BB NOTE: I too was there when Rowan Williams told the packed press room at the Lambeth Conference that he would be personally contacting all the bishops that didn't show up for Lambeth for their thoughts and ideas about the Anglican Communion as well, which didn't sit well with the Episcopalian media in the room as I recall. He also talked about delivering on the Pastoral Forum by October. Now we're heading into late October with the autumn leaves blowing off the trees and it's hard not to wonder if the Archbishop of Canterbury is just blowing off into the wind.George Conger write about it here:
In the closing press conference, Dr. Williams said Lambeth had proven that the bishops could speak to each other respectfully and prayerfully, and had a “strong commitment to remain unified.”Read the whole thing here. And while we wait for some answers, take it away Bob. How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?
Dr. Williams also acknowledged that unlike the 1998 conference, which ended with a one million-pound surplus, the 2008 conference had run into debt. According to an internal Conference document distributed to registered bishops, the budget for the meeting was £5.6 million excluding travel costs. On August 11, the Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners of the Church of England extended an emergency loan of £600,000 to help cover the estimated £1.2 million shortfall.
“The pieces are on the board” for the resolution of the Anglican conflict, Williams asserted. “And in the months ahead it will be important to invite those absent from Lambeth to be involved in these next stages.”
However, as of October 16, eight weeks after the close of the conference, Dr. Williams has yet to contact the boycotting bishops to take part in the “next stages.”
Nor has his delivered August 3 promise that “within the next two months” a “clear and detailed specification for the task and composition of a Pastoral Forum” would be delivered that included the “perspectives of various groups” within the communion.
3 comments:
No confidence in RW and KJS et al, may be a very good thing.
There are three kinds of people, those who want others to fear and obey them, those who fear and obey others and those who fear and obey God. Thank God for the God-fearing Primates who are obedient to God's Word.
What say you now, FCA Primates Council?
His Gracious Lord of Canterbury will express his opinion and and act on it just as soon as Purple Haze tells him what his opinion is and what he is to do about it. Until then he will sit quietly on his cathedra and act bishoply, sort of.
Rowan Cantuar is the grandest sock puppet in the Anglican world.
Poor Rowan - an academic fish out of water.
The AoC is expect4ed to make decisions from time to time. On the other hand, academics seek to find and publish something new, or at least controversial.
The last thing an academic wants to do is make a decision, because eventually he may be found to have erred. The search for something new, however can alway be couched in terms of "further research is needed on this topic".
RalphM
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