The Church of England General Synod will be considering the Covenant again in February.
The two relevant documents are:
GS 1716 Anglican Covenant available here as a PDF, and also here as a web page.
GS Misc 910 The Governance of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion by Colin Podmore, available here as a PDF, and also here as a web page.
Last November, Mr Justin Brett asked a (written, electronic) Question, which is reported here:
Mr Justin Brett (Oxford) to ask the Secretary General:
Q2. What research has been undertaken to establish the effect of the Church of England’s participation in an Anglican Communion Covenant upon the relationship between the Church of England and the Crown, given the Queen’s position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the consequent tension between her prerogative and the potential demands of a disciplinary process within the proposed Covenant?
Mr William Fittall to reply as Secretary General:
A. The Church of England response of 19 December 2007 to the initial draft Covenant noted on page 13 that ‘it would be unlawful for the General Synod to delegate its decision making powers to the primates, and that this therefore means that it could not sign up to a Covenant which purported to give the primates of the Communion the ability to give ‘direction’ about the course of action that the Church of England should take.’ The same would be true in relation to delegation to any other body of the Anglican Communion. Since as a matter of law the Church of England could not submit itself to any such external power of direction, any separate possible difficulties in relation to the Royal Prerogative could not in practice arise.
There is no reference in the new report to the point raised in this Q and A.
The report indicates that the House of Bishops believes the process of adoption of the Covenant should not involve the passing of any Measure or Canon, but rather the passing of a Synod resolution which should then be formally declared to be an Act of Synod. It also considers that such a resolution would most likely be both Article 7 and Article 8 business, and thus would require referral to the dioceses.
The Church of England’s earlier response to the (then) draft Covenant can be found here. The full text is available in html here.
The Church Times reported last year’s debate: Anglican Covenant: New Covenant draft welcomed more warmly.
The voting result at that time was reported here.
9 CommentsThe Anglican Communion Office has issued several notices about the forthcoming meeting in Alexandria, Egypt from 1 to 5 February. See
History of the February 2009 Primates Meeting
Media Advisory on the 2009 Primates Meeting
Press Media Accreditation
Episcopal Life Online has vastly more information at Primates to address international concerns at February meeting in Alexandria, Egypt including this:
The primates will also hear an update from the Windsor Continuation Group and receive a report the group is presenting to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The group, which last met in December 2008, is charged with addressing questions arising from the Windsor Report, such as recommended bans on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.
The Living Church reports in GAFCON Primates Prepare Case for New Province that:
The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican), is involved in “an unanticipated series of consultations with the primates who originated the call” for a new Anglican province in North America, participants in an Anglican theology conference have been told.
Bishop Duncan had been scheduled to address “North American Anglicanism After GAFCON and Lambeth” at the Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, S.C. Instead, the Very Rev. William McKeachie, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul which is the conference location, read a letter from Bishop Duncan. He said that following consultations about the proposed new province between Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and members of the GAFCON primates’ steering committee in London last month, Archbishop Williams had asked that a paper be prepared setting out the situation and the hopes for a new structure. The Archbishop invited the primates to forward the case to the Anglican Consultative Council along with their comments.
Bishop Duncan said the GAFCON primates will present the paper and make the case for an alternate province during the primates’ meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, next month…
Dave Walker’s cartoon at the time of the last primates meeting can be seen here.
41 CommentsBishop Nick Baines, who authored a blog for Fulcrum during the Lambeth Conference, and has his own blog here, has written an article, The Lambeth Conference 2008, a review after six months. He says:
23 CommentsIt is a review not of the conference itself, but of the conference as reflected in the blog I wrote during it.
The Church Times review of 2008 is now available online.
The main news review is here.
There are several other pages, including this press review.
0 CommentsUpdated again Thursday evening
Various Anglican leaders have commented on the current situation in Gaza.
Presiding Bishop joins call for end to Gaza attacks
MIDDLE EAST: Jerusalem bishop issues statement on Gaza
MIDDLE EAST: Patriarchs, heads of Jerusalem churches issue ecumenical statement on Gaza
Statements from around the Communion on the Situation in Gaza.
Archbishop’s statement on Gaza (Archbishop of Canterbury)
15 CommentsPaul Handley, the editor of the Church Times, has a major article in the Comment is free section of The Guardian today.
