Is the Fat Lady Singing for the “Anglican Communion?”
There are reports today that fully 6 of 10 Bishops might boycott next year’s Lambeth conference. Were that to happen, it might effectively be the end of the Anglican Communion. This is, of course, all over the Episcopal Church’s affinity for all things ‘gay’. Bishop Scott-Joynt of Winchester lays out the only way that a boycott can be avoided.
The bishops of The Episcopal Church must meet the demands of the recent Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam.
In their communique, the Primates gave the US bishops until September 30 to agree to “make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions” and “confirm that… a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.”
It does not seem likely that such a commitment is forthcoming. Is this the end of the Anglican Communion and Bishop Rowan Williams? So sayeth Damian Thompson of the Uk Telegraph:
Another threat to boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference! This time, Church of England bishops are planning to stay away. The Times goes into the details, but I can’t be bothered to keep up with this boycott fever. I just want to make two points.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is ‘finished’1. The Anglican “Communion” – you need inverted commas these days because it’s not in communion with itself – is destroying the Church of England. Either the C of E cuts its ties with the crazy, gay-obsessed churches of the former colonies or it splinters into disestablished sects, which would be a tragedy for England. The Lambeth Conference should be the occasion at which the ex-Communion formally dissolves itself.
2. Rowan Williams, currently on “study leave”, is finished. He should extend his studies indefinitely, because his authority is broken. I guess Sentamu is the obvious candidate to take over; he certainly wants the job.
I am not sure if the Anglican Communion is as dead as Thomspon does. I suspect it will linger as a zombie or ghost, haunting for some time to come. But what do I know, I thought Lindsay Lohan might actually have been rehabilitated this time. Time will tell.
July 28, 2007 at 12:28 am
“I suspect it will linger as a zombie or ghost, haunting for some time to come.”
I think you are right. In the States ECUSA will never disappear totally. They have endowments from generations of wealthy ancestors to prop them up for a very long time to come, which can supplement what is NOT coming in from the baskets on Sunday Mornings. They will have grand old buildings and empty pews.
July 28, 2007 at 8:23 am
Well, what did they expect? Christ didn’t promise to be with the “Anglican Communion” “even to the consummation of the world.”
July 29, 2007 at 5:35 am
“Whoever is separated from the Catholic Church, by this single sin of being separated from the unity of Christ, no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living, shall not have life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.”
– Saint Augustine