Posted on 02/15/2007 5:51:58 PM PST by sionnsar
· US Episcopalians take steps to avoid rift
Stephen Bates in Dar es Salaam
· Archbishop's report seen as rebuff to conservatives
Friday February 16, 2007
The Guardian
A report by a group headed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, given to the churches' archbishops and presiding bishops at their biannual meeting in Tanzania yesterday said the Americans had largely done everything required of them in reining back on consecrating gay bishops and expressing their regret for straining relations with other Anglicans.
The Rev Colin Coward, a gay English Anglican who was lobbying the meeting on behalf of the pressure group Changing Attitude, said: "We are very pleased and delighted ...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. the report criticised conservative provinces within the communion - mainly Nigeria - for trespassing on American territory to recruit conservative members unhappy with the US church.
Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, the leader of a breakaway faction which had wanted the communion to recognise his supporters as the genuine representatives of the US church, left for the airport without speaking to journalists.
The report left US conservatives fuming. Dr Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of South Carolina, said: "It's a really poor report. It is shocking that a report like this could have been written at this stage. It's way too soft." Dr Phillip Aspinall, the Archbishop of Australia, deputed to speak for his fellow primates, said: "There was very intensive listening, characterised by graciousness, patience and care."
Can I say I told you so yet? :)
Boy, K, are you Orthodox ever impatient! One would think you were ethnically American or something. *\;-)
But seriously, this is the AoC's doing and though I've been minded to be a bit more generous to him than some (including in my own province), even my Anglican patience is beginning to wear a bit thin.
I can only hope that the "Global South" and the TEC reasserters will call him on it in this meeting.
"There was very intensive listening, characterised by graciousness, patience and care."
They must have learned that from Jesus' visits to the temple.
I'm not Anglican, but from the outside, it seems to me that these church leaders seem to either have forgotten or don't understand that the Church belongs to Christ, not them.
Indeed. Those conservative members probably feel that their church left them, and are thanking God that Nigeria lit a candle to chase away the darkness.
You're probably right!
In other words - Don't fix the problem (remove already "consecrated" gay bishops) and apologize. Bovine excrement.
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