Gene Robinson 'to be invited' to Lambeth, says ABC

A number of Anglicans in England have been writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury in protest at his decision to leave Gene Robinson off the invitation list to Lambeth. I have been 'leaked' one of the letters sent back in response. Signed by Canon Flora Winfield, of his office for International, Ecumenical and Anglican Communion Affairs, it reflects on the Archbishop's concern about the 'canonical impediment' to Bishop Robinson's consecration. The letter concludes: 'The Archbishop is therefore exploring inviting Bishop Robinson to the conference in another status.' Full text printed at the end of this post.

A source tells me he will indeed be invited as an official guest, with a voice but no vote, in the same way that eight TEC delegates were invited to the ACC meeting at Nottingham. Ecumenical guests would fall into the same category. Martyn Minns will not be invited in any category however. The two more recent consecrations, including that of Bill Atwood, have not been discussed yet.

One person I tried to establish what this means with is the Anglican Communion's communications director, Jim Rosenthal.

It transpires that Jim is on ordination retreat.

He is to be ordained into permanent diaconate in the London diocese at St Paul's Cathedral. He will serve as a non-stipendiary deacon at All Hallows by the Tower. Coincidentally, this church is just five minutes from my office, just beyond the nearest Starbucks. Oh wonder! Oh joy! Think of the glorious cappucinos to come looking over the dappled and glistening waters of St Katharine's Dock with Jim in clerical collar! Imagine, the Church ordaining its top Lambeth communicator into my very own media parish. Sometimes I just love the 'coincidences' - otherwise known as miracles in which God remains anonymous - that this job throws up. (This pic shows Jim in his other incarnation, as St Nicholas, with my son as the 'boy bishop' in attendance.)

I've rather switched threads now, but as I can't get hold of Canon Kenneth Kearon either, he having a few days off after a week at the Canadadian synod, it is just worth pointing out that Jim's will be one of a record number of ordinations at St Paul's Cathedral on Saturday, the day after tomorrow. A total of 46 deacons are being ordained by Richard Chartres, the highest number in the entire country, this Petertide.

Nationwide, more than 560 men and women will join the Church of England's clergy this year - the highest since 2000. To mark this, CofE hq has jus sent me a study edition of a new Common Worship publication that brings together the Common Worship ordination services and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer ordinal. Contains everything from seating arrangements to how to vest properly. Worth investing in if you're a bishop, I'd say.

Canon Flora Winfield's letter to those enquiring about Gene Robinson's attendance at Lambeth:

'The Archbishop of Canterbury has asked me to thank you for your letter of 22 May 2007 regarding his invitation to bishops of the Anglican Communion to next year’s Lambeth Conference. The Archbishop is taking a period of study leave this summer and he has therefore asked me to respond to your letter on his behalf.

Prior to his departure, Archbishop Rowan noted carefully the level of disappointment expressed by correspondents, following his decision not to extend an invitation to Bishop Gene Robinson to attend the Lambeth Conference along with the other bishops. He stressed in his letter to the bishops that he did not take this decision lightly, but that he regarded it as appropriate in the light of the recommendations set out in the Windsor Report.

The Windsor Report counselled that in the future proper regard should be taken to the bounds of affection and interdependence between member Churches when considering the acceptability of a candidate for Episcopal appointment. While is it recognised that Bishop Robinson was duly elected and consecrated according to the canons of The Episcopal Church in view of the widespread objections to Bishop Robinson’s ministry in other Provinces of the Communion, the Windsor Report further recommend that the Archbishop ‘ exercise very considerable caution in inviting him to the councils of the Communion.

From the time of the election of Bishop Gene Robinson to See of New Hampshire, both the representatives of many Anglican Provinces and the Instruments of Communion made it clear that full recognition by the Communion could not be given to a bishop whose chosen lifestyle would, in most Provinces of the Communion, give rise to canonical impediment to his consecration as a bishop. The Archbishop has to be loyal to that widespread concern as well as bearing in mind the position of Bishop Robinson within The Episcopal Church. The Archbishop is therefore exploring inviting Bishop Robinson to the conference in another status.

