The Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, has commented on the New Orleans statement of the American bishops and on the JSC report. See the Living Church reportby Steve Waring: Primate of Uganda: Episcopal Bishops Were Coached.
…“The report is severely compromised and further tears the existing tear in the fabric of our beloved Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Orombi wrote. “It is gravely lamentable that our Instruments of Communion have missed the opportunity in this moment to begin the healing that is so necessary for our future.”
Archbishop Orombi said the primates never asked the House of Bishops to make new policy for The Episcopal Church. Given that General Convention would not meet again for three years, he said the primates wanted the Episcopal bishops to clarify parts of two General Convention resolutions which the primates believed could be interpreted several different ways.
“TEC has lost the right to give assurances of their direction as a church through more words and statements,” Archbishop Orombi said. “They write one thing and do another. We therefore cannot know what they mean by their words until we see their meaning demonstrated by their actions.”
Some comparisons with earlier events are made at Episcopal Café see Abp. Orombi criticizes the New Orleans report.
Meanwhile, CANA bishop-elect David Anderson had this to say about the process in an email to the AAC mailing list:
When a Father Betrays the Family, All Suffer
This cannot be said in a few words. What is really going on in the Anglican Communion? Is there more going on than meets the eye? The answer is shocking and disappointing. A number of events are coming together to change the fundamental character of the Communion and re-establish the hegemony of the spiritually revisionist West.
Why has Rowan Williams overlooked the facts given him and welcomed the Episcopal Church to Lambeth anyway? The AAC provided Archbishop Williams with comprehensive documentation of the Episcopal Church’s words and actions relating to compliance with Dar es Salaam, usually in their own words, in direct quotes, with sources footnoted and internet weblinks. Did he bother to read it? Some pundits and commentators expected the Archbishop of Canterbury to actually review the facts, weigh the facts fairly and accurately, and properly discipline the current official branch of American Anglicanism, TEC.
Williams not only came to New Orleans with a closed mind to the provable facts, he came with a plan to swiftly undercut the orthodox Global South and those orthodox Americans whom they have supported. Within days, the optimistic pundits and commentators who thought that Dr. Williams cared about the morality and integrity of the Communion, cared about the Windsor Report, cared about the Dromantine and Dar es Salaam Communiques, were shown to be mistaken. What Dr. Williams cares about is holding onto American financial support, holding onto the revisionist provinces of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and allowing the pantheistic and homosexual agendas to continue their unfolding and flourishing.
Dr. Williams took two important actions upon leaving New Orleans: launching the Joint Standing Committee Report (very likely written before New Orleans by the Rev. Canon Dr. Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Communion Office); and immediately commencing a telephone campaign, phoning Anglican Primates to ask (read convince or coerce) their agreement that the Episcopal Church had substantially met the standards of the Dar es Salaam Communique.
With ears carefully turned to Lambeth, we find that Rowan Williams is determined that Lambeth 2008 will absolutely take place, and on his terms.
The AAC has been advised from trustworthy sources that Dr. Williams is already obligated for Lambeth Conference costs in Canterbury next summer, which means that if he cancels it, he is still responsible for most of the costs of the conference anyway. In order to secure their booking for the University of Kent, which is the venue for the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, one deposit of £440,000 (about $880,000 USD) was due on October 1, with a second payment for the same amount due on December 1. Did he receive the amount of money needed for the first payment in time to meet the October 1 deadline? Was this why his actions to secure a blessing for TEC were so frantic?
Perhaps he already had the down payment in hand for the October 1 installment, but he knows that the next deadline is December 1 when he will need another £440,000 (or $880,000 USD). Where will he acquire such enormous funds? If TEC is neither invited to Lambeth nor given a passing grade, the Lambeth Conference would be in as much trouble financially as a well known bank in the UK which had to be suddenly rescued. Who will rescue Lambeth and Rowan Williams? Would TEC put the envelope in the mail if they were treated favorably? The New Orleans Statement pressed for an invitation to Lambeth for Bishop Gene Robinson and offered to help the Archbishop of Canterbury achieve that. What might this help be? Stressors and motivations like these, though unseen by the public, are constant factors in the relationship between Canterbury and TEC. Sadly, that relationship is determining the direction and focus of a 77 million member church.
