'Six of the best' for Rowan

See our report today on another Lambeth boycott threat, this time from none other than the mother ship herself. Up to 60 per cent of the CofE's bishops might boycott Lambeth, according to our fifth most senior bishop, Winton. And according to a George Conger, a third of all 800-plus bishops in the entire Communion is considering a boycott.

At the same time, Dr Rowan Williams was yesterday on leave from study leave, and is pictured here after installing the Archbishop of Kaduna, Dr Josiah Iduwu-Fearon, as a six preacher at Canterbury Cathedral. Predecessors in the post include Bishop John Robinson. One of ten Archbishops in Nigeria, Dr Iduwu-Fearon is an expert in particular on Christian-Muslim relations. Although conservative, he is regarded as something of a counterpart to the Nigerian Church leader Dr Peter Akinola.

A richly-deserved honour for the Archbishop of Kaduna, one of the Anglican Communion's top scholars.

But I wonder if anyone who's not been through the British school system will understand the reference in my headline?

Because the same day that Canterbury sent me news of its new Six Preacher, I received an advance on the Church of Ireland Gazette. Its front page has the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, warning that six in ten of Church of England bishops might boycott Lambeth.

Meanwhile George Conger is reporting in the Church of England Newspaper that up to a third of the bishops in the entire Anglican Communion are prepared to boycott Lambeth should Dr Williams go ahead with his invitations to the US and Canadian bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson and who have sanctioned same-sex blessings.

Great efforts are being made to forestall any kind of Lambeth boycott. There is more than a hint of desperation coming out of it all. The Lambeth Conference is of course an instrument of unity, or communion now I think. It would be a disaster were it to become a symbol of disunity. Were it to be the mark of fragmentation of the communion for future historians.

Winton himself admits that Bishops who want to boycott might be 'constrained' by their loyalty to Dr Williams. Probably they will in their end be constrained also by their loyalty to the Church.

I managed to get hold of Winton himself this evening. After a day in the rainy but enjoyable depths of the New Forest, at an agricultural show, he had this to say: 'I was thinking of the House of Bishops. The majority would be asking themselves about where they should be.' Will he be going? 'It is a question that it seems to me very obvious that a number of us are bound to be considering.' His response to Dr Williams has not yet been response. In spite of the postal strike [on top of the weather - honestly - is it any wonder this country is going down the drain, literally. rg], the Bishop intends to have his response to the invitation with Dr Williams by next Tuesday, the deadline. He absolutely would not be drawn on whether it would be a yes, or a no, or something more equivocal. 'I shall have responded to the Archbishop's invitation by the end of the month. I am not saying more or less than that. The point I was making was that they [the bishops] are having to think about it.'

To put it in context, he was speaking to the Gazette at General Synod in York, after the best debate of these sessions, the Covenant debate.  It was a continuation of a conversation he had with Gazette editor Ian Ellis when he spoke about the issues facing the Communion at a clergy conference in Down and Dromore last October. (btw, as an aside, I just love the Down and Dronmore diocesan blog page. Not aware of anything like this here. But why have none of them posted anything this month?)

As the Global South leaders said in London last week, now is a 'critical time' for the Communion. It will be surprising if everyone does in the end turn up. The deadline for responses to invites is next Tuesday, two months before the critical TEC bishops' meeting in September. The only thing that will be more surprising than a unified Lambeth will be a decision from the September meeting that somehow averts a split.

Besides all this, however, more serious issues of life and death are occupying some Anglican bishops. It is a critical time in particular for the Bishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi. Earlier this week, a second attempt on his life was made. Intruders broke in to the house he built, more or less with is bare hands, and threatened to kill him.

I had the chance to meet and interview Bishop Kwashi when I was in Nigeria a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to put something up at length about that soon.

Comments

[Malcolm+]

I likewise expect the so-called Global South to do what they have said - and to follow through what they have put in train.

They and their allies have declared an intention to boycott Lambeth. They have begun to remove references to communion with Canterbury from their constitutions and they have begun to discount both Cantuar and Lambeth as instruments of unity.

It seems the Chapman memo was not merely a strategy for American "conservatives," but for the whole of the Akinolist movement.

