GAME OF CHICKEN

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Australia’s Anglican Primate Philip Aspinall is going to have one of his BFF’s over:

We note with profound sadness that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, has been invited to preach in a Brisbane church in early July. This invitation shows an appalling lack of judgment and contempt for those who have suffered at the hands of the revisionists in The Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop has defied the vast majority of the Anglican Communion, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury, by pursuing a program of moral and doctrinal revision, endorsing homosexual behaviour and approving the appointment of a lesbian bishop. Her actions have been taken in full awareness of the widespread international concern which has led to an official call for a moratorium on any such measures.

This alarming behaviour has been compounded by a virulent attack on Anglicans in America who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of Scripture. The Presiding Bishop has been responsible for pursuing, in the secular courts, those who oppose her program of revision, as her agents seek to remove orthodox clergy and take over the property of faithful, Bible-believing congregations.

Is Aspinall sending a message? Possibly. Who’s he sending a message to? Rowan Williams. Aspinall is essentially telling my gracious lord of Canterbury that he, Aspinall, doesn’t care in the slightest what sanctions are or may yet be imposed on the Americans and that as far as he, Aspinall, is concerned, the Episcopal Organization is Anglican and always will be.

Does that mean that Australia will automatically follow the Americans out? I don’t think so; what would be easy for TEO would be enormously difficult for British Commonwealth places like Canada and Australia for both legal and emotional reasons.

I think what’s in play here is my liberal GAFCON scenario. That is, leftist Anglican entities will officially remain a part of the Communion while aggressively cultivating their own identity and aggresively fighting within the Communion for their own interests. Mrs. Schori will probably be the initial leader of that group.

TEO by itself doesn’t matter much(except for its money). TEO, its money and its friends, organized and with the secular press enthusiastically behind them, matter quite a bit.