THE WHEELS ON THE COMMUNION GO ROUND AND ROUND

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

Then they fly right off:

The forthcoming Standing Committee meeting will welcome two new members from Asia and Africa: Bp Paul Sarker (Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh and Bishop of Dhaka) and Revd Canon Janet Trisk of South Africa (Rector of the Parish of St David, Prestbury in Pietermaritzburg, in the Diocese of Natal).

The two new additions and the existing members face a packed agenda for their July meeting that includes reports on finance, mission, the Anglican Relief and Development Alliance, evangelism and church growth, and unity, faith and order including the progress of consideration of the Anglican Communion Covenant by the Provinces.

They will also be discussing Standing Committee membership issues including electing a successor to Bp Azad Marshall, Bishop of Iran, and noting the resignations of Archbishops Justice Akrofi and Henry Orombi.

Let’s see. Release on a Friday? Check. Bury the lede? Check. Mention the resignations in passing? Check.

Yup. This is very bad news and Lambeth Palace is not going to be able to spin this otherwise. Because it basically means that whatever conservative Anglican street cred the Standing Committee had left is gone and is not coming back. It could very well be that the Global South isn’t going to play games anymore.

Why? I suspect the Americans. The continued presence of Mrs. Schori and Ian Douglas on the Committee means that nothing meaningful is ever going to happen about the American innovations any time soon and so the Standing Committee itself has become a waste of everyone’s time.

So what does all this mean for the Communion long-term? Beats me. I don’t think any of this suggests that an immediate split is in view. Nor do I think that the primates will finally force the issue at their meeting; if that was ever going to happen, it would have happened by now.

I think that what we’re likely to continue to see is more of the long, slow disintegration of the Anglican Communion. Primates like Anis and Orombi will continue to basically ignore the Archbishop of Canterbury.

They’ll continue to accept oversight of any North American parishes who ask for it regardless of what committees my gracious lord of Canterbury kicks them off of. They’ll have Bob Duncan, Donald Harvey and Jack Iker over to preach regularly and they’ll preach regularly in ACNA parishes.

Eventually, meetings like GAFCON and whatever its leftist counterpart turns out to be will assume greater and greater importance in the Anglican scheme of things while the “instruments of unity” will wither and die. They’ll still meet from time to time and there will still be Lambeth Conferences, it’s just that not much of anyone, least of all Anglicans, will care very much what any of them say or do.

I suspect that the term “Anglican” will eventually have the same sort of meaning that the term “English language” does now. That is, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Uganda all speak the same language but Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Uganda are not the same peoples.

Because the English language is the only thing that unites them. And the only thing that will unite Anglican churches is that they use some form of the Anglican prayer book in their worship. The Americans and Canadians will do what they’ll do, the Africans will cross boundaries and oversee parishes on this side of the Atlantic and no one will care any longer what Lambeth Palace thinks about it all.

And the day will finally come when you will be an Anglican, as a wag once observed, if you think you are.