Lambeth Diary: Anglican 'Holy Office'

The Anglican Communion is on the rack and the torture continues. It surely cannot be stretched much longer before it is torn apart. This is the pic accompanying our online story at The Times.

'Fancy some same sex marriage? Better watch out then.... ' (Caption put on pic by someone at Times Online.)

The second observations document of the Windsor Continuation Group has just dropped. (Update: Anglican Mainstream now has the text online.) It gives more detail of the Principles of Canon Law Project, which we wrote about earlier and which is being talked of by primates as the 'Fifth Instrument of Communion'. I am told it will not be so much a Catholic-style 'Code of Canon Law' as a 'blueprint' of Canon Law. However, comparisons with the Roman Church will become even more inevitable because of another plan, to set up a new Faith and Order Commission.

This sounds extraordinarily like the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The WCG observations document says it will 'give guidance on the ecclesiological issues raised by our current crisis.' The CDF was of course formerly the Holy Office, or the Inquisition. Read also David Virtue on the rival 'Global South' movement which has the backing of the Archbishop of Canterbury and which gives an indication of the growing divisions within the conservative camp. (What I want to know now is, exactly which camp is Virtue in...?)

So what does the content of this WGC document mean?

It means that the people in charge of this process have at last realised, perhaps thanks to Gafcon, that the African provinces who are boycotting Lambeth are serious. There is a desperation to keep them on board to prevent the Church from splitting.

If this new Commission enforces the new canon law blueprint in a way that is strictly in line with Lambeth 1.10, it also means there will be huge anger in the US. The Episcopal Church could well find itself riven by a formal split, leaving questions over which will be recognised by Canterbury. (Maybe those behind the name change from the former PECUSA saw this coming and that was a preparatory step.)

But we are fools if we think just the US will be affected.  There are some catholic parishes in the Church of England that might well prefer to be aligned with a liberal TEC than a strictly conservative evangelical province.

The key to this in the UK will be where the moderate conservatives go. The extreme end of Gafcon, it is accepted, might already be lost. But will the Bishop of Durham Tom Wright, the respectable and intellectual face of orthodoxy, and others of his ilk, who are disliked by the far right, go with this? Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas, is a member of the Windsor Contination Group and is a highly-respected conservative bishop, in similar mould to Dr Wright.

My sources tell me the moderate conservatives are on side with this. One of the battles being fought, apparently, is over which way the TEC Primate Katharine Jefferts Schori will jump. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is desperate to have her on side, and on that hangs or falls the unity of the Anglican Communion. What will she do?

If she breaks ranks, the split would go international.

Apparently the third WCG document, to come out next week, contains a 'bombshell'. Maybe then we'll find out out more. Or maybe that will be the bomb that finally blows the whole thing into smithereens. We've just had a chance to ask Bishop Clive Handford, former Jerusalem Primate who chairs the Windsor Continuation Group, what the bombshell might be. He said: 'We'll have to see. Some may hear something ticking. I do not know.' All will be revealed on Monday.

Jim Naughton at The Lead also has the story and supports my interpretation. He's just told me: 'It's troubling, but perhaps unsurprising to see a group composed almost exclusively of bishops, and advised by Anglican Communion Office bureaucrats recommending new structures for the Communion that strengthen the role of bishops and bureaucrats at the expense of clergy and lay people.'

George Conger can be relied on to know what's happening.

(Note: we have just been given the list of official attendees at the conference, with those who can't be named for sensitive political reasons back home crossed off. One name missing that we absolutely know to be here is Rowan Williams... maybe he just wishes he weren't!) 

Comments

[Theo Dexter]

I am afraid the joke is on you old boy. I am not even an Anglican let alone a conservative schismatic.

Just someone who has noticed that what you accuse others of – is what your guilty of.

[Malcolm+]

How about that, Theo.

It is amusing that the "conservative" schismatics pretend to be the victims rather than the perpetrators.

[Theo Dexter]

I understand that Pilate was pretty good at discipline and “due process”.

How about showing love, respect and generosity to those you disagree with.

[Malcolm+]

O Selectivism - the new "virtue" of faux "conservatives."

Persecution is persecution. Discipline following due process is discipline following due process.

The only confusion here is from pretendy "conservatives" and faux "orthodox" who believe that they should be free to violate the oaths they swore and the canons to which they are duly subscribed.

