Canterbury Concedes Anglican Communion Has Become "Corrupted"

Anglican Ink ^ | 12/5/12 | George Conger

[marshmallow]

Push for an Anglican Covenant overtaken by the dissolution of the communion

The Archbishop of Canterbury has conceded defeat in the battle over the Anglican Covenant. In a 2 Dec 2012 Advent letter to the primates, Dr. Rowan Williams said the Anglican Communion had become “corrupted” and could no longer be considered a communion of churches but a “community of communities.”

Dr. Williams’ somber appreciation of the state of the communion today, contrasts with his past letters to the leaders of the Communions 38 provinces. Nothing now bound the church together apart from good will.

In 2009 Dr. Williams rejected calls from the Episcopal Church to reorder the Anglican Communion as a federation of churches. “As Anglicans, our membership of the communion is an important part of our identity. However, some see this as best expressed in a more federalist and pluralist way. They would see this as the only appropriate language for a modern or indeed postmodern global fellowship of believers in which levels of diversity are bound to be high and the risks of centralisation and authoritarianism are the most worrying.”

“There is nothing foolish or incoherent about this approach,” Dr. Williams wrote in a letter published on 27 July 2009, “but it is not the approach that has generally shaped the self-understanding of our communion.”

Dr. Williams had proposed an Anglican Covenant as a mechanism that would “do justice to that aspect of Anglican history that has resisted mere federation.”

[Da Coyote]

Ya think?

[QBFimi]

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Numb nuts.

[kidd]

The homos have divided/secularized/defeated another church. Who’s left?

Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists and Missouri Synod Lutherans

[MasterGunner01]

I never thought that I would ever agree with Archbishop Rowan Williams about anything. He has hit the nail squarely on the head by saying the Anglican Communion has been corrupted. He doesn't, however, identify the main corrupter of the communion, though. He's the major problem, but refuses to recognize the truth. His replacement is cut from the same demented cloth.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

He had come to believe that “the truth is that our Communion has never been the sort of Church that looks for one central authority.”

He added “this doesn’t mean that we are not concerned with truth or holiness or consistency,” but over the past ten years he and the leaders of the communion had not been able to find this truth.

“All forms of human power and discipline can become corrupted, and that in the Church we have to have several points of reference for the organising of our common life so that none of them can go without challenge or critique from the others.”

IOW....there is no truth....it's all opinion. If it feels good....do it

[Amberdawn]

With a closeted mudslime as Archbishop, could it be any other way?

[EDINVA]

You posted EXACTLY what I was thinking!

[dangus]

Really? My Anglican boss was thrilled with his successor’s selection.

[MasterGunner01]

That may be true and William's successor may be better. We will see, but the rot is deep and pervasive in the Church.

This is my opinion from my small observatory. I would hope your boss is correct, but in any event William's successor has got a huge task ahead of him that would try a saint's patience.

[Cronos]

He’s saying it became corrupted because the CoE didn’t allow for women bishops and the naughty Africans don’t want to allow gay bishops...

[Cronos]

Actually I believe the Anglicans were the first infected, way back in 1930

[Campion]

Misleading story. If you read the letter, Abp. Williams talks about how the Anglican communion has no central authority structure, and that's a good thing, because central authority structures invariably become "corrupted".* That's the only context in which the word "corrupted" is used -- in reference to someone else's alleged failings. The word "dissolution" isn't used at all.

*I wonder which church with a "central authority" he has in mind? All the Christianity can be washed out of some of these "mainline" Protestant churches, but the anti-Catholicism ... that leaves a permanent stain.