News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
2/10/2009
The ink was barely dry on the Alexandria Communiqué when it came under fire from the leader of the Anglican Communion's largest province, The Most Rev. Peter Akinola.
In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Nigerian Primate bitterly railed against liberal/revisionist provinces that are violating the communion in places like Virginia and Toronto even as 35 Primates talked nicely to one another while overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Talk of mediation made little sense when such ecclesiastical mischief was going on back home.
Dr Williams called for mediation and for "pastoral visitors" from Lambeth to act as "consultants in situations of stress and conflict" and also acknowledged the insufficiency of the approaches taken by the last two Primates' Meetings to the North American problem.
"We request the Archbishop of Canterbury to initiate a professionally mediated conversation which engages all parties at the earliest opportunity. We commit ourselves to support these processes and to participate as appropriate. We earnestly desire reconciliation with these dear sisters and brothers for whom we understand membership of the Anglican Communion is profoundly important," said a communique.
Heeding the call, Canadian Primate Fred Hiltz said, "It's out of a commitment to reconciliation that this whole process is emerging," in a phone interview from Cairo with the "Star"
Archbishop Rowan Williams, however, misspoke when he said that the Diocese of Recife was model of mediation and negotiation. The words were barely out of his mouth when the evangelical Bishop of the beleaguered Diocese of Recife Robinson Cavilcanti wrote to VOL saying that no "mediation process" has begun with the revisionist Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil.
"It is our duty to inform the public that Dr. Williams has not been well informed by his staff or is receiving inaccurate information from the revisionist leadership of the Province of Brazil. Our case (like the USA and Canada) is not a matter of personal or institutional relationship, but of deep irreconcilable doctrinal and ethical differences."
This is not the first time mediation has been tried and found wanting. There have been several attempts at reconciliation over the years. At the urging of the 40 Canadian House of Bishops, a "process of reconciliation" took place in 2002. The Diocese of New Westminster and a number of dissenters agreed upon a facilitator for talks. Bishop Michael Ingham held off issuing the rite of blessing to give the reconciliation process a chance to work. But after three meetings, the talks reached an impasse in February 2003. The ACNiW was formed in opposition to the diocese.
In US dioceses, there have been mediation attempts coupled with Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) being offered, but these have come to naught when it was learned that the diocesan bishop still had full and ultimate control and could decide who would be the visiting bishop. When talks broke down, litigation kicked in, thus ending any further talk of reconciliation. Churches that left either walked away from their properties or hunkered down for a protracted legal battle. Usually the diocese and the national church won.
In Alexandria this week, the Primates came away clear about one thing that an impossible impasse had been reached by both sides, with no possibility of healing a now totally broken communion. The communion might stay together under a broad Anglican umbrella, but future talks by both sides to preserve a faux unity would serve little purpose.
Inside Strategy
For some time now, there has been a school of thought among orthodox Episcopalians that has strongly opposed leaving the Episcopal Church regardless of the apostasy it has sunk into. They adopted what became known as the inside strategy.
Among its proponents was the highly intellectual school of thought known as the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI). Their chief thinkers are Dr. Philip Turner, Dr. Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner and Dr. Chris Seitz. Turner and Radner are both Episcopal priests, but the latter teaches at the Wycliffe School of Theology in Toronto along with Seitz.
At the ACI website, The Rev. Dr. Charles D. Alley, an Advisory Board member of Communion Partner Rectors, points up the difference between the outside strategy and the inside strategy with the former being more concerned with reforming TEC. The inside strategy is best described by Alley in the following manner: "Some conservative voices do not see as their vocation the reformation of TEC. Rather, the call is recognized as to stand as a witness to the truth in the midst of the theological chaos. They are called simply to be the Church and provide an alternative model of doing church within TEC. In this way these parishes can provide a witness to what the Church is meant to be so that TEC might have the opportunity to see what it has become."
This has not gone down well. In recent months, four dioceses have left TEC. There are now four overseas ecclesiastical bodies functioning in the US with a new North American Anglican Province aborning.
In recent weeks, however, the three ACI theologians have been extremely critical of Mrs. Jefferts Schori over her misuse of the canons. They have taken her to task regularly at their blogsite.
Other inside strategists include Southeast Asian theologian Dr. Michael Poon whose Global South Anglican website was set up after the 3rd South South Encounter in 2005 to make public materials from that event and from follow-up work as laid out in the communiqués, especially the Third Trumpet.
Another voice of inside strategy thinking is the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina, the only diocese to actually have a fulltime resident canon theologian. He has argued strenuously for staying in the Episcopal Church as did his former diocesan boss, Bishop Ed Salmon, under whom he worked. He now works under Bishop Mark Lawrence. Harmon himself has been conflicted in his own mind about whether to stay or leave The Episcopal Church. Some time ago, he approached Bishop Chuck Murphy, chairman of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA) looking for a job. When Harmon said he wanted to continue writing his blog, Bishop Chuck Murphy turned him down saying he wanted someone full-time devoted to church growth.
One bishop who did switch horses midstream is Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe. A once full supporter and strong advocate of the Anglican Communion Network, he suddenly announced in July of 2008 that he was joining the Anglican Communion Institute group as he wanted to stay with the inside strategy. Howe dropped his support of the ACN led by Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan and threw in his lot with the ACI, a group that wants to stay and fight for change in The Episcopal Church.
In his letter to the diocesan family, Howe said, "In my opinion, the Anglican Communion Institute has inherited the original vision of the Network: to work to promote orthodoxy within The Episcopal Church, and to maintain our relationships with the broader Anglican Communion."
However, the question inside strategists must now face is this; in light of the communiqué delivered at Alexandria and the realization that the Anglican Communion is irretrievably broken and torn beyond repair, and the fact that lawsuits are relentlessly being ratcheted up by the Episcopal Church, what is the future of such a strategy?
If GC2009 rescinds B033, pushes for rites for same sex partners, nods and winks at future pansexual bishops in TEC, and moves rites for same sex partners from optional to mandatory and then to coercive, where does that leave dioceses like Dallas, South Carolina, Albany, Western Louisiana, Western Kansas and Central Florida? The Diocese of Albany, at its last convention, changed its canons to make sure that anyone following Bishop Bill Love would not adhere to the Episcopal party line, but would such an orthodox bishop obtain consents? Most unlikely. Many believe Mark Lawrence is the last orthodox bishop. They may be right. He only obtained consents on a second run for the job after swearing fealty to Mrs. Jefferts Schori and agreeing not to take his diocese out of the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church is now known nationally and somewhat ridiculed as The Gay Church. With the iconic, if not heroic, status Bishop Gene Robinson has attained with the Obama administration as a sodomite bishop for all seasons, all that remains to be seen is just how much damage he will continue to do to The Episcopal Church known more for its past more glorious history as the home of 11 presidents and unnumbered senators and congressmen. The much-vaunted Covenant is not even going to be discussed at GC2009. Mediation is dead on arrival. On any reading, the inside strategy is seriously flawed and seemingly futile. GC2009 will be a defining moment. If same sex blessings and rites are voted in, then sooner or later, like women's ordination, it will become mandatory. What will the consciences of the handful of remaining orthodox bishops do then?
The time is shortly approaching when those who adhere to a wait and see policy might have to rethink it. On the flip side of the coin, one could argue that if it took Louie Crew 40 years to broker homosexuality into the church, one could turn it around over the next 40 years, presuming of course that there is anyone left in TEC to convert.
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