Those who are truly conservative and truly orthodox do not believe that they have the right to make up the rules as they go along.

The fact that Dennis and Theo are confused about the distinction says more about them than about either of the North American provinces.

[pendennis88]

Not one of the priests or bishops deposed in TEC for abandonment of communion has been given an eccesiastical trial. Not. One.

Malcolm, I hope that if you ever get in trouble, you get better due process than that.

[Theo Dexter]

I think I get it. Action against an Anglo-catholic by a liberal is “due process” but action by anybody else against a Liberal is persecution.

Persecution is persecution even when it wears a wig and gown. And "due process" shows no compassion or mercy.

[Malcolm+]

More mythology, Pendennis.

Any deposed clergy were deposed for canonical violations. In all cases, these occurred after due process.

And I am confident you are not so foolish as you try to let on. There is not a single one of your spuriously "orthodox" bishops who would put up with that crap for a second. Not Peter Akinola, not Tom Wright. Not Jack Iker. Not a bloody one.

And you know it.

[pendennis88]

"You know as well as do that Peter Akinola would do EXACTLY the same canonical actions that the Americans (and one Canadian bishop) have done."

Well, I don't know. Why don't you give a few examples of depositions and litigation in the Province of Nigeria so they can be compared?

I don't doubt, based on what I read, that Akinola is a strict taskmaster. But no, I would not assume that he would approach an issue in the same manner as the Americans in TEC. I think you are reading your motives and values into his.

As to civil litigation in particular, I would not assume that Nigeria would follow the same path. In fact, if a parish had a strong legal claim to its property, I suspect that Nigeria would try to come to a reasonable settlement to avoid litigation. You know, like Peter Lee of Virginia agreed with the CANA churches until Schori told him to renege and sue, and he complied. (A fact which I note in passing was disputed by someone on this thread until it was pointed out that the first decision in the CANA Virginia litigation recited that that was, in fact, what happened.) And like Howe in Florida is currently doing.

On the substantive point, revisionist bishops have been ostracizing orthodox clergy for years in the US, driving them out as best they can. Revisionist bishops have commonly and variously refused to allow orthodox parishes to call orthodox clergy, to allow candidates for the priesthood to attend, or to license clergy who have graduated from, orthodox seminaries (Trinity and Nashotah), to allow letters of transfer to global south diocese or to allow membership in the Network. All copiously documented.

Those orthodox clergy have found it difficult to operate, and impossible to grow, or even to avoid the shrinking, of their parishes under TEC, and so in many cases have left TEC. Most have not claimed to have abandoned communion, by the way. That is just the grounds on which TEC deposes them, as, unlike the other grounds which would be canonically proper, abandonment of communion is the one method of deposition which does not allow for a trial of the accused. It was a grounds intended, for example, for a priest becoming a Roman Catholic. Deposition for disobeying a bishop, on the other hand, requires first a clear order that is disobeyed, and second, a public trial. Clearly, neither would reflect well on TEC. That TEC has therefor already taken the position that it is no longer in communion with Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda, et al, (just for purposes of deposition, they say) is quite telling, but apparently in TEC the ends justifies the means.

But now I understand. All of this has gone on, but TEC does not think it is persecution, because these clergy and lay people deserved their treatment. Well, that certainly speaks volumes about the TEC bishops.

[Kate]

"... what precisely is the content of the faith that these new arrangements would be seeking to uphold?" Posted by: Chris Gillibrand

A rhetorical question to which, doubtless, your twin, the Anglican priest, could provide answers!

Whilst finding many contributions on previous topics extremely useful, your 'superior', and sneering complacency on specifically Anglican interests erases all confidence.

Regular readers will know that you are a convert to Rome, and the twin of an Anglican priest; as a married man, you are clearly not in RC Orders.

As the mother of twin boys - now mutually supportive adults, I am 'reading' consistent and callous one-up-man-ship with some sadness.

Divisive competitiveness between siblings during the developmental process (even twins) is, of course, quite 'natural' but one always hopes that maturity will temper 'childish things'; that 'age brings responsibility' rather than gleeful self-justification, and hopefully engenders a smidgeon of compassion for the suffering of the Other.

