from BabyBlueOnline by BabyBlue
The most fantastic news. Today the Church of England Synod recognizes and affirms that the ACNA wants to remain in the Anglican Communion. It provides a process forward.
That this Synod, aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada,
“(a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family;
(b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and
(c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011.”
The key words here are "recognize" and "affirm" and "remain." It puts forward a process as the Archbishop of Canterbury requested yesterday and it has a target date for a report for the next steps. This is the most excellent news. It really laid the line where we go from here - the whole thing could have been voted down and that would have been devastating for the ACNA.
It took amazing faith and guts for the Church of England to go forward and I am at this moment blown away by this news - I look outside at the snow right now and I am just blown away.
Peter Ould in the Church of England writes,
"There’s no other way to read this motion except that the Synod of the Church of England is fully in line with the desire of ACNA to be part of the Communion, and recognising that this stance has issues has asked the Archbishops to report back next year on how to go about helping the ACNA be part of the Communion. "
Pure and simple, the Church of England recognizes the ACNA. We are not "schismatics." The call it as it is, as it was show in the courtroom in the Commonwealth of Virginia - we have a division, what bishops at the Church of England Synod today called a schism in the Episcopal Church. They do not close a blind eye, but say it plainly, that the Church of England is "aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America."
But they do not once name-check The Episcopal Church, but instead calls us all - calls us all - "Anglican churches of the United States and Canada." This is enormously significant.
Not only that, but the CoE recommends a mechanism for a way forward. It's a bold and courageous step forward, led by the mother church.
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