From The Living Church:
Posted on: August 19, 2008
Assisting Bishop William Wantland of Fort Worth offered a sobering assessment of a post-GAFCON, post-Lambeth Conference future for the Anglican Communion Aug. 15 in addressing members of the South East Wisconsin American Anglican Council at Nashotah House.
Bishop Wantland, who retired as Bishop of Eau Claire in 1998, minced no words.
“GAFCON (the Global Anglican Future Conference) didn’t need Lambeth,” Bishop Wantland said, “but Lambeth needs GAFCON.”
Bishop Wantland said he was confident that the GAFCON council of primates, which is currently comprised of the nine primates who attended the meeting in Jerusalem in June, would recognize a provisional overlapping Anglican province in North America within the next year.
Rather than seeking official recognition of the new province from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, however, he said the primates will work to bring the matter to a vote before the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). By precedent, the ACC is the canonically recognized body with the authority to recognize a new province, Bishop Wantland said.
“It is not totally unknown to have overlapping jurisdictions, but it is not the norm,” the bishop said. “You think you’re living in a litigious time of confusion now? Well, welcome to chaos after that happens. We are in for a long period of confusion and litigation. It almost makes me wish I was still a practicing lawyer.”
When questioned by a member of the audience as to why he was so pessimistic that the Lambeth Conference aura of personal good will would not last, Bishop Wantland responded that all sides identified by the Windsor Continuation Group as breaching the unity of the Communion already have said they will rededicate their efforts to continue pursuing their respective agendas.
“Some won’t recognize the new province, but that is already true today,” Bishop Wantland said. He cited the state of broken communion with The Episcopal Church previously declared by the Anglican churches of Uganda and Nigeria and others.
“In my opinion we missed a golden opportunity to address the crisis [at Lambeth],” he said. “Sweeping it under the rug is not dealing with it. I don’t want to be unduly critical of this Lambeth Conference, but they really didn’t know what they were doing.”
Steve Waring
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