Posted on 07/02/2006 5:35:11 PM PDT by sionnsar
Random thoughts about this and that.
(1) Why won't the Anglican Communion Network admit what everybody already knows? Why hasn't the Network shaken TEC's dust from its feet? - Like everybody else, I would like to see this charade end and Anglican conservatives and liberals go their separate ways. And I think they will, eventually. But for now, I think the Network's playing it exactly right.
We all know that TEC is capable of considerable malice. And a move right now would precipate lawsuits from one end of this country to the other. So the Network's stance is probably tactical. And the Network dioceses may consider it bad stewardship of their financial resources to start a legal fight right now when it may shortly become clear that they don't need to start a fight at all.
(2) Doesn't a so-called "orthodox province" in TEC merely paper over the problem? - Of course. But I think that's a journey, not a destination.
If it becomes apparent that TEC can never accept the proposed Anglican covenant(and I think we'll get some very preliminary ideas of what that will consist of at the next primates meeting), the Network has only to accept it unconditionally which it has already indicated that it will do. Then Bob Duncan goes to primates meetings while Kate Schori stays home.
This will not stop TEC from bringing presentment charges, of course. Or suing. And they may "win" here and there. But they will do all this from the outside looking in. And if they start suing a recognized Anglican church, they will certainly forfeit any possibility of becoming full-fledged Anglicans ever again and may just lose whatever Anglican standing they manage to keep.
(3) Has the Network strategy of remaining within ECUSA been vindicated? - Too soon to tell. It's still a gamble and it still may not pay off. The Anglican covenant may end up becoming something that orthodox Christians cannot accept, in which case the Network bishops and every other orthodox Anglican in the world will have a serious decision to make.
Dr. Williams' recent reflections were, I think, brought about by more by the assertiveness of the Africans than by anything the Network has said or done. But I think the Network's stance of staying in and playing by the Anglican rules has improved its position with my gracious lord of Canterbury, cut a good deal of ground out from under TEC and made a de facto Anglican split more likely.
(4) Are Anglican liberals running smack about alternate oversight from TEC, a new liberal "Anglican Communion" centered on TEC, etc? - I don't think so. I think that the Anglican covenant may well turn out to be something that liberals cannot or refuse to accept. In which case, Anglicans liberals all over the world coalesce around TEC and Kate Schori becomes the first female "archbishop."
(5) Whither Canada? -If it quickly becomes apparent that TEC will be, at best, second-class Anglican and if TEC just as quickly decides to form a new, liberal "Anglican Communion," then next year's Anglican Church of Canada General Synod becomes a meeting of supreme importance.
What will Canada do? The "American hegemony" factor will not figure in; Mike Ingham, the Canadian liason to TEC's Executive Council will explain that TEC are all the good kinds of Americans. But Canada has an image of the Queen of England on its money and its Great Seal. Cutting ties with Canterbury will be much harder north for Church House than it will be for 815 even if TEC's "theology" is much more congenial to the ACC.
Add to this the fact that the ACC would basically become a junior partner in this new Anglican grouping. TEC could mitigate this, of course, by proposing an electing or rotating primacy. But I'm not sure that Canada will be the slam dunk everybody thinks it will be.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Episcopal News Service] Virginia Bishop Peter Lee has written to his diocese to say that the June 28 election of the Rev. Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, as a bishop of the Church of Nigeria with oversight of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America is "an affront to the traditional, orthodox understanding of Anglican Provincial Autonomy."
"Archbishop Akinola acknowledges as much in his letter to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams," Lee wrote.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola founded the convocation (CANA) in April 2005 to, he said, minister to "all those who can no longer find their spiritual home" in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Lee wrote that it is impossible to honor Akinola's request that Minns remain rector of Truro Church while serving as a Nigerian bishop.
In the letter posted on the diocesan website, Lee also wrote that a June 29 news article in the Washington Times was wrong to report that Minns and the leaders of The Falls Church, Falls Church, Virginia, want to lead members out of the diocese.
The full text of Lee's letter is available at http://www.thediocese.net/press/pressroom.shtml
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