Following Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Consecration, Archbishop of Canterbury calls for first steps toward disciplinary action

from BabyBlueOnline by BabyBlue

BB NOTE: Timing, my friends - it's all about timing.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, calls for provinces formally breaking the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion to no longer officially represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical affairs (such as on the IASCUFO - you can read their communique here, which was released prior to Glasspool's consecration when the Episcopal Church was requested to stand down from it's intention to make her a bishop). This will particularly affect The Episcopal Church, which formally did break the moratoria at the Los Angeles consecration of Mary Glasspool, officiated by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Make no mistake about it, Rowan Williams timing in releasing his call now follows in the wake of the Glasspool consecration two weeks ago.

Dr. Williams writes, ""Although attitudes to human sexuality have been the presenting cause, I want to underline the fact that what has precipitated the current problem is not simply this issue but the widespread bewilderment and often hurt in different quarters that we have no way of making decisions together so that we are not compromised or undermined by what others are doing. We have not, in other words, found a way of shaping our consciences and convictions as a worldwide body."

Here is another excerpt from his official Pentecost letter, where he outlines the first consequences:

"We began by thinking about Pentecost and the diverse peoples of the earth finding a common voice, recognising that each was speaking a truth recognised by all. However, when some part of that fellowship speaks in ways that others find hard to recognise, and that point in a significantly different direction from what others are saying, we cannot pretend there is no problem.

"And when a province through its formal decision-making bodies or its House of Bishops as a body declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the Communion, it is very hard (as noted in my letter to the Communion last year after the General Convention of TEC) to see how members of that province can be placed in positions where they are required to represent the Communion as a whole. This affects both our ecumenical dialogues, where our partners (as they often say to us) need to know who it is they are talking to, and our internal faith-and-order related groups.

"I am therefore proposing that, while these tensions remain unresolved, members of such provinces – provinces that have formally, through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion and recently reaffirmed by the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) – should not be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged. I am further proposing that members of such provinces serving on IASCUFO should for the time being have the status only of consultants rather than full members. This is simply to confirm what the Communion as a whole has come to regard as the acceptable limits of diversity in its practice. It does not alter what has been said earlier by the Primates’ Meeting about the nature of the moratoria: the request for restraint does not necessarily imply that the issues involved are of equal weight but recognises that they are ‘central factors placing strains on our common life’, in the words of the Primates in 2007. Particular provinces will be contacted about the outworking of this in the near future.

BB NOTE: We can see some movement toward working within the communion structures at the last Global South meeting in Singapore when the leaders of the ACNA and the leaders of the Communion Partners came together to speak to the gathering. Efforts are underway to continue to build bridges between the ACNA and the Communion Partners, both formally and informally, as well with the Church of England which, in an extraordinary action in February recognized the ACNA's desire to remain Anglican at the Church of England Synod. Other efforts are underway as well which have not yet been made public. It will be interesting to watch if The Episcopal Church will change course as well and stand down from it's formal insistence to break the moratoria established in the Windsor Report.