Make no mistake; for many of us (I suspect the majority of western Anglicans), the via media is our Christian way of life; we love and respect our Church; that such hatred is evidenced between factions, is a cause for suffering and much introspection.

It is therefore difficult to give credence to the 'elevated' opinions of those who have chosen intellectual submission to 'infallible' (human) authority

[Lapinbizarre]

Referred to in some parts as "Venom on Line", Fr. Smith. Though quite a bit of this substance seems to be gravitating to Ms Gledhill's site at present.

[Shaun Clarkson]

I have to say RHopper, to me as an outsider on the east side of the Atlantic, TEC's polity seems far more presbyterian than episcopal.

[Malcolm+]

I never said there were no depositions or lawsuits.

I said the claim of persecution is a myth.

In fact, it is complete crap.

Every single one of those cases arises from clergy who have wilfully and deliberately violated canons.

Tell me, Pendennis. If a liberal priest in the Diocese of Abuja refused to allow Peter Akinola onto the property, declared himself out of communion with Peter Akinola, purported to have placed himself under the metropolitical and primatial authority of some foreign primate or another, and claimed to be taking the parish property with him, what would Peter Akinola do?

You know as well as do that Peter Akinola would do EXACTLY the same canonical actions that the Americans (and one Canadian bishop) have done.

You are not a stupid man, Pendennis. But if you tell me that Peter Akinola would say "go in peace and enjoy the building," that would be a bloody lie and you know it.

Actions have consequences, Pendennis. You "conservatives" like to repeat that little mantra. Your vain repetitions would have more credibility if you believed it.

[Anglican Guy]

I believe a careful examination of the sources and statements shows that this proposal is nowhere near the inquisition which some observers think it represents.

More here:
http://anglicanguy.blogspot.com/2008/07/
windsor-continuation-grope.html

[Father Ron Smith]

Indeed, from his web-site, I agree with you, R. Hopper, that Mr Virtue is no journalist. One is left wondering, however, at what on earth he actually is? If you tap into his web-site 'Virtue-on-line' (a misnomer if ever there was one), all you will find is vitriol, of an order such as no-one contemplating the Chrisdtian religion ought to be contaminated with.

Likewise, on this site there seems to be a lot of Anglo-Catholic angst about the membership of TEC in the world-wide Anglican Communion. As far as Anglo-Catholics in New Zealand are concerned, we are happy to note TEC's allignment with the Good News of the Gospel. And this means accepting the ordination of whomever God calls to be priests in God's Church. End of story!

[Dr Alan Marsh]

RHopper has just outlined the very serious nature of the problem with TEC. Because of the way it was founded it is profoundly unlike other Anglican churches, although it claims a "right" to have a place at the table. It should remember that it is only included in the Anglican Communion by invitation.

The simple solution is to send TEC away, and invite it to come up with a structure which is subject to the authority of Scripture, and capable of maintaining orthodoxy within its own midst.

When it can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the great majority of Anglicans that it is truly Anglican both in doctrine and order, then it will be ready to return to the fellowship which it has recently repudiated both in word and deed.

[R Hopper]

While it may be important to have America's Presiding Bishop Schori on board ... she cannot speak for the entire House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the United States. She is but one voice of that group. And perhaps more important, she cannot speak at all for the House of Deputies, a lay body that holds equal power when it comes to such change.

Perhaps due to George III -- who admittedly was far far better than our very own George (Bush) II -- our early Church was unwilling to give unlimited power to authority. Of course, one may not understand that comment if s/he is familiar only with today's political climate. Still, our Episcopal Church is fully on board behind such independence from total authority.

Ultimately such a body as describe by Williams and presented in your article is potentially another step toward turning one of the last remaining denominations with forward thinkers into another of the already abundant fundamentalist denominations ... replete with Flat World Society, anti-evolutionist, those who view global warming as a liberal plot ... and ... perhaps worst of all ... run by authoritarian leaders on the order of Peter Akinola or the church equivalent of George Bush. Ultimately it is entirely at odds with what it means to be Anglican. We are a Church (or Communion) that allows men and women to have minds.

And Ruth, David Virtue is NOT a journalist.

RHopper

[pendennis88]

Right, there are no depositions or litigation in the US. It is all just a myth. Or more likely revisionists would say that the persecution is a myth because it can't be a persecution if they all plainly deserve the treatment they are getting.

