Posted on 08/23/2006 5:36:57 PM PDT by sionnsar
What if the Anglican Communion Network gets what it wants? What if Bob Duncan becomes the Anglican Primate of the United States while Katharine Jefferts Schori is reduced to the head of an insignifcant American Protestant sect? How will ECUSA's left respond? If something called The Episcopal Majority is any indication, the gloves will finally and forever come off:
We have just received word of the meeting being convened in New York under the auspices of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
For some time now we have been dismayed at the actions of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to wit:
the Archbishop’s quick disapproval of the actions of our General Convention;
his approval of a "two-tiered" Anglicanism;
his continued support (implicit or explicit) of those forces in The Episcopal Church seeking our displacement within the Anglican Communion;
his support - through his appointment of legates - of a gathering of so called "Windsor bishops," those who have themselves denounced our General Convention; and
his support of the missionary endeavor in America (CANA) under the auspices of the Church of Nigeria, despite the fact that such an effort was explicitly forbidden by the Windsor Report which the Archbishop otherwise upholds.
We wish to express our support to Presiding Bishop Griswold, Presiding Bishop-elect Schori, and all other faithful Episcopal bishops as they enter these discussions. We urge them to hold fast to the legitimate Anglican tradition through the following:
to deny any “alternate primatial oversight” for Episcopal dioceses;
to oppose firmly the CANA initiative;
to make clear that our sincere attempt at moderation at General Convention has been rebuffed by forces at home and abroad; and
to affirm once more the consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson and the legitimate right of homosexual persons to all the Sacraments of this church.
Is this yet another fringe collection of ECUSA leftists? According to this, there are some big names associated with this group so one has to assume that it's got a fair amount of episcopal support. But would ECUSA actually declare war on the ACN?
I think it's entirely likely. Although there have been exceptions here and there, ECUSA has shown itself capable of considerable malice over the last three years. Such a move would involve risk. If ECUSA were to sue the dioceses of a recognized Anglican Communion province, it would probably end forever any chance it had of ever being any kind of Anglican again, second-tier or otherwise.
And that fact might just alienate ECUSA dioceses and parishes that value the Canterbury connection, cause lots of fence-sitters to finally take sides and shatter ECUSA even more. But since a fair chunk of ECUSA's bishops would rather eat their own croziers than admit that GenCon 2003 shouldn't have happened, that probably won't matter in the slightest.
So charges will continue to be filed and congregations will continue to be turned out of meeting houses. It's possible that ECUSA will end up with most of its precious real estate while the "official" Anglicans in the United States will be the ones worshipping in school gyms, movie theaters, park pavilions, private homes or anywhere else they can find space. But that idea doesn't bother me anymore.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Sounds like there will be tent revivals in the Anglican Churches future. oh well thats what you get when you preach the gospel of saint trendy....(a line I once read that I couldn't ignore)
Independent of what happens for Bob Duncan, the cold fact is that Schori is already the head of an insignificant sect. She, and her dwindling gaggle of followers, insulated by wealth and communal delusion, just don't realize it yet.
Doesn't matter. When they tire of pretending to be a church, that real estate will appear on the commercial market and be bought up for chi-chi restaurants and gay bathhouses with a medieval motif. Not to worry though--the Holy Spirit has already long since vacated the premises.
I don't mean this in a harsh way. Why stay in a church that is so wrong? I was an Episcopalian thirty years ago and left to become a Baptist. Come join us you will be welcome.
I am of the exodus/abandoned too. Joined a Continuing Anglican church almost a quarter-century ago.
And alot of us are .. we're worshipping in an AMIA church, in a Christian school gym. Out from under the ECUSA cloud and breathing clean holy air again .. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I wonder if that idea has ever been presented to them. Not that it would matter, I suppose.
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