Posted on 06/19/2006 6:58:44 PM PDT by sionnsar
According to Ruth Gledhill, the Anglican split has officially begun:
The Anglican Church descended into “ecclesiastical anarchy” last night as American traditionalists refused to accept the authority of a woman and asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to lead them instead.
Liberals celebrated the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church while the traditionalist Fort Worth Diocese appealed to Dr Rowan Williams for “alternative primatial oversight”.
The appeal, being mulled over at Lambeth Palace, is expected to be the first of several. It represents the first formal step towards a schism that evangelicals say began with the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
The crisis was heightened as resolutions being debated in response to the crisis over gays fell short of the “repentance” and “moratoria” demanded by the Windsor Report set up by Dr Williams.
One well-placed conservative source said: “We are in uncharted waters. The Church is descending into anarchy.”If Dr Williams agreed to provide alternative oversight and the entire American Anglican Network followed, this would in effect create two Anglican Churches within the US. Both would be in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, although not with each other.
I guess one way that Dr. Williams could provide alternate oversight and avoid creating two churches would be to allow Fort Worth and any other Network diocese that wished to join them to place themselves under any Third World primate who would agree to accept the responsibilty. Henry Orombi, say, or Gregory Venables. Other than that, he's going to have to either turn Fort Worth down, which would hasten a split, or grant primatial status to the head of the Network.
In case Episcopal conservatives want to know what they're in for, a commenter refers me to this interview with the next Presiding Bishop:
What about those who seem bent and determined to leave or to wound the body if they don’t get their own way?
I think they need to be challenged, more so than they have been. I see signs of hope in the House of Bishops, an unwillingness to continue to put up with bad behavior. We haven’t seen any action yet, but I think it is coming.
Do you have any sense of what that action might be? Would a verbal rebuke be enough?
It won’t be enough in some cases, I am sure. But I have the sense that there is some desire to hold each other accountable for actions that are not canonical, for actions that have the appearance of being downright schismatic.
Like a separate church ... not even doing Eucharist together: I find that the most painful part.
Absolutely.
Assuming that what's gone wrong with the North American (or even including New Zealand and much of Cof E) part of the church is going wrong with the totality of Anglicanism would be a mistake. The vast majority of world-wide Anglicanism remains quite solid where it stands.
The Episcopal church is not the Anglican church; it's a small corner -- for all it is the dominant one where I (and you?) live.
I have found my alternative: the faith that produced the King James Bible, etc., lives on in my Anglican province. (Arrgh -- I dislike this keyboard...)
I was wondering what version, of what looked to be Far Eastern extraction, that Bible was. :)
Off TOPIC but what is The Pipes & Drums of Free Republic Ping List (every few months)?
It's the bagpipe ping list.
I would love to be on your bagpipe ping list!
Thanks!
I organize and help run this highschool group, which I founded 7 years ago at the Saint Johnsbury Academy in Vermont.
http://www.grahamhighlanders.com
Thanks!
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