Also, to set a few other facts straight, Schori's Ph.D. is in Oceanography from Oregon State. That is hardly the same as a Ph.D. in Philosophy, as the writer above seems to intimate (though possibly better). She has an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific, but no earned doctorate in Divinity, rather an honorary D.D., also from CDSP. So she has only earned a masters in the field of theology, nothing higher.

At the time she was running for presiding bishop, she claimed to have been dean of a School of Theology, but wasn't, and neglected to mention that her D.D. was honorary. That would be a "firing offense" in any serious field. (Since revisionists on this site like to claim things are untrue just because they wish them to be, I would point out to anyone who wants to see for themselves that ENS has not removed the page showing both things at the time, at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_71139_ENG_HTM.htm . Since then, the deanship has been removed and the honorary nature of the D.D. corrected on her current official bio which can be found at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78694_ENG_HTM.htm .)

Of course, these sorts of credentials are not uncommon in TEC. My favorite incident was when one revisionist Bishop of Maryland, a graduate of Central Connecticut State, claimed that an orthodox Yale graduate was unqualified. Of course, one could just chalk that up to the infamous Bridghampton-New Haven rivalry.

[Theo Dexter]

“The phony persecution myth”

Please present the evidence for this if you want to be taken seriously.

[David Cohen]

For once Malcolm has hit the nail right on the head!

I can just imagine what kind of things an Anglican Communion Inquisition would want to know:

Do you support the MDGs from the bottom of your heart?

Is your house carbon neutral?

Do you drive a hybrid car?

Do you give 10% of your income to AIDS charities?

Etc etc etc blah blah blah....

[Malcolm+]

Of course, an Inquisition designed by Rowan Williams rather than Tor Quemada is bound to be a bit, er, feckless.

[Londiniensis]

"A new Faith and Order Commission" smacks a little of stable doors and bolting horses ...

[Malcolm+]

The most striking thing about this thread is the almost violent misogyny - and the absolute dishonesty in describing events in the US.

The phony persecution myth, accompanied by sexist comments about one woman and a series of posts telling another woman to shut the f*** up.

Yes, chaps. Very persuasive.

[katherine lewis]

this is only common sense and if it works out would come as such a relief. i have stayed away from local churches because i do not trust them or my bishop. but i also have real reservations about converting to catholicism. every town i visit i have to call churches to see if they are promoting heresy-how sad is that? you cannot even trust your own denomination! i would be so grateful if this comes to pass, i love my orthodox denomination. thanks for publishing this.

[Lapinbizarre]

"... crass, rude and sexist". You sum up the GAFCON crew in a nutshell, KM.

[Ramon Rodriguez]

Dear Chritina:
What has the listening process achieved other than postpone the inevitable: Tec heading down the road of full inclusion? But, Christina, where do we draw the line? I am very confused by TEC's agenda. What is the end game? Is it just homosexsual and lesbian lifestyles that need to be regarded as something other than sin, or other lifestyles too? If it is only a question of love, then why exclude bigamists? I am sure that there are bigamist families that deeply love each other. Do we exclude them? What about the most tortured of our brothers and sisters-transexsuals? Do we "include them" and not try to get them out of the nightmare world they inhabit full of pain and mutilation? Is this what Christian love is about? What happened to go and sin no more? If I sound a little angry and confused, it is because I am.

[JPM]

Why would Anglo-Catholics prefer to align with TEC? Perhaps they have the good sense to know that when the Puritans have driven out the liberals, the Anglo-Catholics will be next.

[Chris Gillibrand]

I cannot resist quoting the late and very great, Revd Sydney Smith.

“I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Apparently, the following quote from Pope John XIII is a favorite of the present holder of the office.

"It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope."

So perhaps, Rowan Williams nurses also one illusion- that he is a Pope, albeit the only one to be forgetful of the dignity of his office in the entire history of the Church.

On another occasion, Revd Smith said in his tract, “Persecuting Bishops”.

“Bishop Marsh should remember, that all men wearing the mitre work by character, as well as doctrine; that a tender regard to men’s rights and feelings, a desire to avoid sacred squabbles, a fondness for quiet, and an ardent wish to make everybody happy, would be of far more value to the Church of England than all his learning and vigilance of inquisition.”

