglican Communion.
Dr. Williams is clinging to one last, final, desperate, hope. It is that Canon Glasspool's election will not be ratified by the national church.
But this is a vain hope.
Canon Thew Forrester, who sought the bishopric of Northern Michigan and failed, got nixed over charges he dabbled with Buddhism and the church's liturgy. But sex is of a different order and numerous resolutions in TEC have been passed that no longer recognize that sex must be between a man and a woman in holy matrimony. At one level her appointment would seem a shoe in.
Several dioceses, Texas, West Texas, Central Florida and perhaps all the Communion Partners bishops will not give consents, but they will not swing the crowd. This election, like all elections to the episcopate, must receive a majority of consents from bishops exercising jurisdiction (that is, diocesan bishops) as well as diocesan Standing Committees of the Episcopal Church within 120 days of the election.
Many bishops will be torn over what to do. Bishops in the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold, wrote West Texas Bishop the Rt. Rev. Gary Lillibridge.
Glasspool only needs a simple majority and it seems she will get it. "Gracious restraint" is over. The conservative Church of England group Reform said that a schism is now "absolutely inevitable".
Rowan Williams has run out of time. He has dithered and prevaricated for so long that the Pope recently stepped in to rescue traditionalist Anglicans.
Dr Williams Affirming Catholicism, a sort of Anglo-Catholic light, has preferred unity over truth and that has come back to haunt him. Truth is the true victim, and unity can only be obtained by adhering to it.
If he chooses to do nothing following the inevitable consecration of Canon Glasspool, the disintegration of the Anglican Communion will only intensify, with the Pope seen to be attacking on one flank, and the evangelicals, led by the GAFCON Primates, attacking on the other. Williams' homosexual friends, angry at him for his many flip flops on homosexuality, will only grow angrier even as he hangs a flag of surrender from the gates of Lambeth Palace.
END
No comments:
Post a Comment