Death Knell for the Anglican Communion: ABC Rowan Williams ventures into the closet

I actually think he and his boss are trying to have it both ways. A schism has already appeared between the revisionists and the evangelicals and he is trying to stay friends with both sides.

There will no longer be joint Primatial gatherings, joint Lambeth Conferences and a joint Consultative Council. Instead, these meetings will occur within the two respective sides. Archbishop Williams and his successors will be invited to such events by both sides and likely regularly attend.

In other words, the evangelical Anglican Communion (based in Nigeria) and the revisionist Episcopal Communion (based in New York) will both be “in communion” with Canterbury but will have little to do with each other. Wow, now this is a possibility I had not considered. Is this something that is out there being discussed or is this your own conjecture? Either way it sounds plausible to me. I am probably too informed by the doomsday sayers among the conservatives who really want the ABC for themselves and nothing but scortched earth for the others. My angry side likes that but my more sensible side knows that Rowan will seek a middle way. He's an Anglican, after all.

That’s not so much my own conjecture as it is my observation of what seems to have taken place. The libs are planning on showing up at Lambeth next year and therefore the evangelicals are threatening a boycott. ++Jensen is calling for an alternative Lambeth. This has the makings of two Lambeth Conferences. No doubt ++Williams will try to attend both (I don’t see the evangelicals telling him to get lost).

Most of the evangelical Primates already gather together regularly under the title of Global South Encounter (++Williams has been an attendee). In the not too distant future Schori and crowd will host a gathering of liberal Primates, and Williams will no doubt be invited much like he was invited to New Orleans. The result is two separate Primatial gatherings with ++Williams as an ex-officio attendee at both.

The CAPA bishops don’t give a rip about ECUSA juridical lines, and soon the ECUSA bishops won’t give a rip about CAPA lines. In fact, they are already starting their own inroads into Africa.

That leaves the Anglican Consultative Council. ECUSA pretty much owns them, and the evangelicals won’t have any trouble walking away. They have had Ekklesia (+Atwood) for a long time, so losing the ACC will be no big loss.

There may be one more joint Primatial gathering between the evangelical Anglican Communion and the revisionist Episcopal Communion. After that, it will be two Communions with the Archbishop of Canterbury playing the role of the Patriarch of Constantinople to both: respected, perhaps honored, and completely powerless.

Hmmmm. It does sound plausible, but I wonder if Akinola and the evangelicals will remain in communion with the ABC if he does not break with the liberals.

Perhaps I am thinking too rationally. Perhaps among Anglicans can conceive of the ABC being in communion with two bodies which are not in communion with each other. As a Catholic, that would never wash as being in communion means sharing the same theology. There is no way to imagine two bodies in communion with Rome that are not in communion with each other.

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