Posted on 06/05/2005 2:24:03 PM PDT by sionnsar
Sergio Carranza, one of Bishop J. Jon Bruno's hit men bishop assistants in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, is cranky again:
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,
The House of Bishops is also committed to squaring the circle, learning how to divide by zero and solving ECUSA financial problems by turning lead into gold.
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.
Rome? Have the qualms kicked in yet? Because this is what some in ECUSA really think of you. But it is interesting to know that this little enterprise is part of "a subversive movement" bent on imposing Roman Catholic ecclesiology on ECUSA. I hope Opus Dei pays better than Scaife; I haven't seen a dime out of that guy.
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.
Here's what we do, Binks. You grow a beard and let your hair grow out. Then you get a picture made up of you in a beret like the one on those Che Guevara T-shirts only it's you instead of a communist mass-murderer. Underneath it reads ¡Desean vivo los VCAC! And we put it on T-shirts and everything else CafePress sells. You down?
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.
Because I said so, that's why!!
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.
If I were the BishAss, I wouldn't press that point too far or too long. Because if he does, he invents a sort of indirect Anglican magesterium. While it is true that the Anglican world cannot constitutionally force the Americans to do or believe anything, it is also true that the Anglican world is not constitutionally obligated to continue to invite the Americans to its meetings.
Not that the Anglican world will avail itself of this power any time soon. But if Double J doesn't get an invite to the next Lambeth Conference, he's not a real Anglican bishop anymore regardless of his pointy hat and hooked stick. Carranza didn't understand any of that because he's in full pedal-to-the-metal tinfoil miter mode.
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.
Actually, Ranz, they understand your polity quite well. It's your apostasy that concerns them.
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.
As engineers say, Ranz, that's not a bug, that's a feature.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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