Posted on 05/18/2005 11:59:53 AM PDT by sionnsar
Pete Carnley lets the cat out of the bag:
With its composition still in the planning stage, the Panel of Reference envisioned by the primates will help people deal “eye-to-eye,” rather than through the media, according to its chairman, the Most Rev. Peter F. Carnley.
“That’s been one of the problems of our Communion over the last decade or so,” Archbishop Carnley said. “We’ve been communicating to each other by talking about one another through the media rather than speaking with one another. I see mediation in those terms: encouraging conversation.”
Anglicans are going to solve all their problems by having meetings and talking? That's so crazy, it just might work!
The Panel of Reference will be an independent body, Archbishop Carnley said. It will offer pastoral advice and mediation. It is not an adversarial processes leading to a judgment. It will work with some of the differences experienced by parishes, dioceses, and provinces. Services will be offered to a national church at the request of its Primate. Participation will be voluntary.
So this Panel isn't going to do anything in particular, it can't make anyone do anything at all, it will only get involved when a Primate asks it to and nobody has to cooperate. Gee. Count me in.
In cases when an alternative bishop has been requested, Archbishop Carnley prefers to think of it as “alternative episcopal ministry” rather than “alternative episcopal oversight.” The diocesan bishop still has jurisdiction, but another bishop will provide ministry to the parish, diocese, or province in question.
Since participation in this sham is voluntary, that presumably means that anyone who agrees to this can opt out whenever the mood strikes them. So it's likely that whatever arrangements are made will be considered temporary. This sounds an awful lot like ECUSA's Delightfully Easy to Plow under the Orthodox(DEPO) plan. No wonder Frank's enthusiastic about it.
According to Peter Carnley, the Panel of Reference is a yet another mechanism which will allow the Anglican Communion to avoid making tough decisions. And its approach will be the same as all the others before it and all the others that will follow. Keep yammering(start new toothless international Anglican commissions if need be) until the conservatives get tired, stop complaining, go home, start scratching checks again and let the liberals run the Anglican world in peace. One wonders if Peter Akinola and Henry Orombi had the same view of the Panel as Peter Carnley when they signed the Newry Primates Statement.
So the onus is once again on Anglican conservatives around the world. How many times do Anglican conservatives need to be taught the lesson that Anglican liberals will never back down but will delay, evade and prevaricate for as long as it takes? What it will take to move Anglican conservatives from strong words to strong actions? And how long before certain conservative Anglican bishops realize what many of us understood a long time ago? That they are going to have to be willing to walk away from Canterbury if they want to preach the Gospel.
Some of them will figure all this out eventually. I just hope that there are people left in their pews when they do.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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