The Anglican Communion will finally split in 2009 – This will be the year of unavoidable schism in the church.
Also in The Guardian are these two items by Andrew Brown.
The New Atheism, a definition and a quiz – What makes a New Atheist different from an old one? Here are the five doctrines which distinguish them.
So the pope is a Catholic – You may disagree with him. But – properly read – his views on homosexuality are not egregious bigotry.
Jane Williams in The Guardian
Acts of the Apostles, part 3: An ideal church? – Acts implies that the Holy Spirit’s work always leads to the formation of community.
Jonathan Romain in The Guardian
How to survive a sermon – Many of us will be listening to sermons this week. They can be tests of endurance, but they can sometimes be life-changing.
Roderick Strange writes in the Credo section of The Times Commitment and fidelity are demanding qualities – A time to remember and appreciate what our families give us.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about English kings and St John the Evangelist.
8 CommentsRevised on 19 December
The Church of England Newspaper has this article by George Conger Canterbury won’t block or bless new province:
The Archbishop of Canterbury will not block the creation of a third Anglican province in North America, sources familiar with Dr. Rowan Williams’ Dec 5 meeting with five traditionalist archbishops, tell The Church of England Newspaper.
However, the archbishop will not give it his endorsement either, arguing his office does not have the legal authority to make, or un-make, Anglicans.
On Dec 5, five members of the Gafcon primates council: Archbishops Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, and Henry Orombi of Uganda met with Dr. Williams in Canterbury for approximately five hours to discuss the current state of affairs within the Communion…
The Church Times has this article by Pat Ashworth New Anglican province comes into being in US together with a sidebar, Members of the Group (scroll down below the main article for this):
SOME members of the new Church began breaking away before the present crisis. One ACNA partner, the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC), split from the Episcopal Church in the United States as long ago as 1873. The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA), affiliated to Rwanda, was, in 2000, already moving towards establishing a separate province, after the irregular consecrations of Bishop John Rodgers and Bishop Chuck Murphy in Singapore. The AMiA had 23 parishes in 2000. Now it says it has 140, including 12 in Canada (who are members of the Anglican Coalition in Canada, its subsidiary)…
The Church Times also has an article by Bishop Duncan on its Comment pages, which is at present only now available to subscribers. This makes it harder possible to appreciate the Leader article A new Church in the United States which says:
13 CommentsWHETHER it is viewed with sympathy or suspicion, there is no doubt that the new Anglican Church in North America changes the Anglican map. To be more accurate, it lays a new map (a relief map, perhaps?) on top of the old one, so that in his otherwise factual article (See Comment ) the new Archbishop, the Most Revd Bob Duncan, can say artlessly that the charge of boundary-crossing, condemned by the Windsor report, “is most effectively and completely addressed by general acceptance of the new province”. Although territorial confusion matters less where a church is defined more by congregational membership than place of abode, the parish ideal is none the less strong…
Updated Friday evening
The press release about the Anglican Church in North America says
“The movement unites 700 orthodox Anglican congregations, representing roughly 100,000 people…”
“The Common Cause Partnership is a federation of Anglican Christians that links together eight Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America, including the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, Forward in Faith North America, the Reformed Episcopal Church, and the bishops and congregations linked with Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone.”
Estimates of the numbers of parishes by jurisdiction are shown below. Some of these figures come directly from the Common Cause database, others were supplied to me, and others are my own estimate. I would welcome corrections to any of these figures. The table does not include any contribution from the 75 Forward in Faith North America congregations listed by Common Cause, most of which as I understand it are still within The Episcopal Church.
