WISH LIST

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

You know what I’d love? [To get married?- Ed] You know what else I’d love? [To lose 40 pounds? - Ed] You know what ELSE I’D LOVE?!! [To find full-sized and detailed sterling silver medallions featuring the Great Seal of the Confederacy, the first state seal of South Carolina or both? - Ed]

Sigh. Not counting romance, weight loss and my sigillographic aspirations, do you know what I’d love? [No- Ed] I’d love it if the traditionalist bishops in the Anglican Communion would finally wake up, smell the coffee and realize just how much scorn and contempt western liberal Anglicans have for them:

When the Anglican Communion started to unravel in 2007, following the Archbishop of Canterbury’s unexplained decision to invite the American bishops to Lambeth 2008, even before the deadline for their compliance with certain restraints imposed by the primates, and the subsequent attempt to pretend that the ‘deadline’ was nothing of the kind, Bishop Mouneer stood out as someone who was not prepared to break with the central organs of the Communion. Unlike many other primates from the developing world, he continued to believe that the processes envisaged by the Windsor Report(2004) and the proposed Anglican Covenant, sponsored by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the answer to the Communion’s incoherence as an ecclesial body, were good and necessary solutions to the church’s problems. Accused of being naive by some of those who went on to form the FCA, Bishop Mouneer stuck by Rowan Williams and became one of his strongest backers. His public statements are full of praise for him and often quote him at some length, a degree of devotion which must make him virtually unique in the Anglican world.

Alas, Bishop Mouneer’s reward for this extraordinary loyalty has been meagre. At one point he specifically asked the ACC to hold back on a statement it was going to issue because he was on a pastoral visit elsewhere in the Middle East and would not have time to consider it until his return to Cairo. He was ignored, and the ACC went ahead without him, making only the shortest of apologies when it realised that it had caused offence. Dr. Williams, who seems to have all the time in the world for Ms Schori, never rushed off to Cairo or showed any public concern for Bishop Mouneer’s position. He could not ignore the bishop’s resignation[from the Joint Standing Committee] of course, but his official statement was perfunctory in the extreme and betrayed no sign of any sympathy for the reasons which compelled [Anis] to leave.

Nothing in this world should be respected simply because it is old or because “we’ve always done it that way.” If the Anglican Communion is truly serving God, it can and will be maintained. If it is not, it is, in Jesus’ words, “good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

As things stand now, the Anglican Communion is not. Some of its constituent churches certainly are and are thriving as a result. But as far as the Communion as a whole is concerned, Anglican theology, to the extent that such a thing still exists, is an incoherent mess and Anglican teachings are routinely ignored without anything even remotely resembling church discipline.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has tacitly admitted again and again that he is unwilling to perform the unpleasant duty of church discipline. That’s why the Canadian and American bishops were invited to a Lambeth Conference deliberately structured not to address the most serious problem in the Communion’s history. That’s also why Dr. Williams’ Covenant has gotten progressively weaker and even more worthless.

Men like Mouneer Anis, Nicholas Okoh and Henry Orombi, who risk more just by waking up in the morning than rich and comfortable British, American and Canadian Anglicans risk in their entire lives, should realize all this and I think that on some level at least, they do.

So if Dr. Williams invites Mrs. Schori or Mr. Hiltz to the next Primates Meeting, these men, along with Australia’s Phillip Jensen, should either not show up or show up only to finally have the confrontation they should have had five years ago.

What sort of confrontation? Simple. “Dr. Williams? We’ve waited long enough and we’ve given the North Americans far more chances than they deserve and they’ve spit in our faces each time. So you can have them or you can have us. But effective immediately, you can no longer have both.”

And I don’t just mean that traditionalists should once again go home, retreat to GAFCON or FCA, start issuing open letters and position papers and leave it at that. I mean that they should cut ties. Right then and there, officially, formally and completely.

Because some kind of connection to Canterbury, some sort of “official” recognition of one’s Anglican status is something else that isn’t anywhere near as important as some people seem to think it is. If it helps one’s work for the Lord, then it is something to cherish. But if it does not, it should thrown away.

That’s what intelligent people do with garbage.