Posted on 11/11/2005 4:10:33 PM PST by sionnsar
If you have never been an Anglican, you may find the Anglican world a bit baffling. The following should go a long way toward explaining it. In 2003, same-sex marriages were approved in Canada and the United States and a practicing homosexual was consecrated as a bishop. These events tore the Anglican world apart, caused parishes to flee from one end of North America to the other, prompted North American orthodox bishops to organize themselves into networks, and caused orthodox bishops and primates around the world to take increasingly hostile stances toward their American and Canadian counterparts.
In order to attempt to resolve disputes arising from this crisis, the greatest Anglican Christianity has ever known, the Archbishop of Canterbury established the Panel of Reference, an international body of lay and ordained Anglicans. The Panel's operating procedure runs thus:
(1) On receipt of a referral from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chair will arrange for all members of the Panel to receive a full copy of the papers submitted to it; and will ensure that all relevant supplementary papers are similarly supplied to all the members from time to time.
(2) The Primate of the Province where the dispute is taking place will be advised by the Secretariat of the Panel that the Panel has received a referral and is processing it; the Panel may at any time invite comments from the Primate on the matters referred to it.
(3) The Chair will appoint a sub-committee with two or more members of the Panel to act on its behalf. Normally, at least one shall be ordained and another lay.
(4) All members of the Panel will be asked to submit their initial responses to the nominated sub-committee within 14 days from receipt of the initial papers.
(5) The sub-committee may make such enquiries of the applicants and of any other person or body mentioned in the applicants’ submissions as it shall think fit to ensure that the information before the Panel is as full and accurate as possible; in particular the Panel shall not make any criticism of the conduct of any person without that person having been given full opportunity to correct allegations of fact or interpretation.
(6) Where appropriate, and where finance allows, the sub-committee may arrange to visit the parties to a dispute in order to fulfil its role.
(7) The sub-committee will produce a first draft report and recommendation for the Panel as a whole to consider.
(8) Panel members will submit their own comments on the first draft to the nominated sub-committee within fourteen days.
(9) The revised draft report and recommendations will be prepared by the nominated sub-committee and recirculated to all members of the Panel, who may contribute their comment on matters of substance but will otherwise indicate their assent. In the event of significant dissent the sub-committee shall discuss the matter with the dissenting members with a view to achieving consensus, shall report the outcome to the Chair, and shall follow his directions.
(10) At this stage (before the report and recommendations are submitted to the Archbishop), the report, without any recommendations, will be sent to the parties for comment within fourteen days; their comments to be narrowly confined to issues of fact.
(11) The final text of the report with its recommendations shall be recirculated to the members of the Panel for the last time, and shall be signed by the Chair on behalf of the Panel unless any member dissents within seven days, in which case the Chair shall give further directions.
(12) The Chair will submit the report and its recommendations to the Archbishop.
Meanwhile, the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri will vote on the following resolution at its upcoming convention:
1 BE IT RESOLVED that this 166th Convention of the Diocese of Missouri directs each convocation to establish a date before Easter 2006 to hold a gathering of the people of that convocation to discuss the issues defined within the Windsor Report; and be it further
2 RESOLVED that minutes from each of these discussion be disseminated to the clerical and lay deputies and alternates to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA to be held in 2006; and be it further
3 RESOLVED that this convention encourages each clerical and lay deputy and alternate to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA to be held in 2006 to attend at least one of these gatherings and as many more as possible.
RATIONALE
Recognizing that deputies to General Convention are elected as representatives of the Diocese to vote their conscience, we nevertheless urge this process to promote diocesan wide participation in the national Church deliberations. This process will also inform the deputies on the scope of opinions within the Diocese of Missouri on issues defined within the Windsor Report.
The Windsor Report was released a year ago.
Let's put it this way. If your house was on fire and all the firemen in your town were Anglicans, they wouldn't put the fire out when they got to your home. They'd stand on your front lawn discussing whether to use water or foam.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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