Latest Anglican News                      Volume 1, Number 12, 10 October 2007

The principal news this week consists mostly of commentaries on the events, and after-events, coming out of the two significant meetings the week before, i.e., the semi-annual The Episcopal Church (TEC) House of Bishops (HoB) meeting and the first-ever meeting of all the bishops of the Common Cause Partners (CCP).

There is a committee of the Anglican Communion (AC), headquartered in London, called the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates (JSC).  Some members of that committee accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC) to the meeting of TEC HoB in New Orleans.  Following that meeting the JSC committee issued a 19-page report which found that TEC had "clarified all outstanding questions" in response to the requests of the Dar es Salaam Communiqué.  Thus if one accepts this report, TEC is completely off the hook with the Primates of the AC. 

Well, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, not everyone accepts that position.  In fact, about 99% of traditional Anglicans across the globe DO NOT.  This disagreement has developed some very lusty responses, which are excerpted in the following paragraphs.     

It seems the loudest riposte came from the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, President Bishop (Archbishop) of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, who attended the New Orleans meeting as a member of the JSC.  He said, “The majority of TEC bishops are keen to maintain their membership with in the Anglican Communion…but the issue of homosexuality and the blessing of same-sex marriages is just a tiny part of the direction that TEC is moving in.  Their views of the scriptures, salvation and Jesus Christ, His divinity and uniqueness, are very different from the majority views of the Anglican Communion. They strongly believe that this new direction is prophetic and will lead to reformation within the Church.”

Anis continued, “At the meeting the ABC pointed out the very reason for the crisis we are in…is the spirit of individualism within the American Church.  Such individualism is manifested by their disregard for the rest of the Communion and ecumenical partners.  It is a source of pride for the majority of TEC bishops that they were able to go ahead of all the churches and consecrate a bishop who is an active gay.  Moreover they asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to find a way for Gene Robinson to participate at Lambeth 2008.  This clearly expresses their determination to continue to travel in this ‘new direction’.  I believe that TEC did not and will not change its position in regard to the issues that tear apart the Communion.  They tried to use very ambiguous language to show that they responded positively to the…Primates recommendation.  However, I see that they are determined to go their own way.”

The Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi said last Sunday, “TEC HoB behaved in New Orleans ‘arrogantly and with no repentance’ …and has tossed the faith overboard…  Orombi, leader of more than nine million Ugandan Anglicans, said, “They (TEC), in fact, have decided to walk apart, and we are distressed that they are trying to take the rest of the Anglican Communion with them.

He continued, "TEC has lost the right to give assurances of their direction as a church through more words and statements. They write one thing and do another.  The report of the JSC is severely compromised and further tears the existing tear in the fabric of our beloved Anglican Communion.  Members of the JSC met with TEC Presiding Bishop Schori in the course of the preparation of their HoB report in order to suggest certain words, which, if included in the statement, would assure endorsement by the JSC.  Schori's participation in the evaluation of the response requested of her province is a gross conflict of interest. We wonder why she did not recuse herself.”

At the meeting October 2-5 in Africa, CAPA, the organization of Anglican Provinces in Africa, the Primates attending also rejected as “unsatisfactory” the long report by the JSC.  They called for a special meeting of all the Primates and the postponement of next year’s Lambeth Conference. 

They also elected new officers. Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Province of the Indian Ocean was elected chairman, replacing Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda was elected vice chairman.  Episcopalians hoping that Archbishop Earnest will be more conciliatory toward TEC than Archbishop Akinola has been will probably be disappointed. In a statement issued on the final day of the CAPA meeting, Archbishop Earnest said unity “must never be at the expense of the truth of the Holy Scriptures that is the bedrock of our faith.”

The President of the American Anglican Council (AAC), Canon David C. Anderson, blasted Archbishop Rowan Williams saying that the Anglican Communion's titular head came to New Orleans recently not only with a closed mind to the provable facts, but also with a plan to swiftly undercut the orthodox Global South and those orthodox Americans whom they have supported.  He characterized the present worldwide movement of realignment as "the biggest thing that has happened since Henry VIII took the Church of England from Rome." He challenged his listeners to ponder what a non-Canterbury Anglicanism might look like.

With regard to the CCP meeting, in a TV interview, Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan has said, “We are in the midst of an immense reformation of the Christian church. Anglicanism is just a part of that. It's particularly a reformation of the church in the West, because the West has drifted with its culture, and Christianity is principally countercultural.  We've secularized Western societies and the church needs to stand for what it has been called to do, for a saving message that takes people out of the "secular" in which they find themselves and into something that looks more nearly like the heaven God intended.”

He continued, “As convener of the CCP, we now have all but two of the 10 partners having had their councils meet and approve the articles of federation… The federation does not take away the distinctives or the independence of each of the jurisdictions but really creates a deep level of interdependence.  (For your information, the REC has approved both the CCP Articles of Federation and the Theological Statement.)

Duncan continued, “I'm going to call the first Leadership Council meeting for the first week in January (Note:  Bishop Sutton and Rudy Schenken, along with Presiding Bishop Leonard Riches will be the REC representation at this meeting). That council will appoint the committees that…will really structure things. Within a year we will actually gather the second council, and at that time we will be ready, I think, to go to the rest of the Anglican Communion and say here we are. We really are that new ecclesiastical structure in North America that draws all of the separated orthodox Anglicans together and that is ready to be partners with the rest of the world on the terms the rest of the world expects Anglicanism to represent, to uphold, to share and propagate.”

According to the London Daily Telegraph, a senior Church of England (CoE) conservative, the Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali, has intensified the storm over homosexuals in the CoE clergy by warning he will boycott next summer's Lambeth Conference if liberal American bishops are invited.  His conservative views are thought to be shared by as many as one in four of his colleagues.  Another conservative, Bishop of Winchester Michael Scott-Joynt, has claimed more than half of English bishops are considering whether to attend the conference or not. 
 
Bishop Nazir-Ali backed the calls of African archbishops for Dr Williams to convene an emergency meeting of all the Primates to decide whether to discipline the Americans and/or postpone Lambeth.  He said: "My difficulty…is not with a particular person, such as Gene Robinson, but with those who felt it right to approve and to officiate at his ordination…  The sort of divisions tearing the Anglican Church apart in the United States, where whole dioceses are preparing to break away, could not be ruled out in England.   He said, “…we need clarity and firmness to resolve this crisis. Without this the Commun-ion will fragment because every church will take the actions she likes.  I do pray for Archbishop Rowan Williams…, so that the Lord may give him wisdom and love in this difficult time.”

Rudy Schenken, REC Lay Representative to Common Cause Partners