Posted on 08/26/2006 5:50:36 PM PDT by sionnsar
For those who had hoped that the meeting Archbishop Williams had arranged next month between PB Griswold, PB-elect Schori, Bishops Duncan and Iker and others would actually accomplish something, the email below is disheartening. It turns out this will simply be another gab fest--an exclusively internal affair for TEC (with the canon who runs the Anglican Communion's office acting as a sort of facilitator or something). Its even going to take place on 815's home turf in New York. Clearly the ABC will neither be there nor try to influence the proceedings. In other words, this is just more of the same endless "dialog" that has served the theological Left so well for the last few years. Couldn't this non-event have been handled by a simple conference call? No one is going to budge without major pressure from overseas.
Thank you for your email. Its contents have been carefully noted. The meeting in September to which you refer has been convened precisely so that bishops who are asking for alternative primatial oversight can meet with their current primate and his successor to determine from within the Episcopal Church the best way forward. While the Archbishop of Canterbury had a role in establishing this meeting, and will be represented at it by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, it is intended to allow the Episcopal Church to reach its own conclusions, and does not represent any independent action by the Archbishop of Canterbury at all.
You may like to read Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold’s recent comment on the meeting, which you will find here.
Do please join with us in praying for the well-being of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion and that God’s will for all God’s children may be clearly known and heeded.
G K Cameron
Deputy Secretary General
Anglican Communion Office
Canon Cameron's email may be found here.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. As such, Mr. Foster clearly fails to understand the import of the meeting.
1. The fact that the ABC is represented at all in this meeting is huge. It's quite obviously not "exclusively internal," else the fellow wouldn't be there.
2. There's nothing wrong with the ABC trying to get these folks to talk. It's pretty certain that Iker won't get rolled by the once and future PBs and they, in turn, won't change their minds. But the effort must be made. If it fails to make headway, that's a huge result.
3. Being intended for "the Episcopal Church to make its own conclusions" is, first, what the ABC is supposed to do with intra-provincial matters. At the same time, however, he's definitely got a dog in this fight, and his stated position is that the present leadership of the ECUSA has not acted in a manner consistent with membership in the Communion. A good result, from Canterbury's perspective, would be one where Griswold and Schori give in. They probably won't.
4. The presence of the ABC's representative at this meeting allows only one interpretation: he's there to see whether (in the words of the Windsor report), the ECUSA has chosen to "walk apart."
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