Friday update
Forward in Faith North America has published Forward in Faith NA responds to Q & A on the new ACNA which may answer some of the questions raised here about the status of FiFNA congregations in ACNA.
| Reformed Episcopal Church (includes 7 in Canada) | 135 |
CC
database |
| Anglican Mission in the Americas (Rwanda) (includes 12 in Canada ) |
140 |
CC
database |
|
subtotal
|
275
|
|
| Convocation of Anglicans in North America (Nigeria) | 68 |
CC
database |
| Missionary Convocation of Kenya | 36 |
Bp Atwood
|
| Missionary Convocation of Uganda | 51 |
Bp Guernsey
|
|
subtotal
|
155
|
|
| Missionary Convocation of the Southern Cone |
|
|
| – Ex San Joaquin |
30 |
SS
estimate |
| – Ex Pittsburgh | 55 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Quincy | 20 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Fort Worth | 45 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Canada ANiC | 19 |
CC database
|
| – Individual congregations affiliated to Bolivia, Argentina and Recife | 45 |
SS 2007 est.
|
|
subtotal
|
214
|
|
|
Grand
Total |
644
|
|
The Bishop of Washington, John Chane has written a letter to his diocese about the proposed formation of a new province in North America.
Read it all here. There is also a PDF version.
Here’s an extract:
22 Comments…The Archbishop of Canterbury wisely did not invite any of the bishops consecrated to serve in the Nigerian, Ugandan, Rwandan or Kenyan incursions into the United States to last summer’s Lambeth Conference. Nor did he invite bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke from the Anglican Communion almost 130 years ago. Williams seems unlikely to reverse course now. He knows that the leaders of the proposed province have been working, overtly and covertly, to undermine the Episcopal Church for almost a decade, so what was a front page story to the editors of the New York Times was old news to him. It would be folly for the Archbishop to even consider recognizing a non-geographical province because it would unleash chaos in the Communion, with theological minorities in every jurisdiction seeking to affiliate with likeminded Anglicans in other provinces. Unfortunately, the Archbishop has contributed to the confusion and anxiety the leaders of the proposed province have sought to foster by meeting on numerous occasions with Duncan and his allies. These meetings have bestowed an unwarranted sense of legitimacy on those who seek to deconstruct the Anglican Communion.
What Duncan and Minns propose – that Duncan become the Archbishop of a newly minted non-geographical province with the support of GAFCON primates such as Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda – is a rejection of the respectful diversity and generous orthodoxy that defines the Communion. It is a repudiation of the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in our communal life. It flies in the very face of what it truly means to be an Anglican. For Minns to suggest that he is leading a “new reformation” is ludicrous and demeans the historicity and value of the real Reformation as we know it and live it. The movers of the proposed new province embarrass themselves, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion by the self-serving media coverage they have worked so hard to achieve. The news of the proposed province appears at a time when more than 28 million Americans are living on food stamps, one out of every 10 new mortgage holders is facing foreclosure, unemployment is at its highest level in decades, the auto industry is “tanking” and the real danger of deflation or a possible depression looms large on the horizon. In the global south, millions live on $1 a day, and wars, ethnic and religious violence, poverty and the AIDS epidemic continue to wrack the African continent. To learn in this context that Duncan, Minns and their allies think that the most important issue facing the church is the sexuality of the Bishop of New Hampshire suggests a level of self-absorption that is difficult to square with the teachings of Christ. And to learn that the New York Times considers the complaints of these deposed, retired and irregularly consecrated bishops to be front page news suggests a fixation on “culture wars” reporting that deprives readers of a true sense of the challenges facing the church in this country…
There is a lengthy interview with Archbishop Peter Akinola in the Sunday Tribune, a Nigerian newspaper.
29 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
Primates of the GAFCON Primates’ Council meeting in London have issued the following statement about the Province of the Anglican Church in North America:
We welcome the news of the North American Anglican Province in formation. We fully support this development with our prayer and blessing, since it demonstrates the determination of these faithful Christians to remain authentic Anglicans.
North American Anglicans have been tragically divided since 2003 when activities condemned by the clear teaching of Scripture and the vast majority of the Anglican Communion were publicly endorsed. This has left many Anglicans without a proper spiritual home. The steps taken to form the new Province are a necessary initiative. A new Province will draw together in unity many of those who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of God’s word, and also create the highest level of fellowship possible with the wider Anglican Communion.
Furthermore, it releases the energy of many Anglican Christians to be involved in mission, free from the difficulties of remaining in fellowship with those who have so clearly disregarded the word of God.
