The ACNS has published this: Archbishop of Canterbury – Cautious welcome for TEC proposals
Update here is the LamPal copy: Archbishop – cautious welcome for TEC proposals
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has given a cautious welcome to proposals outlined by the Episcopal Church in the United States to offer alternative forms of oversight to dissenting parishes and dioceses. Dr Williams said that the proposals would contribute to the process of determining future relationships.
“The meeting in New York to consider the questions raised by requests for ‘alternative primatial oversight’ has produced some imaginative proposals which represent, potentially, a very significant development.
“I am glad to see these positive suggestions and shall be giving them careful consideration. I hope that they will mark a step forward in the long and difficult process of working out future relationships within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in a manner faithful to the gospel requirements of forebearance and generosity.”
It appears, given this from Canterbury and the refusal by Iker et alia to stay within the discussion, more and more likely that APO will not be provided to US Dioceses wishing it through Canterbury, but through some other Primate’s intervention. How Canterbury and the other Primates will respond to this breach of the Windsor Process remains to be seen. Surely the bulk of the Primates will be cautious of the “Sauce For Goose = Sauce For Gander” possibilities.
Cautious as these words are, I hope the clergy and lay delegates in San Joaquin who are beginning to meet right now read them carefully, as well as the people in the other dioceses who think that a request for APO can be cover for forming a parallel jurisdiction in North America. They should take heed, because it is clear that taking the route of simply pulling up stakes or trying to get ones who diocese under the jurisdiction of a foreign primate is not the preferred method of the ABC. The preferred response is to accept the Primatial Vicar… Read more »
++Rowan Cantuar could have ended this kind of nonsense once and for all by taking a firm supportive stand in support of Kenneth Kearon and +Dorsey Henderson, members of the drafting committee of the PV proposal. A lawyer and specialist in TEC canon law, the Bishop of Upper South Carolina should be taken very seriously. He knows what compromise is possible under TEC’s Constitution and Canons, without reconvening – at enormous monetary cost – a special session of the General Convention to legally and canonically provide for Alternative Primatial Oversight (AlPO). Why does ++Rowan Cantuar have to continue the “jelly… Read more »
Now that the Anglican Church of South Africa, has said, it is up to ministers, if they choose to avail themselves, of the new Marriage Legislation, which explicitly includes same gender Marriage, signed into Law on 30th Nov. 2006 — doesn’t this change the position in the Anglican Communion as a whole ?
Some Church Weddings are taking place as soon as – today!
The door is open !
BTW
Congratulations South Africa !
SA is ahead of Britain on this too….
Accurately to reflect the ACNS headline, Simon, should not your headline to this be ‘…gives a cautious welcome to…’, rather than ‘…welcomes…’? This is a important distinction.
Slavish following of press release wording is not always best, Graham.
I did toy with:
“Canterbury glad to see” which would have been a direct quote from Rowan.
I am disappointed that the Archbishop describes these proposals as “imaginative” when it appears that they differ little in substance from previous offers that had been rejected by the applicants for APO.
The diplomacy is very complex. The future shape of the “Anglican Communion” looks ever more fragile as the “War of the Primates” plays itself out in the Americas. Rowan’s attempt to wrench back the initiative has twice been thwarted, first by Durham, “Windsor Bishops” and the like and now by a group of GS Primates. Yet once more we see the upcoming meeting of a Primates Group as representing some form of dénouement as they come together for hand-to-hand combat. Brinkmanship from some is attempting to force the pace once again, the long term solutions including the Covenant are now… Read more »