Here is the audio of Rowan William's Press Conference:A must-listen - we learn that Rowan Williams did oppose the amendments to separate Section IV from the rest of the Anglican Covenant and did not vote for them.
"I didn't vote for those amendments and couldn't have," the Archbishop of Canterbury tells the press today," because of my objection to sending back everything anyway."
It never made sense to me that Rowan Williams wanted to send the Covenant back. And the fact of the matter is, he never did.
8 comments:
I enjoyed listening to that Babyblue, but it was the presidential address, wasn't it?
Obadiah Slope
Oops, I didn't finish with the code. It's fixed now. I do recommend it highly.
bb
BB - pls do read the ACI statement re Jamaica....the ABC was Schori's greatest ally in getting the covenant delayed.......he intervened in the debate and it only helped SChori et al
I don't believe that was his intent. I think that's what happened - it's possible they even played him. If this was Washington-style politics, I'd say it was payback for Lambeth.
bb
It seems to me that TEC was seeking to divorce Section IV from the rest of the Anglican Covenant. The first attempt by TEC was to remove Section IV completely from the Anglican Covenant, end stop. You do that in a legislative process to move everyone to such an extreme that anything less than that could be seen as a compromise. TEC never expected that Section IV would be tossed out of the Covenant. It was strategic action to move the ACC-14 closer to their view (and they put Mr. Congeniality Ian Douglas up to do it, rather than Schori for example).
The next step then is to still divorce Section IV from the Covenant, but send it off to be studied with the possibility that some day it might be, just might be restored to the Covenant as some future amendment, some day, maybe not, let's just say not.
Meanwhile, those who are not as familiar with this type of strategic maneuvering are not being kept in the loop as to what is happening. They are still thinking either the Anglican Covenant goes forward or it doesn't. But what's actually now breaking out is the power struggle between Lambeth and 815.
Break for lunch.
Aspinall, who is actually an ally of Lambeth, comes in with a new text. It seeks to give TEC what it wants on the surface (that is to "study" Section IV) but not to divorce it from the entire Covenant. In other words, it acknowledges there is agreement on all of the Covenant except for Section IV. The entire Covenant then will be put on hold while Section IV is studied (therefore, not divorcing Section IV from the rest of the Covenant) and oh, by the way, the Archbishop of Canterbury himself gets to decide who's going to study Section IV.
Meanwhile, the Global South are completely out of the picture. The pissing contest is between Lambeth and 815 - but from an orthodox point of view, it looks like Rowan Williams has caved to 815 (and he didn't fight to send the Covenant forward, that is true), but he did succeed in keeping the Covenant alive (theoretically) - for it would have been DOA if it had been sent to the provinces without Section IV.
The other piece that disappeared was the stipulation (from 815) that only those listed on the ACC-14 roster would get to sign it - which is what 815 wanted. 815 wants to exclude Episcopal dioceses and ACNA from signing the Covenant. That exclusion was also removed from the final resolution - a skirmish victory for the Communion Partners and ACNA. Their hopes remain alive.
At the Battle in Jamaica for the Anglican Covenant there was a strategic loss for the Anglican Covenant Design Group that anticipated the timeline to go from the ACC-14 to the churches.
815 won a strategic decision to delay the Anglican Covenant.
815 won a strategic decision in separating Section IV from the rest of the Covenant.
Lambeth won a strategic decision in not divorcing Section IV from the Covenant, but keeping the Covenant together as a whole.
Lambeth won a strategic decision to gain control over who "studies" Section IV.
There's a split decision between 815 and Lambeth on the establishment of the Joint Standing Committee as the final arbiter (thereby lifting the JSC as a near equal "instrument of communion") on the Anglican Covenant before it's sent on for ratification.
There is a win for ACNA and the Communion Partners in that there are still no restrictions in place for them to vote on the Anglican Covenant.
There is a loss for the Communion Partners in the delay of the Anglican Covenant to go before General Convention 2009 and the possible pieces of legislation that could both delay the Anglican Covenant to years after they have all retired, as well as possible legislation that will isolate them from their province.
There is a win for Katharine Jefferts Schori in successfully delaying the Anglican Covenant as long as she remains in office.
There is a win/loss for Rowan Williams in that he was able to keep the Covenant together and not fragment, but he was isolated and unable to bridge the widening chasm that separates provinces in the Anglican Communion. In fact, we saw evidence of a widening gap between Canterbury and the Church of England as the CoE representative seemed to side with 815, along with Wales and Ireland and Scotland, while the New Zealand and Australian delegations seemed to be split.
And there is a loss to the Global South in the realization that they are merely bit players in this larger power struggle between Lambeth and 815.
But there was a major win for the Global South for through it all they hung together, even as chaos broke out on the floor and in the backrooms, they hung together. This is a key point for ACNA and the Communion Partners and, God willing, the Archbishop of Canterbury himself.
BB - the ABC could have spoken against the attempt to get rid of section IV and then spoken against any delay in sending the Ridley draft to the provinces....he did not do that but what he did only helped those who wanted delay.....
Remember too, if he had followed Windsor, Shcori would not be in the councils of the AC - but he put her there regardless....after all, they agree on Lambeth 1.10
That is a very good analysis of the meeting. Thankyou!
John Sandeman/ Obadiah Slope
Is there a fund I can contribute to that will provide tidying up for the Archbishop? Perhaps "Combs to Canterbury" might be a charity whose time has come.
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