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does a wonderful job defending the Catholic Faith- what precisely is the content of the faith that these new arrangements would be seeking to uphold?

[Fr. Ed Tomlinson]

How ironic - if having given us the two fingers at Synod the liberals then need us to help them avoid schism of grand proportions!!

No WAY would any sensible orthodox Catholic even consider standing alongside ECUSA and the like- they have shown their seething hatred for us repeatedly. And they are not remotely Christian.

I would always opt for the evangelicals (who are at least full of sincerity, integrity and true to their word) over the slimey, promise breaking progressives who just treated me so utterly unjustly at the General Synod.

I think things are coming to a head. These lousy so called 'progressives' have done so much damage that the moral and spiritual collapse of Anglicanism is entirely plausible.

Only strong leadership and an end to non biblical practice will save our church. But alas those running it are too arrogant to listen to God speaking through Cardinal Dias and the Eastern Orthodox leadership to do anything about it. They will choose death over repentence every time. They seek to build a church in their own image- and that idol will not stand.

I pray that the truly faithful - low, middle and high- might rise up and overthrow them.

[badman]

The sexism and, indeed, misogyny in some of these comments is lowering the tone. Who on earth is Ms Schori? Could she be related to Dr Schori, who is a Doctor of Philosophy as well as a Doctor of Divinity? Or to Bishop Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church?

[David Malloch]

Christina Rees claims to agree "that the Listening Process and the Hermeneutics Project are vital for strengthening the life of the Communion." However, she fails to define what she means by these terms.

Recent experience of Ms Rees' attitude towards traditionalists suggests that she views the "Listening Process" as a one way flow of speech from her to others. Certainly numerous interviewers and other interviewees have found it more than a little difficult to get a word in edge ways.

More serious, perhaps, is what is meant by hermeneutics. For many of us this will involve reflecting on the world in which we live in the light of divine revelation, contained in Scripture and Tradition. For others it would appear to be a process whereby revelation is set asside and the faith is molded according to the wisdom of the world (or at least the wisdom of western secular culture and its new TEC religion).

[Fr. Graeme Buttery SSC]

I might agree with some of what Ms. rees has posted, but I suspect that we do not share a common definition of certain words, such as inclusive, listening, learning and diversity. Certainly the performance that we were given at General Synod were neither conducive to listening nor learning, seemed anathema to being inclusive and sounded the death-knell for Anglican diversity.

[Peter Morris]

How extraordinarily bitchy you lot are. Why on earth (or in heaven) should anyone take any notice of you?

[A concerned chap]

Agree with Robroy! The sooner Queen Jefferts and her like drop off the radar for good the better a place the AC will be. She might like to take Ms Rees with her for the ride - they have lots in common and all of it secular.

[A concerned chap]

Practice what you peach then Ms Rees! This is one of the worst cases of double standards I have had the displeasure to see. The hateful and vitriolic way you and your cronies attack the Anglo Catholic movement is utterly unchristian and without the spirt of God. Your comment only saves to show that you should not count your chickens before they hatch! You are another of what I call the "me and now" cult - all about what I want and lets base that on what I perceive the right way is here and now regardless of what other feel and believe! No view of the future or the past and most important no dialogue unless its in agreement with my views! A truly pompous lady!

Ruth, STEPHEN MARSDEN is right. Where do you get these things from? We would sooner jump ship than get into bed with the TEC!

If we as the AC are now relying on Queen Jefferts to decide our fate we really have had it!

[Stephen Marsden]

Mrs Rees writes:

'What is needed is the transformation of hearts and minds – a softening of hearts and a turning again to hearing from one another with a goal of consensus . . .'

How extraordinary! Back on 7 July, we saw not one shred of evidence that Mrs Rees had any interest in consensus. Rather, her sole concern was to drive people like me out of the Anglican Communion.

She gives thanks that the role of the ABC is not papal in character; well, she would, wouldn't she? No doubt, given the opportunity, she would go on to say that such a notion would be in conflict with the polity (ugh!) of the C of E, or the Communion, or whatever. Well, when she has driven all the Catholics out and got her nice little new age protestant sect up and running, she'll be able to survey the wanton destruction which she has reaped on a once-fine church and feel suitably proud.