His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, contacted the Primates quietly and individually, ostensibly to gather their views on whether TEC had passed the test. It is imperative to Dr. Williams that a substantial number of the Primates, no matter how small their province, agree that TEC has at least tried hard enough for a further chance. Dromantine and Dar es Salaam were unanimous, and he knows his best chance is to keep the Primates separated and unable to confer together in a meeting. We note that several members of the Joint Standing
Committee did not attach their names in agreement to the railroaded text, and the AAC applauds the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis (President Bishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and a member of the Primates Standing Committee) for his courageous and accurate minority opinion to the JSC report, as well as his cogent observations based on his experience in New Orleans.Let’s watch the news carefully over the next eight weeks. Will Dr. Williams coerce a slight majority of Primates to agree favorably towards TEC? Will Dr. Williams find the £440,000 for the next installment due December 1 and save both face and the Lambeth Conference – at least until the next installment is due? Follow the money and watch for updates as answers to these questions become available. Watch for the official announcement from Dr. Williams that TEC is OK, and then later, that Gene Robinson is coming to Lambeth. Am I wrong on this analysis? I believe I am spot on, but I am willing to issue a challenge to Lambeth Palace: prove me wrong…
There is more, read it all here.
Update Still more opinions from David Anderson here.
IOW, Anderson believes that, since he and his colleagues operated in such a manner and succeeded at Dar es Salaam, it is the only way the ABC and TEC could have operated to achieve their goals.
Not everybody works in secret conspiracies.
VCanon Anderson is impertinent. Who does he think he is ? What concern are the number and titration of payments to Kent University ?
So the whole business with the meeting at New Orleans was a issue of cash flow?
First Bob Duncan declares Rowan Williams irrelevant and now Can(n)on Anderson accuses him of taking bribes.
As the tide turns against the “realigners,” they more and more reveal their true character.
Why am I not surprised that David Anderson would make such comments? He has to be very focused on money as the American Anglican Counsel which he runs is dependent upon the “charity” of others. In has a full vote in the Common Cause Partnership. For many years, Anderson was rector of St. James Newport CA. This was the parish of Howard Ahmanson, multi multi millionaire and arch conservative. Although the AAC is a 501c3 in the US (i.e. subject to non-profit tax laws and reporting), it does not report the names of its donors but did report that approximately… Read more »
ABC is ABC. The tail does not wag the dog. Luke 12:58 “As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way…” ABC is working on trying to reconcile with all parties. He has bravely re-invited the US church to international events that they had been cut out of before. The same events that “unanimously” voted on behalf of all the communion to take pot shots at the US, without them even being allowed to be there to witness what was being done or testify on their own behalf. They… Read more »
The sad things are this message is not a spoof.
This man has had some influence in Anglican circles.
This man is to be a bishop.
Christ have mercy.
Mr. David C Anderson (N.B. the honorary title Canon was conferred on him by the “apostate” Bishop of LA!) showed his true colors on “Larry King Live,” a CNN program during the 2006 GC. He appeared together with Bishop V. Gene Robison. Asked by their host what made them “tick”, Bishop Robinson forcefully and pointedly spoke about his Christian vocation to have compassion toward the poor and needy and those who disagree with him, while Mr. Anderson valued life so much because it gave him an opportunity to fight. “I love a good fight!” said he.
+Orombi now beats a hollow drum that emits no sound.
Allegations of following the money and a telephone campaign, of a pre-arranged result, and secret motives… All this is just made up stuff in green ink, but presumably it is placed on Thinking Anglicans because it is such an extreme view and coming from this bishop elect. Doesn’t mean there is anything in it, though, other than a lack of basic charity and a nastiness of comment.
