Posted on 06/15/2005 12:49:01 PM PDT by sionnsar
Last night various stories broke about a document describing an initiative among Anglicans. We do not know the author, the date, or the person or persons for whom this was written. I had never seen it before. I contacted numerous reasserting Anglican leaders, and they had not either.
Today I reached Peter Frank, communications director for the diocese of Pittsburgh, and asked for some comments. Here they are:
“This is not a document that anyone here, including Bishop Duncan, had seen before Stephen Bates’ article and Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh’s press release last evening.That said, here are several points to keep in mind.
1. Talking of one of many actions not taken and one of many documents not signed strikes me as a as a sign of desperation on the part of organizations like PEP. The real issue that the Anglican Communion is grappling with is not what orthodox Anglicans might do and how our efforts to work together might hurt our unity as a Communion, but the grave damage certain Anglican leaders in the West, who continue to appear insensitive to the concerns of the majority of the Anglican Communion, have already done to that unity. That is the fact that we must deal with, not an unenacted, undated, unsourced draft document.
2. Providing it is genuine, this document looks to be something that was drawn up sometime in 2004, before the Communion again spoke unequivocally in support mainstream Anglicanism at the Dromantine meeting. That meeting made it quite clear, as Bishop Duncan said shortly afterwards, “What we have been teaching is the teaching of the Communion.” Why would we need an alternative structure when the Communion supports us fully on these issues?
3. Conversations are ongoing on how orthodox Anglicans relate to one another within the Anglican Communion, especially in the area of missions. This document appears to be an idea floated in the early stages of those conversations. Even had this document been acted on, and by Bates’ and PEP’s own admission it was not, it would have simply formalized relationships that are already in place, not lead to the formation of a new church and not taken anyone out of the Anglican Communion.
4. In fact, and this cannot be emphasized enough, our goal here in Pittsburgh has always been to enable people to stay within the Anglican Communion. We regret that two provinces seem still determined to walk away from that communion which is such a precious means by which to bring those who do not know Christ into saving relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit. These distracting attempts by others to divert us from mission and from the Anglican Communion will not turn us aside from our primary focus.”
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Do the fonts and spacing match the CBS National Guard memos?
LOL!
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