The Anglican Communion News Service reports: Consultants reinstated as full members on IASCUFO
Two consultants of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) have been reinstated as full members at the request of the Commission’s chairman.
The redesignation of Dr Katherine Grieb and Archbishop Tito Zavala as consultants took place as a result of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’ Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion issued in May 2010.
This latest decision follows a request by IASCUFO chairman Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi that Archbishop Williams reconsider the application of the letter to IASCUFO so that the consultants can be reinstated as full members for the sake of the work of the Commission.
Acknowledging that members of IASCUFO are present in virtue of skills relevant to the work of the Commission and are not present as representatives of their Provinces, Archbishop Williams has requested that the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Canon Kenneth Kearon reinstate Archbishop Zavala and Dr Grieb.
ENS reported this as Consultants reinstated as full members on ecumenical commission
…Williams’ request concerning Grieb came in May 2010 following the consecration of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool, who is openly gay, and his decision about Zavala was made in October 2010 because the Southern Cone had failed to clarify whether it was still involved in cross-border incursions into other provinces.
Grieb is an Episcopal priest and professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary. Zavala was bishop of Chile at the time but has since been elected as archbishop of the Southern Cone province.
The request to reinstate the members fully was made by IASCUFO chairman Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of the Anglican Church of Burundi.
Williams, according to an article from the Anglican Communion News Service, has asked the secretary general of the Anglican Communion to reinstate Grieb and Zavala “acknowledging that members of IASCUFO are present in virtue of skills relevant to the work of the commission and are not present as representatives of their provinces.” Yet when the sanctions were imposed, Williams cited developments and actions taken by the individuals’ provinces.
The May 2010 sanctions impacted other Episcopalians serving on ecumenical bodies. Two were asked to leave the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue and one member each stepped down from the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission and the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.
One Episcopal Church member serving on the Anglican-Old Catholic International Coordinating Council was initially removed but later reinstated as a consultant after it was agreed that that body is not an ecumenical dialogue but the coordination of work by full communion partners.
At the time, no mention was made about ecumenical commission members from other provinces — such as Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda – that had been involved in cross-border interventions in the United States.
An annotated version of the full IASCUFO membership list was published here, in October 2010.
Reading this generosity of Archbishop Williams, I am sickened by earlier actions which smack of a dictatorship from Canterbury. He is neither the Pope, or a Russian didtate. But an Archbishop amongst equals in the so called Christian Anglican Communion.
These good folk are prepared to give of their talents and time for our Anglican family, and should be honoured, not vilified by Archbishop Williams.
The whole nonsensical business of the demotion of the two members of IASCUFO was misbegotten from the beginning, and I admit I feel a certain satisfaction at the humiliating about face. People who did something foolish were forced to admit that what they did was foolish. Call it schadenfreude on my part if you like, and I won’t quarrel with you. The demotions of the members had to do with punishing their naughty churches which strayed from the straight (no pun intended) and narrow. And this with no Anglican Covenant in place! What sort of foolishness will we see if… Read more »
It’s all whimsical. Rather fed-up with this!! Make it up as you go along. Just like the unwarranted take-over of the ACC by the Primates, which the former Deputy Secretary General at the ACO now sees as a mistake – see his Covenant essay over on the new YES Covenant website. By the way. It is this IASCUFO that will be charged with deciding what is or isn’t adiaphora – so they will play a significant role in the future shape of the Covenanted Church Communion Project (richly deserving the acronym CCCP). This rather clever sleight of hand severs those… Read more »
What´s cooking in Canterbury? Didn´t most of the schismatic priests from San Joaquin, Ft. Worth, Pittsburgh and Quincy get relicensed from the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone? Who are they licensed by now (as many remain in parishes owned by the TEC but have ousted Episcopalians in favor of their version/s of realer Anglicans)? Certainly the ¨continuing¨ Anglican fellowships connected with the ACNA doesn´t make them candidates for representation/membership at IASCUFO…but, who knows, the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to make the canons up as he moods along.
Record a pro-Covenant video, and you get reinstated.
I did note that one of the two clerics restored to Full Membership of the faith and Order Commission, Dr Katherine Grieb, whose recent article on the Covenant, stated that TEC would not be required – by joining up to the covenant- to go back on their initiatives which caused the GAFCON provinces to abandon their attachment to the ‘Instruments of Communion’ in the first place. Could it be that Dr. Grieb’s soothing noises about the Covenant have been one of the reasons why the Chair of IASCUFO requested her restoration to ‘Full Membership – from being just ‘a Consultant’?… Read more »
Uff da, Jeremy FTW!
Please note that since last year’s inception of the ACNA, all extra-provincial clerics that had received a license from the Southern Cone had their licenses turned over to the ACNA. Currently there are no extra-provincial clerics licensed by the Province of the Southern Cone.
For the record, the historical (and Constitutional) dioceses of the Southern Cone are- Argentina, Chile, Northern Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Bp. Zavala, the Southern Cone’s current Presiding Bishop is the Bishop of Chile.
Thomas+