Posted on 12/02/2005 7:55:50 AM PST by sionnsar
Rowan Williams is getting it from all sides these days:
The House of Bishops of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) has written to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams questioning his impartiality over the Recife crisis.
In a Nov. 14 letter, 12 active and retired IEAB bishops defended the deposition of Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife for “disregard” of his fellow bishops and for performing an illicit confirmation in the Diocese of Ohio in 2004. Bishop Cavalcanti’s trial by the Brazilian House of Bishops conformed to canon law, and should be recognized by the wider Church, they said.
The bishops also defended the deposition without trial of 32 Recife clergy, saying the canons permitted the priests’ removal for “abandoning the communion of this Church” after they had refused to disown Bishop Cavalcanti and support the replacement named by them.
By attending the Global South meeting in Egypt and not commenting on the Brazilian Church’s “arbitrary exclusion” Archbishop Williams “legitimized” the proceedings, the IEAB bishops declared. His silence, they said, gave tacit approval to the Global South’s reinvention of the Anglican Communion as a “federation of churches” bound by a “confessional declaration.”
Sucks having to actually believe stuff. These guys ripped Dr. Williams a new one.
The IEAB bishops criticized Archbishop Williams’ management of the Recife crisis, saying his leadership of the Anglican Communion lacked “impartiality” and “coherence,” and they accused him of favoring Bishop Cavalcanti and his allies among the Global South.
Nor were the Brazilian bishops pleased that Bishop Cavalcanti had been allowed personally to plead his case to Archbishop Williams, while Lambeth Palace had continued to ignore requests from the IEAB to meet with them in London to allow the province to respond to the “slander” and “disrespect” heaped upon it.
The Brazilian bishops also objected to Archbishop Gregory Venables’ interference in the Diocese of Recife saying his actions “violated Anglican principals” of the “sovereignty of each Church” and accused the Primate of the Southern Cone of attempting to “structure the Anglican Communion on an ideological and not a territorial base.” Archbishop Venables received Bishop Cavalcanti and his clergy shortly after their deposition into the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone—offering them temporary provincial oversight.
So. According to these bishops, Anglicans ought to be able to believe anything they want to or nothing at all. But God have mercy on the soul of anyone who dares wear a pointy hat in someone else's diocese. I smell the influence of ECUSA here.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Mild Friday morning chastisement, my good friend..(g) Your header is misleading. It implies that Rowan "comprehends"..which of course I know is impossible..
I don't know which is more troublesome: the brief MCJ phrases that tell you little in advance about the article, or the often overlong VirtueOnline headlines that try to tell the entire story in the headline.
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