TIME BOMB?

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Buried in th[e] George Conger report [posted below] on Rowan Williams’ sanction of the Episcopal Organization is a piece of information which, if proven true, has the potential to blow the Anglican Communion to bits:

"The Archbishop’s Pentecost letter is the public half of a campaign to rein in the Episcopal Church, The Church of England Newspaper has learned, and follows a private letter delivered to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asking her to consider withdrawing from active participation on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.

"A letter from the Archbishop is believed to have been given to Bishop Jefferts Schori at the April 17 consecration of the Bishop of Connecticut, Dr Ian Douglas. Neva Rae Fox, a spokesman for the Presiding Bishop said she could not comment as she was not present at the Connecticut consecration. Dr Williams’ office would neither confirm nor deny the story, citing its policy of not commenting on the Archbishop’s private correspondence."

Is there anything to this? So far, we have no fire but a lot of suggestive smoke. This request might account for the Presiding Bishop’s two very public responses to Rowan Williams’ Pentecost letter and its aftermath and might have been one of the reasons behind Fred Hiltz’s recent public expression of support for TEO.

But a few minor boards here and there are one thing; the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion is something else entirely. So if my gracious lord of Canterbury has, in fact, asked the Presiding Bishop to withdraw from the Standing Committee, how will Mrs. Schori and the rest of the Episcopal left respond?

Considering the howls of outrage over the mild sanctions imposed so far, the mere request that Mrs. Schori stand down might be the straw that breaks the leftist Episcopal camel’s back. There will be all manner of wild ideas thrown around, emergency GenCons and whatnot, and the 2012 GenCon resolutions urging withdrawal from the Anglican Communion will probably begin to appear almost immediately.

But the left could take another tack, insisting that the Presiding Bishop ignore the request and attend the meeting, which I think Mrs. Schori will do anyway. Humility, thy name isn’t Katharine Jefferts Schori so the concept of taking one for the team just isn’t in her fabric. So I expect she’ll be there.

What happens when she does show up? Not much, at least initially. But I have to think that Dr. Williams won’t respond well if the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Organization answers his request with a “Thanks, Rowan, but I think I’ll go anyway.”

If Mrs. Schori decides to flip His Grace off, TEO probably shouldn’t allocate any funds to send her to the next Primates Meeting, at which point the de facto Anglican split essentially becomes de jure and people like Fred Hiltz have serious decisions to make.

I guess there are other possibilities as well. Lambeth Palace could suddenly discover a new “legal” way for the Anglican Church in North America to gain quick recognition. Since in his Pentecost letter, Dr. Williams mentions the Communion Partners:

It is significant that there are still very many in The Episcopal Church, bishops, clergy and faithful, who want to be aligned with the Communion’s general commitments and directions, such as those who identify as ‘Communion Partners’, who disagree strongly with recent decisions, yet want to remain in visible fellowship within TEC so far as they can.

Perhaps His Grace could ask the Communion Partner Bishops to elect one of their number to attend the Primates Meeting in the Presiding Bishop’s stead. Or Dr. Williams could have Bob Duncan over to Lambeth and call him “Archbishop” a lot while photographers made sure that the whole world knew about it.

All this is mere speculation, of course, and assumes that Dr. Williams has actually asked Mrs. Schori to withdraw from the Standing Committee. I rather suspect that he has; nothing else explains the defensive and somewhat peevish tone of the Presiding Bishop’s recent pastoral letter.

So the Current Unpleasantness may be coming to a head a lot faster than I thought it would. And it may well be the liberals who end up walking away.