Thank you once again for writing.'

Comments

[Robert Ian Williams]

In fact evangelicals claim that the Bible is clear on morality..yet there are three parties on divorce and re-marriage.

David Holloway, that it is sin and adultery..see his book, Church and State

John Stott., Richard Bewes..permissible for an innocent victim of adultery.

George Carey...free for all.

That is why in their Covenant, they never mention it!!!...it exposes their fragility when they proclaim the perspicuity of Scripture.

Yet they would lead the homosexual in the Gospel way of salvation.

Does God leave the interpreation of his commandments to the subjective sincerity of men or a Church which is the pillar and foundation of the truth ( One Timothy 3:15)

[Malcolm French+]

Ah yes. Having no logical rejoinder, we'll just accuse Fr. French of being a racist.

Let me then expand on my point. The fact that Duncan of Pittsburgh and Venables of the Southern Cone likewise object fails to constitute a canonical impediment.

In fact, the Windsor Report (parts of which the "conservatives" account authoritative - but only parts) actually acknowledges up front that the election, consecration and installation of the Bishop of New Hampshire were all done canonically.

As to our friend who claims to know St. Paul's view on the matter - since the Apostle to the Gentiles has been dead lo these 1950 years, isn't it a trifle presumptuous to pretend you know his mind?

[Ian Welch]

While Sydney is far and away the largest and richest diocese in Australian Anglicanism, is not the whole church in Australia. The caution displayed thus far in the Anglican Communion furore by Australian Anglicans, including Sydney, should not be ignored.

If, and it is a big if, Sydney decided to abandon the Anglican Communion as it is today, the rest of the Anglican Church in Australia is unlikely to follow.

There is already an unhappy division in Australia, involving a tiny fraction of Anglo-Catholics in the form of the Traditional Anglicans.

To follow the North Americans into ecclesiastical chaos can hardly be interpreted as either godly or sensible in Australia where Christianity, and notably Anglican Christianity, continues to decline every year. 19C Anglican schisms in the UK and US did not have a happy outcome and it is unlikely that schism in Australia would do more than favour other Christian groups such as the pentecostals.

The long-term legal and practical consequences of Sydney leaving the contemporary Anglican Communion that is inevitable if the proposal for a separate form of episcopal conference was taken up would strike hard at the strong and quietly growing core of evangelical support in other dioceses across Australia.

I hope wiser counsels will prevail and that Sydney will avoid a complete breach with the majority of Australian Anglicans.

[Pluralist]

The position of Canon Flora Winfield's letter is nto different from the position that Archbishop of Canterbury expressed before he went on his study leave. He was considering an alternative basis of invitation to Bishop Robinson then, and was not considering any invitations to the boundary crossers.

[I'd rather not say]

What I find striking is the apparent subversion of the conciliar structure of the communion by the ABC in issuing the invitations to TEC in the first place. So far, there appears to be little effort by the ABC to implement the directions of the council of primates, most recently Dar es Salaam, but Dromantine and the Windsor Report before that. This is rather in the Archbishop's hands. If he chooses to continue to disrespect the primates' councils, he chooses to end the communion among them. This should be an interesting year.

[Constantine]

Please pass Nero, I mean Rowland, his violin. Don't pay attention to that Christian crowd, they don't have any resources, but TEC has lots of money for us.

[Kurt Hill]

Good. Let's hope that all of the fundagelicals stay away--including the English ones!

[Bill Channon]

... but Robert, despite what I previously said,( which I strongly believe), there is a difference. Those who do divorce can and mostly do, recognize their actions as having been sinful and repent of their sin. +Robinson denies his actions are sinful, both his divorce and his fornication with his 'partner'.

[Bill Channon]

Robert, I agree with you. Jesus hated divorce but if it occurred, then that person should never be in the priesthood, let alone be a bishop any more than Mr. Robinson should be a bishop.

[Bill Channon]

Margaret Thatcher often talked about neededing to keep Ronald Reagan on track and to help him keep his knees for going all wobbly.