[robroy]

Ruth writes, "One of the battles being fought, apparently, is over which way the TEC Primate Katharine Jefferts Schori will jump. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is desperate to have her on side, and on that hangs or falls the unity of the Anglican Communion. What will she do?"

It certainly does seem to be the case that RW is fawning to win over Ms Schori. She was ebullient over the indaba format. Rowan had said that there would be "fewer resolutions" than previously. But Ms Schori put the kibosh on any resolutions (see Andrew Carey's discussion here http://tinyurl.com/lambethresolutions )

One has to wonder why. Ms Schori's chief talent seems to be shrinking membership rolls. The diocese of Nevada shrunk 10% under her despite being the fastest growing state in the Union. The TEC denomination is now the fastest declining one in America. And just wait till Pittsburgh and Fort Worth leave. With lawsuits flying, the TEC will evaporate.

[Rick Arllen]

By design, acquiescence ncompetence, +Cantaur has maneuvered the Anglican Communion into a position forcing a Hobson's Choice between seeing the creation of either parallel provinces in North America or a parallel Anglican Communion. I prefer the former, but I bet the +Cantaur will be coerced by the forces of the innovative gospel to embrace the later. See Aesop's Fable, "The Scorpion and the Frog" - "Its my nature..."

[Mark]

Nobody expects the English Inquisition...

[Chris Gillibrand]

Nobody expects the English Inquisition- a European institution that never crossed the Channel.

[drowning in cant]

Maybe the answer is in Canterbury already - the ducking stool for the lot of them!!
http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/canterbury_duckingstool.htm

[pendennis88]

It seems to be shaping up that there could be parallel provinces in the US and Canada and one communion, or there could be two provinces in the US and Canada, and, effectively, two communions. I think it is Williams' choice, and that should he clearly lead to the former, the communion, importantly TEC, would acquiesce. (I leave out the CoE because I cling to a tenuous hope that it is possible, but by no means inevitable, that suitable protections for orthodox could still be worked out short of a separate province should the TEC and Canadian fights be quieted. The US is far past that stage. Thanks for the panel of reference, your grace.)

Also, it was said:

"Those bishops who have chosen to stay away from the Lambeth Conference and who have put pressure on other bishops to stay away are, in my mind, failing to observe the basic requirements of meaningful communion."

Really? You are deposing their priests and fellow bishops, you are suing them in US courts, and some of them have not been invited in the first place, on grounds that the prior Archbishop of Canterbury now questions. The commmunique of the primates from Dar es Salaam has been thrown in the dustbin. You can think of no reason why that is an impediment to communion?

And it was said:

"I offer the personal rule that Carlos Touche-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico, has imposed upon himself for the Lambeth Conference. He has committed himself to being more willing to listen than to talk, more willing to learn than to teach, and more willing to question himself than to question others."

Mexico might discover that it is easier to engage others if The Episcopal Communion (TEC) movement of which Mexico is a part were not suing and deposing those others. Though I suppose he could be not talking on advice of counsel.

In my view, a scorched earth litigation strategy might not be the best way to prepare for the Holy Spirit. Though, you know, the Spirit can work anywhere.

[Theo Dexter]

“I offer the personal rule that Carlos Touche-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico, has imposed upon himself for the Lambeth Conference. He has committed himself to being more willing to listen than to talk, more willing to learn than to teach, and more willing to question himself than to question others.”

As you regard this rule so highly Christine, please would you apply it to yourself. Please be quiet for a week or more. I am increasingly dismayed at the lack of charity you show. I am saddened that the “inclusive” church is revealed as not being inclusive at all. Rather it is heartless and has no willingness to compromise with the Anglo-Catholics. It is a church within a church acting as a cuckoo in the nest removing the natural chicks. The very nature of God is not diversity but love. And love does not demand its own way.

[KM]

I find Albion's post on Christina Rees appallingly crass, rude and sexist.

She is not a little girl. She is a grown woman with a distinguished history of campaigning on church issues, a noted writer and publisher and whether or not you agree with her you should have the common courtesy and respect to say so politely, without calling her a "little girl." Particularly as unlike you and I, she has not hidden behind anonymity on this blog.

And actually I find it worrying that anyone writing on a Christian blog can be scornful of a simple expression of faith like the Spirit moving.

