The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, Dr Kenneth Kearon, has issued the following statement, published today by ACNS:
The Secretary General writes: ‘Many of you will have read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter to the Anglican Communion issued at Pentecost last (28 May 2010). Part of that letter addresses the current and ongoing tensions in the Anglican Communion – these tensions cluster around the three moratoria referred to in the Windsor Report.
‘In that letter the Archbishop made the following proposals:
“I am therefore proposing that, while these tensions remain unresolved, members of such provinces – provinces that have formally, through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion and recently reaffirmed by the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) – should not be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged. I am further proposing that members of such provinces serving on IASCUFO should for the time being have the status only of consultants rather than full members”.
‘At that time I wrote to the Primate of the Southern Cone, whose interventions in other provinces are referred to in the Windsor Continuation Group Report asking him for clarification as to the current state of his interventions into other provinces. I have not received a response.
‘Consequently, I have written to the person from the Province of the Southern Cone who is a member of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO), Bishop Tito Zavala, withdrawing his membership and inviting him to serve as a Consultant to that body.
‘These decisions are not taken easily or lightly, but relate to the gracious restraint requested by successive meetings of the Instruments of Communion and the implications for Communion bodies when these requests are not honoured.’
The Revd Canon Dr. Kenneth Kearon.
Episcopal Café has a list of all the other members of IASCUFO, with notes on their status, see Southern Cone stonewalls Kearon over interventions (scroll down)
ENS also has a report, Ecumenical sanctions imposed on Southern Cone province, which also lists the other provinces that are still engaged in cross-border interventions, but have not yet been affected by this policy of sanctions:
Nigeria and Uganda, which have members on IASCUFO
Kenya and Rwanda, which do not.
Well, better late than never, I suppose. Now, what about those African provinces that continue to meddle in the affairs of the church in Canada and the U.S. ?
A little late, compared with how swiftly TEC was acted on, but none the less welcome as at least a gesture towards the border crossing issue.
I’m sad to hear that news. Although I’ve no sympathy with some of the behaviour coming from the Southern Cone, I don’t see what is to be gained by excluding someone from a dialogue. That dialogue needs to have diverse voices represented. (It also needs to have no power to do anything whatsoever). I didn’t think it was appropriate to remove folk that I might be presumed to have some sympathy with. I don’t think its appropriate when its doled out to those with whom I disagree. Seems like a rather childish response to the problems of the communion which… Read more »
Not welcome at all! This is just another nail in the coffin of our family and a deeply regrettable result of the juridical process initiated by the Primates in response to the election of Gene Robinson. It will simply add to the increasing hatred towards the instruments of unity being stirred up by a variety of self interested groups. Sadly, these “separations” are increasingly irrelevant in an increasingly fragmented church as the various North American factions happily rip up and piss on all that is good in our fellowship in their vicious power games. The ACO is making the worst… Read more »
Why is it, after reading stories about The Communion, sanctions, standing committees and the like, that the image of Basil Fawlty giving his Mini a “damned good thrashing” usually comes to mind?
The “sins” of The Episcopal Church and the Southern Cone might seem similar and deserving of a similar sanction. Each, arguably, violated an institutional tradition. What is different about the actions of (for example) the Southern Cone, however, is that that church aided and abetted the theft of property from another Anglican church. The leadership of the Anglican Communion is morally bankrupt and is deserving of no support and no respect.
It’s a little slap to even things out.
But there is a deeper analysis:
http://pluralistspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-ask-you.html
What a jaded pantomime!
Throwing out the *tiny* Southern Cone after, as others have noted, the TEC was given the axe so very long ago? What was the delay? This is an effort by the ABC and his pit-bull Kearon to *appear* as if they are not hypocrites! No word on the violating provinces that (claim to)have the numbers little Rowan likes to see.
And people keep insisting what a great, brilliant, fatherly figure this pathetic, whinging, self-promoting little tinpot tyrant of an archbishop is! Some people will buy anything, if it’s purple enough!
Why this?
Neither the ACC or the Archbishop of Canterbury have ever reacted in the least on either the poaching or the Episcope vagantis.
The not so Global South and their North American movers have every right to accuse them of inconsistency!
As Episcopal News Service has noted; the Provinces of Nigeria and Uganda have still not been booted out of the IASCUFO. Now that Southern Cone has been given notice of expulsion, in accordance with the Windsor requirement, why should Nigeria and Uganda remain on the ecumenical body? Would this be too divisive?
No it is not welcome. Just another silly mistaken punitive action to exclude and annoy instead of casting the net wide for the sake of the gospel.
I wonder, has anyone thought of the impact of this withdrawal of ecumenical-speaking rights from the Southern Cone Province on the former TEC Bishop Robert Duncan? By implication, at least, this would reflect the Communion’s belated sanction against Southern Cone’s precipitate action in taking dissidents under their wing.
“VOL: Do you see any orthodox archbishops turning up in January 2011 in Ireland to the next meeting of the Primates? OROMBI: No orthodox primate will go to Ireland. Unless Rowan Williams uninvites the US and Canadian Primates, you can count us out.” – virtueonline at Lausanne – Mr David Virtue of virtueonline has resumed his inexorably perpatetic status as ambassador-at-large for what he is dosposed to call ‘Orthodox Anglicanism’, but which we all know as a euphemism for ‘Gl;obal South Anglicanism. As roving ambassador-at-large, Virtue here takes advantage of the presence of Archbishop Orombi and other fundamentalist Anglican prelates,… Read more »
“At that time I wrote to the Primate of the Southern Cone, whose interventions in other provinces are referred to in the Windsor Continuation Group Report asking him for clarification as to the current state of his interventions into other provinces. I have not received a [written]response.” Oh, but he neglects to mention the phone calls he received from ++Venables explaining they would officially respond at their upcoming synod this month. And he neglects to mention that he proceeded with this misleading announcement without the courtesy of like phone call or correspondence in return. Not that these oh so severe… Read more »
To understand the previous comment, see this TV interview with the Primate of the Southern Cone
http://www.anglican.tv/content/cam2cam-archbishop-venables