If this is the level of debate now, perhaps these folks had better get on with their revolution. presumably Orombi is ready to launch.
This piece is so loaded with jargon, it reads like a propaganda piece from the old Pravda.
The child in me wishes Rowan could slap Anderson in the face with a glove.
I actually wish Rowan opens up his eyes and stops paying attention to ANYONE with Anderson in his/her phone list.
This is a miserable, coward, pathetic, low and unbecoming thing for any human being to do.
If it was not because God makes us all so beautiful, this Anderson would be the dirt we walk on. Poor wrench, may God have pity on his sad, selfish soul.
Now that David Anderson has posted his slanderous innuendo, we can be sure that within days it will be trumpeted as fact by all the usual suspects. And the irony of Anderson and this band of simoniacs making accusations of fiscal malfeasance is simply breathtaking if one has read McNaughton’s excellent piece on how Ahmanson and a band of hard-right neoconservatives have financed the destabilization of a series of American denominations and have been the financial backers of the present coup d’eglise. The irony continues as Anderson uses the phrase “follow the money” – which is the tile of McNaughton’s… Read more »
If this is the sort of person who conservatives think is suited to be a bishop, then the sooner they form their own church, the better. he shouldn’t have even been considered for a post on a PCC!
Actually Ephraim Radner+ is on the board of the IRD and Jim Naughton is Naughton not McNaughton but close enough.
Anderson’s speculative argumentum ad hominem does not change the fact that this style of argument has been widely used by reappraisers since Lambeth 98 (remember the “chicken dinners” schtick so often recycled?).
It’s very telling that neither T19 or SF are (so far) carrying ‘Canon’ David C. Anderson’s slanderous rant. Even they know this is a step too far.
Writes Mr. David C. Anderson: “I do not believe that any parish, vestry member, clergy or diocese that has been personally sued by TEC, had their health insurance jerked out from under them, had their property confiscated, their pensions lost or frozen, and publicly deposed when they had already announced they had left, would ever forget why they left and why they cannot go back. The current Episcopal Church cannot and will not repent.” This statement is definitely OT and untrue. The disaffected clergy leaving TEC have not lost their pensions. If vested, they do not lose any years of… Read more »
It is shocking that Anglicans have spent so much effort on one issue for so long — yet the outcome is edifying as common sense and diplomacy triumph (Rowan Williams comes across as a far superior leader to most of the others, who seem all too ready to throw ill-considered tantrums). It is more shocking, at a time of deep crises of faith and intense global need, that the RCC has spent so much effort on utter trivia — the huge debate about the Tridentine Rite and the high-powered theological discussion of Limbo (a report produced after one year was… Read more »
FJOL says “It is shocking that Anglicans have spent so much effort on one issue for so long — yet the outcome is edifying….” Erm – yes to the first part (thank a weak leader and liberals playing politics in the CofE hierarchy) but do you realise we do not know the outcome yet? The ABC will not consider it a success if he is left with 10m and falling, based in the west, extinct in 5o years….. is that the outcome you were thinking of or are you still hoping the majority of the AC can be fooled to… Read more »
Fr. Joseph O’Leary comments that “the RCC has spent so much effort on utter trivia — the huge debate about the Tridentine Rite and the high-powered theological discussion of Limbo.” True. Rome has to do that in order to placate conservatives, while moving ahead in other areas. I came across Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger’s latest book, Apostles (a summary of Bible classes he recently taught during his weekly audience). I expected chapters on the 12-13 all male apostles, if one includes Matthias and Paul. Yes, there were chapters on all 13; but additional chapters on Women Apostles: Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Prisca/Priscilla,… Read more »
Is this the same Anderson who a few weeks ago was going on in public about how many gay people can change their sexuality? Why should anyone think that someone who has such a poor concept of what truth actually is could in any way be qualified to preach the Truth?