[pendennis88]

Actually, I think it misjudges the situation to expect the global south to formally eject themselves. I seen no reason to expect them to do other than what they have said, and they will recognize the new US orthodox province, when it comes about, as part of the communion, while some, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, may not. Two overlapping communions, both claiming to be Anglican, and both including a substantial number of members. I suppose the Archbishop could clarify things and just kick out the primates who recognize the new US province as part of the communion (or TEC, as unlikely as that seems at this point), but based on past actions, I suspect he will just complain about it.

As I said, I don't think this situation was inevitable, and I wonder at the Archbishop letting things get to this point.

[Malcolm+]

Pendennis, you can pretend all you want that Lambeth has authority, that the Primates Meetings have authority, that foreign prelates have authority. But they don't, and your wishing will not make it so.

I have no doubt that the Akinolists want to and will establish a new province in North America. However, I do not expect it will be part of the Anglican Communion, since the Akinolists generally seem intent on severing their connection to Canterbury.

Of course, you and others in England may choose fellowship with Akinola over fellowship with Canterbury. You are free to do so. But I doubt the Chuch of England will let you take the property with you.

[pendennis88]

Of course, TEC can do anything they want. Now that conciliarity has been rejected, so can the global south primates. I think they want another province in North America.

[Malcolm+]

Not an American, thanks.

And could Pendennis please advise when, exactly, a Ugandan bishop was forced to ordain a homosexual?

Oh, and when a Rwandan priest was compelled to bless a same sex union?

And could you please let me know when the Primate of Nigeria was forced to cease his efforts to throw people in jail for suggesting that homosexuals may not be evil?

The "reasserters" seem to be very adept at twisting the narrative here. The Episcopal Church hasn't forced anyone to do (or refrain from doing) anything at all.

Sorry. The power hungry manipulations are all coming from the foreign prelates.

[pendennis88]

I think the American priest has hit the nail on the head. He thinks that Anglicanism does not have a conciliar nature. Each primate can do what he or she thinks is best. This is the TEC position. Except, fo course, that TEC thinks it can tell foreign primates what they can and cannot do.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

I am really sorry to be intruding again with a seeming irrelevance, but it is not true - as one of your posters has suggested - that adulterers were stoned in Judaism, even if the HB discusses this as a punishment.

In fact there is no death penalty at all in Judaism, including from before Jesus' times.

This does not mean that I am an admirer of the Bishop of Winchester. I find him an insufferable prig, who treates people with disdain and contempt - not least myself for writing him a perfectly polite e-mail asking why all his views on the future of the Anglican Church appear excessively ingratiating towards Islam and all that particular religion's prejudices.

This is particularly relevant in the wake of the joint agreement signed at Lambeth Palace last September by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, The agreement made it clear that the ABC regards Judaism as the religion having the closest ties with the Church for theological, biblical, historical and cultural reasons.

Did I receive a response from the Bishop of Winchester?

What do you think?

[Malcolm+]

Pendennis says: "If decisions by a council are immediately thrown in the trash bin, then conciliarity has been lost."

Lambeth is not a Council.

Meetings of the Primates are not Councils.

And even if they were, Article 21 makes it plain that Councils can err.

So I guess the evangelicals are now down to defending the 36 Articles, having already set aside those icky bits about foreign prelates having no authority and the validity of sacraments not being dependent on the worthiness of ministers.

[Neal Terry]

Ho hum... more threats.

Dear Rowan, you seem to have a lot of spare beds for Lambeth at the moment. I would like to volunteer my services to ensure that they are not wasted. I like people a lot and enjoy my faith which seems to be a bit of an excluding factor, that and me being an avaerage pew-sitter, but I am generally able to get on with anyone you would care to put me at table with. I could really do with a few weeks off and I think the episcopacy could do with some sense of perspective at the moment. Any chance?
yours,

[Brien Comerford]

I pray that Christian religions and other faiths would stop this obsession with gays and same sex marriage. They should focus on saving God's planet, endangered species and all God's creatures great and small. Save the gorillas and rhinos and leave the gays alone.

[Colonel Bain]

Ruth,
My condolonces on your loss Ruth, you will remain in de Colonel Prayers. Death strengths us an brings us closer to Divine.
Giddup...

