BBC World Service broadcasts a daily radio programme Analysis. Wednesday’s edition was as follows:
The Anglican Church – ready to split? 30.11.2005
Listen here (13 minutes – Real Audio)
The Church of England today enthrones its first black archbishop.
The Right Reverend Dr John Sentamu, who was born in Uganda, is being enthroned as Archbishop of York, the second most powerful position in the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury.
His appointment comes at a difficult time for the Anglican communion, which is still deeply divided over the ordination two years ago in America of an openly homosexual bishop.
So is a break up of the church now inevitable?
Interviews with Stephen Bates, Cyril Okorocha, Colin Slee, Martyn Percy and Graham Kings.
It didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know, though, did it?
And I simply can’t see where the ‘compromise’ can be. We have distinctively different religious worldviews and systems, and I think that historical accident will not be enough to preserve unity.
I’d be interested to know what any ‘compromise’ that would be acceptable to both sides would look like.
I’m with Merseymike — it seems to me that the split has already occurred (some Global South Primates absenting themselves from the Eucharist) — the question is how & when it will become official (IMHO).
Well, I do think there is one new thing in this BBC analysis: it seems to frame the issues principally in terms of an attack on the Church of England by the Global South. The earlier frames tended to be something like: “Impetuous ECUSA (oh yes, and Canada, too) v. the rest of us in the Communion.” It’s worth considering the implications of this shift, I think.