Now we have an ABC who needs that same help. His position is precarious but to see him bending towards the liberal bent which includes many bishops who are guilty of heresy who express downright disbelief in the core of the Christian faith (and this includes +Schori).
His invitations to Lambet of many of the bishops of TEC who are guilty of many acts and responses to the AC and the the ABC which fundamentally tell him and the primates to mind their own business may be politacally canny, but that is all they are. His actions and the actions of those behind the throne who share that power are nothing short of despicable.
Like Esau, he has sold the Church's 2000 year old tradition and beliefs for a mess of pottage. Fuctionally, heis decision will lead the the end of the AC as we know it. What will remain will be a core of liberal churches and a number of orthodox churches who will hang on out of a forlorn hope that things will change or because they cannot bear to separate from Canterbury.
But Anglicanism is now a global church and the claims of those (mostly liberal) who would say that Anglicanism is defined by its connection to the English church and the See of Cantebury has passed. Anglicanism has been rooted in every corner of the globe and the allegiance they bear is to the precepts, theology, doctrine and ecclesiology that was instrumental in the formation of the English church.
Anglicanism and Canterbury have, as the root of the Church, lost their definitional primacy.Anglicanism exist all over the world and is, beyond, a sentimental connection to the mother church, fast losing its sense of allegiance to the primacy of Canterbury. The coming year(s) will see the dissolution of the AC and the separation of many of the orthodox provinces and the vast majority of the AC's members.
A new Anglican AC (call it what you may) will develop and coalesce, leaving behind the colonial structure that is the English Church, ECUSA and a few others, many of them past colonial dependencies of the United States.
Tragic! Years from now it will be seen that the liberal remnants went down another path and the majority of the church worked hard to remain true to the Christian Faith.

[Chris Sugden]

The Archbishop has already downgraded the Lambeth Conference to a clergy fraternal. He continues to invite those who have flouted the teaching of the Communion and some who are persecuting some of its members while he marginalises those who have upheld historic biblical Christian faith. This does appear to be a very one-sided form of listening.

This invitation will make it all the harder for orthodox Christian leaders to accept the premise on which the Conference seems to be based: that we can share a common Christian life and can live with this fundamental disagreement on the nature and response to sinful behaviour. Neither the Christian Faith nor the Anglican Communion was founded on an agreement to disagree.

What place is there now in the Canterbury- led Communion for orthodox Anglicans for whom Martyn Minns and the Bishops of Nigeria speak? And what place will there be for those who agree with them in the future?

[Mark W]

So the message is that allegedly transgressing a church rule is dealt with more severely (no invite at all) than ignoring the Bible (taking RIW's comment above never mind other issues). Even more bizarre as the Bible is central to Anglicanism (see article 20).
It is hard not to remember Jesus' attitude to the pharisees and their adding of new rules to the Jewish Scriptures.....

[Jim]

And the band played as the Titanic went to the bottom of the north Atlantic

[David Palmer]

Ruth, what do you make of Sydney Diocese Standing Committee's recommendation to its Archbishop and Bishops re Lambeth and the American Bishops? (rg responds: not looking good for Lambeth I'd say)

[Robert Ian Williams]

The interesting factor is that divorced and re-married bishops are now perfectly acceptable in the Anglican Communion.

Indeed the New Testament states, " let the bishop be the husband of one wife."....yet those opposed to Bishop Gene Robinson, continue to ignore this other unscriptural abberation.

[Sinner]

You know, it really doesn't matter any more who the ABC invites or doesn't invite: the Global South aren't coming anyway!

[Kenneth L. Jones, SSgt, USAF (Ret)]

And the translation is.......?

[Christopher Johnson]

The bullet into the back of the Anglican Communion's head.

[john]

Fr Malcom,
Is it because he is black?

[Peter Kirk]

Fr Malcolm, perhaps that the Apostle Paul objects might be considered a "canonical impediment"?

[michael jensen]

... and nobody's happy.

[Fr. Malcolm French]

"Canonical impediment?"

That the Primate of Nigeria objects is hardly a "canonical impediment."