Posted on 06/05/2005 8:29:28 AM PDT by sionnsar
While the House of Bishops is committed both to the notion of an inclusive Church here at home, and to the preservation of the bonds of affection among the Anglican Provinces at the international level, there is a subversive movement going on in the Communion that pretends to alter the character and essence of this unique body of Christians by imposing on it an alien ecclesiology redolent of an institution set across the Tiber.
This guerrilla warfare, fostered and nurtured by unhappy Episcopalians intent on sabotaging General Convention and destroying the polity of ECUSA, has among its tactics the encouragement of uncanonical visits to carefully selected dioceses, by some bishops and Primates from the Global South, as well as some domestic retired bishops, with the purpose of disrupting the life and ministry of said dioceses.
The excuse for violating the boundaries of diocesan jurisdictions is that tender consciences have to be protected from “revisionist” bishops and that the provision for Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight is inadequate.
Another tactic has been to ascribe constitutional authority to the Lambeth Conference, and to attribute exaggerated power to the Primates Meeting. This is wishful thinking at best, or devious manipulation at worst.
At the first meeting of the Lambeth Conference, in 1867, the bishops were careful to spell out the role of what, eventually, became to be considered one of the “Instruments of Unity”:
• It was not a General Synod of churches in communion with the Church of England.
• It did not gather to enact canons binding the churches represented.
• Its role was “to discuss matters of practical interest and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions which may serve as safe guides.”
As Stephen Sykes and John Booty say in The Study of Anglicanism: “the Lambeth Conference has remained a deliberate body convened solely at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Whatever the respect accorded to its deliberations, it has no canonical or constitutional status.”
Regarding the Primates Meeting, another of the evolved Instruments of Unity, we have to note that it is the newest development in the Anglican Communion, since it was not until 1978 that the Lambeth Conference called for regular meetings of the Primates.
The 1979 meeting clarified its function: “the role of the Primates Meeting could not be, and was not desired as a higher synod… Rather it was a clearing house for ideas and experience through free expression, the fruits of which the Primates might convey to their churches.
It is sad to realize that some of the Primates themselves are involved in the conspiracy; otherwise it is difficult to explain their venomous assault on the Episcopal Church; unless they just do not understand our polity. Their groping for undue power is an indication of their participation in the seditious maneuvers to change the face of Anglicanism.
If the ultras cannot coerce the Archbishop of Canterbury to expel the Episcopal Church – which he cannot do anyway – some of the Global South Primates will attempt to carry out a coup d’etat that would substitute one of them for the Archbishop of Canterbury as head of the Anglican Communion, thus “successfully escalating an ongoing family fight into an international schism,” as Susan Russell says.
In the light of this plausible development, I think it would be time to make some adjustments to the list of the Instruments of Unity, so that we may be more faithful to the Anglican ethos. The new list could look like this:
• The Archbishop of Canterbury
• An Anglican Congress (made up of bishops, priests and lay people)
• The Chicago Lambeth Cuadrilateral
• The Anglican Cycle of Prayer
Let the probable emerging evangelical denomination, if it desires, turn its primates’ meeting into a sort of college of cardinals under an omnipotent prelate empowered to speak for the whole body and to impose a single interpretation of what pertains to the faith and practice of the Christian faith.
–The Rt. Rev. Sergio Carranza is Assistant Bishop of Los Angeles; this appears in The Angelus of June 2006. The Angelus is an electronic newsletter serving the clergy community in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. They seem confident there will still be an Anglican church by that date.
Wow. Smacking around the Anglo-Catholics.
Let the probable emerging evangelical denomination, if it desires, turn its primates’ meeting into a sort of college of cardinals under an omnipotent prelate empowered to speak for the whole body and to impose a single interpretation of what pertains to the faith and practice of the Christian faith.
Wow. Smacking the evangelicals
If you take out the Anglo-Catholics and the evangelicals what is left other than pagans who let their leaders cross dress as Christian clergy.
I think that's their goal.
--it looks like ECUSA has a whole new definition of "inclusive--
I think the ECUSA leadership has a whole new definition of Christianity....
He can't? I thought the whole basis of membership in the Anglican Communion was that the members were in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. If he proclaims that thus and such a church is no longer in communion with him, who can say different?
Some assumptions are going to be tested in the near future, I suspect...
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, otherwise known as The Episcopal Church (which name is hereby recognized as also designating the Church), is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. This Constitution, adopted in General Convention in Philadelphia in October, 1789, as amended in subsequent General Conventions, sets forth the basic Articles for the government of the Church, and of its overseas missionary jurisdictions.
Now, the way I read that, the ECUSA defines itself as being a member of those churches in communion with the See of Canterbury. If the See of Canterbury says, "Do 'x' or you are out of communion", you do it or you're out.
True, but being in communion with the See of Canterbury might not be the same thing as being in communion with the world-wide Anglican Communion.
Hm. Given that the statement defines the Anglican Communion as those churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, it's hard for me to see how you can be a member of that body unless you yourself are in communion with the See of Canterbury.
Of course, it's been hard for me to see a lot of things that come out of 815 these days ....
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