[pendennis88]

If the Archbishop of Canterbury had intended Lambeth to be a place to avoid schism, he would have invited all of the Bishops, CANA and AMiA (and I note from your article further confirmation that VGR will be invited, albeit in a nonvoting capacity, not that that is likely to be viewed as more than a minor impediment). Accordingly, the message has already been sent that the views of a broad swath of evangelicals and anglo-catholics throughout the communion will not be honored by Lambeth, even when backed by a majority of the primates, as with the Dar es Salaam communique. If decisions by a council are immediately thrown in the trash bin, then conciliarity has been lost. If one is afforded so little respect, why attend a meeting that is supposed to be conciliar? The TEC response appears to be that the global south would not be attending because they have not got their way. But it makes no sense to insist that others be conciliar when you are not. How the Archbishop let this get to this point is frightening.

[Roger G. Friendship]

I was saddened, but not surprised, by the article which reported comments made by the Bp. of Winchester. His position on lgbt people in the church has always been consistent - prejudiced, might be another word. He seems unable to 'hear' any other point of view apart from his own - which has always been deeply conservative. If his latest remarks are correct they are deeply offensive. One is minded of Jesus' parable concerning the wedding guests in Matthew 22 and his image of the Kingdom of God as inclusive... That must be deeply frightening to people like +Winton.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Dear Ruth

I just wanted to say re the weather and postal strike, that this is still not as bad as in Israel, where the weather has reached over 40 degrees C, and is extremely humid in much of the country.

A General Strike started on Wednesday, losing the country over 1 billion shekels a day. The airport was in a tizz-wazz, and then suddenly, on Thursday they cancelled the strike, as suddenly as they started it, lots of people having had to make rearrangements and had their lives thrown up in the air.

We've had one or two general strikes since I've been here and a students' university strike.

In this respect, the country reminds me of Britain pre-Thatcher, and it isn't good at all.

No doubt I'll get brickbats from some for this posting, but there is no point trying to whitewash the phenomenon.

And customer service is far far better in Britain than in Israel, believe me.

[Christopher]

Dear NLNH

It IS the very same Scott-Joynt, who is, you might say, a bit disjointed in the way he picks his bits from the Bible. After all, if he really believed the texts as he says he does, he'd be stoning adulterers instead of remarrying them in church.

[MargaretG]

re: "Predecessors in the post include Bishop John Robinson."

It is many years since I read Honest to God so I can't comment on that, but having recently reread Robinson's Priority of John and Redating the New Testament, I couldn't but wonder at the amount that he actually did believe. On todays ECUSA scale Robinson was an absolutely beyond the boundary conservative!!!

[nlnh]

Is this the same Scott-Joynt who has been such a tireless--and loud--voice for liberalizing church teaching on divorce?

[Malcolm+]

The received wisdom from all the "reasserters" is that the mind of the Communion is clear and that the Americans (and presumably we Canadians) need to be sorted out.

I've been around secular and ecclesiastical politics all my life. I have never seen people threaten to walk out if they believed they could win the floor fight.

Oddly, it does not appear to be the "liberals" threatening to take their bats and balls and go (stay) home.

I sense a certain desperation on the part of the "conservatives."

On a related note, some of the "reasserting" Primates have begun to demand an "emergency Primates Meeting."

This suggests that the "conservatives" see only one way they can "win" at Lambeth - by forcing Cantuar to rewrite the invitation list according to their dictates.

It all stinks of desperation on the part of those who presumed they could bully the whole world and have their way.

[Chuck Blanchard]

I am beginning to wonder whether the Anglican Communion is a political body or a communion of the faithful. It certainly appears that schism is on the horizon, but a refusal to attend Lambeth seems to be an odd way to seek reconciliation. Why not use Lambeth as a last effort to avoid schism, rather than to ask that ++Williams use the invitations as a tool of disciple (and the acceptance of those invitations as a political tool)?

I am hopeful that the meetings in Madrid--attended both by global South bishops and Episcopal church bishops--will be a step toward some reconciliation, or at least a step back from the cliff.

By the way, Ruth, my prayers to you and your family on the death of your father. He must have been a wonderful priest.