There are some reports of the meeting that was held today between several GAFCON primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury:
Ruth Gledhill has Canterbury summit: nothing happened
Baby Blue has Rowan Williams hosts Anglican primates at Canterbury Cathedral for emergency summit
Tuesday update
Although the statement appearing on the GAFCON website does not include any signatures, it now appears from this Religion News Service report, Conservative Anglican Primates Back New Province, that it may have been signed by only five of the six primates who constitute the GAFCON primates council. The name missing from the RNS report is The Most Rev Valentino Mokiwa, Primate of Tanzania.
20 CommentsUpdated again Saturday morning
The Los Angeles Times has Episcopal Church leader says those who defected ‘are no longer Episcopalians’ by Duke Helfand
Update There is an additional article: Split in Episcopal Church hits new level
The Washington Post has A Worldwide Anglican Melee by Jacqueline L. Salmon and Michelle Boorstein
The Toronto Star has Anglicans formalize split by Stuart Laidlaw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has Episcopalian churches in Georgia may join new Anglican group by Christopher Quinn
Religion News Service has What’s ahead for the fractured Episcopal Church? by Daniel Burke
Christianity Today has Conservative Anglicans Create Rival Church by Timothy Morgan
Jim Naughton at Episcopal Café has 100,000? We think not and he also has some critique of other coverage here and also here.
Updates
The Living Church has at last published a report, Provisional Structure Unveiled for New Province.
Stand Firm has published a note: Clarifying the Role of the AAC in the New Province.
The Anglican Journal has Anglican Church in North America: new church or new province?
Christian Today has GAFCON Primates to meet Archbishop over US split
The New York Times has yet another article, Conservative Anglicans Vow to Press Ahead With Split by Laurie Goodstein.
12 CommentsUpdated Saturday morning
Among the interesting comments so far…
Jan Nunley reminds us of some earlier news events in Everything old…
In particular, she links to Dissident Episcopalians Meet to Discuss New Church, which is dated 1977.
Update Jan has more, in I found another one….
Jeffrey Weiss at the Dallas Morning News suggests the new ‘Anglican Church in North America’ isn’t actually Anglican, in fact he says:
At this point I put these folks in the same basket as the women who claim they’re Catholic priests, Christians who say they are “Messianic Jews” and Mormons who say they are Christians.
Ian Douglas asks Why do we call them traditionalists?
Paragraph 154 of The Windsor Report clearly states: ‘Whilst there are instances in the polity of Anglican churches that more than one jurisdiction exists in one place, this is something to be discouraged rather than propagated. We do not therefore favour the establishment of parallel jurisdictions.’
Update Jeff Sharlet has Anglicans Toot Somebody Else’s Horn.
5 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
For reports of the event yesterday in Illinois, see here, and also here.
ENS has published Lambeth Palace responds to Common Cause Partnership announcement:
“There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces,” the spokesperson said. “Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, the process has not yet begun.”
Resolution 12 from ACC 10 can be found here.
The BBC World Service has a 9 minute radio segment in which Christopher Landau interviews several of the principals in this story.
Analysis
Wednesday
Listen (9mins)
Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 December 2008, 00:41 GMTBreakaway members of the Anglican churches in North America are announcing the formation of a new north American church. Their unilateral actions will result in two competing Anglican churches existing in North America.
Our religious affairs correspondent Christopher Landau asks: What does this mean for those trying to preserve the unity of the worldwide communion?
Thursday evening update
A further Episcopal News Service report: Communion process presents challenges for proposed province by Matthew Davies and Mary Frances Schjonberg
Church of England Newspaper New American Province looms by George Conger
The Times Archbishops hold Canterbury summit over threat of schism by Ruth Gledhill
And also, Lambeth Palace on new province as Gafcon primates fly in for summit on Ruth’s blog.
21 CommentsUpdated Thursday lunchtime
For earlier reports go here.
The New York Times article by Laurie Goodstein previously linked has been written-through and is now headlined Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group (h/t KH).
Also, there is a link here to a podcast in which this journalist is interviewed.
