Tuesday, November 25, 2008

London Times: Anglican province faces “punishment” this week for offering safe haven to orthodox Anglicans

BREAKING NEWS

BB NOTE:
Golly. Think it's time to watch the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent Video again. Now we see who the TEC allies are - and their methods of dealing with the crisis. Who would have thought that so-called liberals would be using punitive action as their route to reconciliation? Just who are the liberals these days? My goodness. Obviously we're seeing a pattern develop here and it's more a wet blanket than a warm and fuzzy one. That Goth Eucharist is looking better all the time.

Time to revisit
The Graph. "It's rough out there, high water everywhere." And he ain't kiddin'. In fact, we look at this and think "retribution." Are the tribunals next? Is that what this "Joint Standing Committee" really is? Looks like Mouneer Anis and Henry Orombi want nothing to do with it. Will Rowan Williams remember his own Advent message?

From here. More here And here.
A conservative province in the Anglican church faces “punishment” this week for offering a safe haven to conservatives.

Senior bishops and laity meeting in London are to consider suspending the Anglican church in South America for taking rebel US dioceses under its wing.

The move will bring the Anglican Communion closer to a formal split. Early next month, rebel conservatives are expected to finalise plans for a new Anglican province in the US, to sit as a parallel jurisdiction alongside the existing Episcopal Church.

Unless this new province is recognised as part of the Anglican family by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the other 38 primates, it will in effect become a new Anglican church.

In a further indication that the liberals are winning the Anglican wars, The Episcopal Church of the US, which was suspended at a previous meeting, is expected to be welcomed back into the fold after sticking by its pledge not to consecrate any more gay bishops.

The Latin American Province of the Southern Cone headed by English-born bishop, the Most Rev Gregory Venables, has aroused the fury of liberal primates after a fourth US diocese voted to leave The Episcopal Church and realign with it.

Fort Worth voted earlier this month to quit the liberal Episcopal Church. Within the last 12 months, San Joaquin, Pittsburgh and Quincy have all approved a similar change.

Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh has subsequently been deposed.

The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, last Friday sent out a “letter of inhibition” against Fort Worth’s Bishop Jack Iker which is expected to lead also to his deposition.

Bishop Iker, who opposes women’s ordination, said in response: “Katharine Jefferts Schori has no authority over me or my ministry as a Bishop in the Church of God. She never has, and she never will.”

The Church of England has so far resisted being split by the controversy. At a recent meeting of evangelicals in London, delegates refused to vote for a motion backing a declaration by the Global Anglican Future Conference, the conservative “alternative” to the Lambeth Conference that met in Jerusalem last summer.

The penalty being considered against the Southern Cone, which has 22,000 members in Argentina and surrounding nations, includes the removal of voting rights at the forthcoming meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, the central governing body of the Anglican Communion, in Jamaica next May.

When the council last met in Nottingham in 2005, the lay and ordained members from Canada and the US were allowed to attend as observers but were barred from voting. This was because a diocese in Canada had authorised a rite for same-sex blessings and The Episcopal Church had gone ahead with the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Bishop Jefferts Schori are among those who will be debating action against the Southern Cone at this week’s meeting of the joint standing committee of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council, chaired by the Right Rev John Paterson of New Zealand.

Significantly, the two conservative Archbishops on the committee, the Most Rev Henry Orombi of Uganda and the Most Rev Mouneer Anis of Egypt and the Middle East, have decided not to attend.

5 comments:

RMBruton said...

Doesn't the fact that both bishops Orombi and Anis have chosen not to attend the Council meeting pave the way for "disciplining the Southern Cone? If that happens how close are we to a formal splitting of the Communion? Is Dr. Williams willing to allow that?

Anonymous said...

Ruth got it wrong apparently. We have Chancellor's post that points out that all that can be done is that there can be a request for Southern Cone to voluntarily withdraw. (This is what happened to the TEC in 2005.) Southern Cone can politely point out there is not equivalency between communion tearing actions and "border crossings" and decline.

Unknown said...

Well, that is technically true. But even TEC honored the "voluntary" withdrawal because in British-speak it isn't really voluntary. We Americans speak plainly (sometimes too plainly) but the British - especially in diplomatic circles, which the Anglican Church has most often been in the center of through its history - when someone is politely asked to withdraw (like at a party), the proper thing is to obey. There really isn't a choice.

There could be a clash between cultures - but "to leave the party" is the proper and fitting thing to do. So while it technically is "voluntary" - in cultural practice it is a firm request. It would be bad manners to order someone to do something, as it would be bad manners to order a friend to leave the party. So of course, it's "voluntary."

Do you see what I mean?

bb

Creighton+ said...

Clearly, the ABC and others are aligning against the leadership of the Global South and the Reasserters and Traditionalists in TEC and ACiC. Their hand is being shown and it shows those who have the money control matters. It is not about the Christian Faith or Anglicanism. It is about money, power and control.

What is being missed by the ABC and these leaders is you cannot force others to embrace your point of view. Yet, they will do what to make life hard for those who will not conform to their ways.

The pot calling the kettle black.

So sad...it will simply do the opposite and the fracturing of the AC is well on its way...as is the EC and the ACiC.

Anglican Beach Party said...

I've got to think that anytime the PB looks that happy ... it cannot possibly be a good thing.