TLC Report of Primates Meeting in Dar Es Salaam

BB NOTE: From Ace Reporter Steve Waring of The Living Church, in Dar Es Salaam:

On Day 1, Spotlight on The Episcopal Church
2/14/2007

The Episcopal Church's response to the Windsor Report will be the focus of the first two sessions of the full primates' meeting in Tanzania on Feb. 15. Significant changes have made to the draft agenda previously proposed by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

In the morning, the primates will receive a briefing and report prepared by an advisory group which was appointed last September by the joint standing committee. The joint standing committee is composed of standing committee members from the primates and the Anglican Consultative Council.

The advisory group was asked to assist the Archbishop of Canterbury in preparing an initial response to the decisions on the Windsor Report made by the 75th General Convention last June. Because of the absence from the meeting of group member Archbishop Barry Morgan of Wales, it may be that Archbishop Williams will brief the primates on the work of the advisory group. Time has been left on the schedule for questions and discussion of the report and issues related to it.

Archbishop Morgan is one of two primates who served on the group, the other being the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa and Bishop of the Upper Shire. They were joined by lay persons, Canon Elizabeth Paver of the Church of England and Mrs. Philippa Amable of the Province of West Africa, along with staff support.

The revised schedule calls for the extra-curricula presentation by bishops invited from The Episcopal Church on Thursday afternoon. That session will not be held in the same conference room at the White Sands Resort as the one where the rest of the business sessions are scheduled to occur in deference to its extraordinary nature. Each bishop from The Episcopal Church has been allotted 5-10 minutes for opening remarks, followed by an opportunity for questions posed to them by the primates.

The purpose of the two presentations is to serve as background to one of the dominant issues to be addressed: Did the General Convention respond adequately to the recommendations posed by the Windsor Report? A response will probably not be forthcoming until the final communique on Feb. 19.

Read the whole thing here.