Reuters Michael Conlon Episcopal Church dissidents move toward division
Chicago Tribune Manya Brachear Conservatives unveil plan to break from Episcopal Church
Cleveland Plain Dealer Former Episcopal breakaway parishes join new North American Anglican Church
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Fort Worth Episcopal diocese joins new Anglican Church in North America
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Proposed constitution to reunite conservative Episcopalian groups
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Duncan to head new Anglican church
Canada National Post Conservative Anglicans take step in forming new church
Washington Post Conservative Episcopalians Vote to Create Alternative Branch by Michelle Boorstein
Washington Times Anglican conservatives propose constitution by Julia Duin
And,in the British press:
Telegraph Anglican row spills into US as Episcopal church splits over homosexual priests by Tom Leonard
And, there was this earlier report on Episcopal News Service that I missed yesterday, Conservative Anglicans due to announce new province.
Thursday lunchtime update
Religious Intelligence has this report by George Conger Legal framework set for new Third Province in North America
11 CommentsUpdated Wednesday evening
Three reports this morning about the forthcoming event in Illinois:
BBC North American Anglicans to split by Christopher Landau
Update this report has now been written-through by editorial staff and retitled North American Anglicans separate.
Christian Science Monitor Conservative bishops propose a competing North American Anglican church by Jane Lampman
Christian Post Breakaway Anglicans Aim for Less Division with New Province by Lillian Kwon
Wednesday evening update
This short Associated Press report: Conservatives form rival group to Episcopal Church
Now superseded by this substantial one by Rachel Zoll Conservatives form rival group to Episcopal Church
New York Times Laurie Goodstein Conservatives Expected to Split Episcopal Church
Chicago Tribune Manya Brachear Schism or stunt? Conservatives form new Anglican denomination
Dallas Morning News Jeffrey Weiss New Anglican-ish province to include Fort Worth?
epiScope has this Statement from The Episcopal Church.
The Anglican Church in North America has published:
Draft Constitution html pdf
Draft Canons html pdf
Telegraph US Anglicans form breakaway church
Daily Mail Anglican Church in U.S. splits in two in row over gay issues
Wall Street Journal Episcopals Form Rival Church
Earlier reports:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Constitution to reunite conservative Episcopal groups
Canadian Press Breakaway Anglicans to form new North American church
22 CommentsA report from Canada of division among conservatives there, in an Anglican Journal report Conservative Anglicans determined to stay within church by Keith Knight.
About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada. They came from 16 dioceses across the country.
Rev. Brett Cane of St. Aidan’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg is chair of Anglican Essentials Federation who was quick to point out that the organization is going through a name change. He said that the “Essentials” label has negative connotations in some parts of the country. He said that the federation is loosening its connection to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “We will still maintain links of fellowship with the network but we will not be organizationally tied together.”
Andrew Brown has commented at Cif belief on Anglican divisions in When a schism has a schism of its own.
For most of the first years of Rowan Williams’ time as leader of the Anglican Communion, there was a running story about whether he could hold it together in the face of its divisions about almost everything, but most noisily about gay people and liberalism. Some time this summer, it became obvious that he hadn’t and that there is a full-scale schism under way but by that time almost everyone had got bored and started to talk about other things. So this week the story returns with a twist: will there be a second schism within the schism? In particular will the coalition that has been trying to drive the liberal churches of North America out of the Communion break up; and will the puritan evangelical faction start to break up the Church of England too?
Over at Episcopal Café there is discussion under the heading If the Episcopal Church got adventuresome of an article on his own blog by Geoffrey Hoare titled Archbishop Duncan.
6 CommentsTwo pieces recently on Daily Episcopalian.
Adrian Worsfold wrote Taking over the Church of England.
…Why is GAFCON like Militant? Because a core group maintains control as a reaction to the failure of other Evangelicals to get their way in the wider Western Churches. It then infiltrates to force its agenda. Even at the Conference itself, that jumble of oddities called the Jerusalem Declaration was born in a back room – it was leaked even before the assembled could give it the rubber stamp. GAFCON itself was planned by annoying the local Anglicans in Jerusalem because of their opposition to its divisiveness.
In Britain came the entryism into one of the theological colleges and the scattering of much of its evangelical staff, replaced by hardliners and the agreeable. The same man, Chair of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has chaired the recent National Evangelical Anglican Consultation, in which, without notice, and without a right to amend, a pro-GAFCON motion was put to the meeting. The assembled would not have it, and refused to give it a vote. The result is that the CEEC will vote for it anyway on the spurious basis that it represents Evangelicals. Perhaps the CEEC once did, but as ever the hardliners continued to attend when others dropped away – it is how the entryists work…
George Clifford wrote An “alternative” province? Why not?
