Posted on 05/16/2006 6:55:25 PM PDT by sionnsar
Your Anglican Communion Panel of Reference wants to let you know how things are going:
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference held its second plenary meeting in Saint Andrew’s House, London, between 9th and 12th May 2006. The Panel is grateful for the welcome and hospitality of the Anglican Communion Office during its meeting.
The Panel began its work by considering progress so far. Since the Panel’s first meeting ten months ago, it has received three references from the Archbishop of Canterbury. These were received by the Panel at the end of October 2005. The Panel indicated in its first communiqué that speed of response was an important consideration, and that normally it would seek to give its response to the Archbishop within six months of reference. Review of progress so far has been therefore a vital matter.
Six months, huh? No rush considering that there's a decent chance that there may not be an Anglican Communion in six months.
The first reference to the Panel arises from an appeal by the Diocese of Forth Worth in the Episcopal Church USA. The Diocese does not ordain women to the priesthood, and appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the grounds that it is in serious theological dispute with the Episcopal Church, which at its 72nd General Convention in 1997 passed canons to make the ordination of women mandatory. The Panel considered the preliminary draft of its report, and hopes, after consultation with the parties, to publish its recommendations in the near future.
The "near future" might be 2015 but don't hold Your Anglican Communion Panel of Reference to that date. Stuff might come up.
The second reference relates to the Diocese of Connecticut in the Episcopal Church USA, and to an appeal by six parishes against the oversight of their Bishop. In January of this year, however, civil proceedings were initiated in respect of matters connected with these situations. The Panel decided last year as a matter of principle that it should not normally consider references where civil cases are proceeding. The Panel is not a court, and its recommendations, which may be published with the consent of the Archbishop of Canterbury, have moral and pastoral force. Civil proceedings should either have come to completion or be stayed if the work of the Panel is to have space in which to operate. On this basis, the Archbishop of Canterbury has withdrawn the reference to the Panel until such time as the matter of the civil cases has been resolved.
So. Your Anglican Communion Panel of Reference plans on waiting until five more rectors are potentially inhibited and five more parishes are potentially deprived of their meeting houses by Connecticut's Obergruppenführer Andrew Smith.
Then and only then, Your Anglican Communion Panel of Reference will get around to the Connecticut claims and possibly get something out in a year or five. With any kind of luck. But it's not like Your Anglican Communion Panel of Reference can actually do anything or anything.
It was clear from this that the Panel is not a tribunal or court which can intervene formally to adjudicate in the affairs of the autonomous Provinces of the Anglican Communion. It arose from the request of the Primates at Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in February 2005, for the Archbishop of Canterbury to establish a panel to advise him by supervising the adequacy of arrangements for extended episcopal ministry in situations where parishes were in serious theological dispute with their dioceses, or dioceses in dispute with their provinces. In such cases, the recommendations of the Panel are intended to assist the situation by offering to the parties an independent assessment of those measures which might move the situation forward. These recommendations are intended to provide sufficient protection to parties who fear oppressive action by ecclesiastical authorities on account of their theological differences.
Dr. Williams? Just put this thing out of its misery. You're not fooling anybody.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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