Posted on 11/17/2005 4:01:00 PM PST by sionnsar
So the Province of Nigeria and the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province in America agree to agree with each other. This is a pretty big deal, especially when seen in context with other actions, such as this response to these remarks by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the ordination, by the Bishop of Bolivia, of three deacons and a priest to serve in the U.S. In fact, there's such density of information that I could spend hours on the possibilities.
Boiled down, I think what we see is a rapidly (rapidly for Anglicans, anyway) developing structue to replace ECUSA, and to keep pressure on Canterbury and a different kind of pressure on ECUSA. The pressure on Canterbury seems to be twofold: one side relentlessly strikes at ECUSA's theological and spiritual bankruptcy, and the other shows that reform in North America may bring Anglican dissidents back into the Anglican Communion. The pressure on ECUSA is equally unremitting. It looks like some bishops are starting to realize that maybe things are going badly, that maybe ECUSA's made a long series of mistakes. Some bishops don't seem to have the stomach or the money to fight their reform-minded parishes, and other do. Meantime, ECUSA membership continues to collapse.
As much for myself as anyone else, I'm trying to muddle through all this material and put it into some sort of context. Tomorrow, maybe, or Monday.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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