Until two weeks ago, I strongly advocated the Anglican Communion refusing to establish a new province in North America and mandating that provinces cease violating provincial boundaries by conducting ministries or establishing congregations within the Episcopal Church’s jurisdiction.
Then I read that the Episcopal Church had spent in excess of $1.9 million in 2008 on lawsuits connected to the departure of parishes and dioceses from this Church. Daily I read about critical needs for healthcare, food, sanitation, and shelter in the United States and abroad. I see the spiritual illness and death that afflict so many. I remember that Anglicans have wisely never claimed to be the only branch of the Christian Church.
I started to wonder, Was I wrong? Why not another North American province?
Also, Jonathan Wynne-Jones wrote at the Telegraph Squabbling evangelicals need to find a united voice.
61 Comments…Now it’s the evangelicals who are fighting amongst themselves.
In truth, the unity that was central to their success in forcing the gay cleric, Jeffrey John, to stand down as Bishop of Reading has long gone.
With hindsight this may be viewed as something of a pyrrhic victory as it led to a splintering in the evangelical movement: Anglican Mainstream and Fulcrum emerged from the 2003 row to represent the conservative and more ‘open’ factions.
The simmering tensions spilt over at the recent meeting, held at All Souls Langham Place – the church which was home to the evangelical doyen John Stott for 30 years.
Lacking such an inspirational and unifying figure, they have been reduced to bickering and squabbling.
Richard Turnbull, the chair of the Church of England Evangelical Council, was heckled by a group led by Graham Kings – a leading member of Fulcrum, and his opposite number as it were.
While some there found this childish and inappropriate – more befitting the floor of the Commons than a church, it is nevertheless easy to appreciate their frustration…
Over at Fulcrum Graham Kings has highlighted a recent comment made here at Thinking Anglicans in response to the article Church Times on NEAC.
See Rallying Point of Jerusalem Declaration, Diocesan Funds and FCA.
Today, the Church Times has an article on the proposed new province, see Province plan to be unveiled by Pat Ashworth.
The site described as “the new Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) web site set up by Anglican Mainstream South Africa” can be found here.
8 CommentsUpdated again Thursday evening
ACNS announces that the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) of the Primates and Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) Meeting is being held in London this week.
The report lists those who are attending and includes a picture of them.
Ruth Gledhill reports for The Times that Conservative Anglicans face “punishment” for helping US rebels.
And there is more on her blog under the heading Southern Cone heading south.
Looks like action is about to be taken against Greg Venables and the Southern Cone for sheltering no fewer than four TEC conservative bishops and their flocks, the latest being Jack Iker and Forth Worth. See our news report summing up the latest. I understand that the Joint Standing Committee meeting in London this week, from which significantly Egypt’s Mouneer Anis and Uganda’s Henry Orombi are absent, is to discuss suspending Southern Cone’s voting rights from the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica next May. As long-standing readers will recall, this is what happened to TEC, then Ecusa, at the last ACC meeting in Nottingham in 2005. This is not so much a ‘booting out’ but should be regarded as a punishment, I am told. Meanwhile, it seems highly probable that TEC and Canada are to be rewarded for their restraint by being given a full seat back at the table again in May.
Episcopal Café notes these reports with a question: Southern Cone “suspension”: Sabre rattling? Trial balloon?
Wednesday evening update
Matt Davies of Episcopal News Service reports on the meeting, in Joint Standing Committee plans for 2009 ACC meeting.
The Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has devoted much of its November 24-26 meeting to discussing budgetary issues and planning the next meeting of the ACC — the communion’s main policy-making body — set for May 1-12, 2009 in Kingston, Jamaica.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was among those attending the JSC meeting, which was held behind closed doors at the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace in London. She noted that a November 26 report in The Times of London newspaper, that suggested the JSC had discussed plans to discipline the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone for its recent incursions into other provinces, was untrue. “The subject has not come up,” she told Episcopal News Service…
Thursday evening update
The Living Church has an article by George Conger titled Analysis: Recognition of Third Province Likely to Take Years, and there is a longer version of this piece over here.
67 Comments