We learned, after the Australian bishops said they would not respond until after the Episcopal Church answers the Primates Communique, that Canterbury had postponed the Lambeth deadline for bishops to respond to their invitation to the conference next year. Today we learn from the London Telegraph that "Only a couple of hundred of the 880 Anglican bishops invited to next year's Lambeth Conference, one of the most critical gatherings in the Church's history, have replied by the deadline set by the Archbishop of Canterbury." Hmm ...The Telegraph also reports that "The Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, said in a recent interview that more than half of the Church of England's bishops would also wait until next month before deciding whether to attend."
The September 30th countdown continues. Read the Telegraph article here.
Tip of the TinFoil to StandFirm.
4 comments:
One can only hope that certain of the initations to Lambeth will be found to have been signed in disappearing ink.
From the Laffin' Place,
The Rabbit
Actually why not invite everyone to Lambeth, but hold two separate types of meetings ... one working fully together as constituent members. Agenda: missions, covenant, etc. The other to be held between constituent members and associate members, you know for tea and listening to one another. This would fit into the scheme Williams offered previously, would save face so all get to come to meet at the table, but only some get to be involved in the actual business of the communion.
Those Americans who would not be allowed in as constituent members could show up and listen (or have others listen to them I suppose) but the work of the communion could go on seriously among those who abide by its previous rulings, and subscribe to its discipline.
Just a thought. Not like I'm waiting by the mailbox for my invite.
That is what Rowan Williams suggested would happen. In this case, perhaps, the "guest" status that is being discussed regarding Gene Robinson may in fact include all of the TEC bishops if the House of Bishops does not comply with the Primates Communique. I just find it hard to imagine TEC bishops showing up in the second tier status - especially since it's TEC money that pays for the Anglican Communion Office (and much of the Lambeth Conference itself). Will it be principle or principal that will matter in the end?
bb
Ah but that's the beauty of the process. If the Americans do not attend they can no longer say they are interested in listening ... or that they are full members of the communion.
No matter how hard they try the spin that they are the victims here, it would be their choice not to participate, not to come and try to have an impact on the less sophisticated bishops who merely need to meet more GLTB folk to change their minds.
And they would be free to come as constiuent members if they renounced the choices they made to place them in the second tier.
You see the best way forward I think is to leave the responsibility for choosing in the hands of someone other than the ABC. That would actually make each person responsible for their own choices and the consequences ...
Wouldn't that be a novel thing these days, wot?
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