Er, isn't that what the Holy Spirit is supposed to do? Or did I just miss the bit in Acts where the Holy Spirit remembered it was just a metaphor and decided not to bother turning up after all?

[Jake]

Sadly, behaving like gentlemen is something that seems to be happening less within the Anglican communion. Other methods perhaps need to be tried. These are sad times.

[Peter Morris]

Bishops on the streets yesterday. Back to the routine navel gazing today. My goodness, proposals of the type outlined, bombshells of the type suggested, cries of heresy and orthodoxy really do change the world. One minute, do they?

[Albion]

"I cannot help but think that the Spirit of God may be freer to dance and breathe through such a rule than through the increasingly leaden structures and inward-looking processes of the Windsor Continuation Group..."

Rainbows, bunnies and now dancing spirits! This is a little girl's dream come true! Oh my!

[Christian Rees]

One of my favourite definitions of Anglicanism is Desmond Tutu’s succinct comment: “We meet.” That the Windsor Continuation Group requires people to meet is a good thing, but I am less sanguine about some of the underlying suppositions of their perceived task.

Preliminary Observations Part Two begins the claim that “if we are to survive as an international family of Churches, then the Windsor Report’s suggestion”… and goes on to suggest a shift from ‘autonomy-in-communion’ to ‘communion with autonomy and accountability’.

I happen not to think that a) the survival of the Anglican Communion rests on any outcome of the Windsor Report, and b) that accountability is the key missing ingredient that would ensure cohesion and stave off fragmentation.

My understanding is that what needs to be recovered is the willingness to meet one another and to continue to listen to one another. Those bishops who have chosen to stay away from the Lambeth Conference and who have put pressure on other bishops to stay away are, in my mind, failing to observe the basic requirements of meaningful communion. It is the petulant teenager who stays in his room and refuses to join the rest of the family around the dinner table who fractures communion and makes engagement impossible.

I also do not believe that the proposed Covenant will solve the problems we are experiencing. Certainly, to be part of the process can be in itself helpful and positive, but to imagine that a Covenant, a form of words, will have a transformative effect on the issues about which we currently disagree is to expect an outcome which cannot be delivered.

What is needed is the transformation of hearts and minds – a softening of hearts and a turning again to hearing from one another with a goal of consensus, without the pressure of intention of a set form of words that will have disciplinary and legal weight.

We say we believe in a God in whose very nature is diversity, interdependence and unity. We know that self-sacrifice is always an element of Christian discipleship, but I do not read in the Gospels that we are to insist that others make the sacrifices we demand of them. Rather, our responses and decisions to make sacrifices for the good of the whole are to come from our response to God’s self-sacrifice and unstoppable, unconditional love. That type of response cannot be imposed on another.

A word on the Instruments: I do not agree with making the Archbishop of Canterbury responsible for sorting and pronouncing on all the problems of the communion. The role of the Archbishop is not papal in character.

The vast majority of the Resolutions of past Lambeth Conferences have faded from memory and have never been acted upon. If Lambeth Resolutions are now to be made to be binding, then that is indeed a serious step and one which will require endless rigorous implementation and strict monitoring of adherence and progress. I can think of no better way to deflect even more of our churches’ attention and energies away from the work of mission and outreach and weigh people down with heavy rules and regulations.

If the constitution and pattern of the ACC is inadequate, then it should reconsider how often it should meet and what groups are represented. Whatever else is changed, it is vital that the voices of the laity and clergy are not diminished or lost to the process.

If the Primates are genuinely to enable collegial consultation and support for the Archbishop of Canterbury, then they must commit anew to listening to a wider spectrum of colleagues in their own provinces and to exercising a more reflective style of discourse when meeting together.

As for the c) Processes and Commissions, I agree that the Listening Process and the Hermeneutics Project are vital for strengthening the life of the Communion. However, I am wary of the Principles of Canon Law Project and a Faith & Order Commission. If we were to do nothing other than commit ourselves to further listening and to an ongoing process of rigorous and dedicated hermeneutics, then I believe we would start to see a new way forward. Add to that a commitment to continued and continual prayer and to coming together when possible for worship and we may just begin to recover a confidence in God and a renewed vision of the Kingdom.

I offer the personal rule that Carlos Touche-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico, has imposed upon himself for the Lambeth Conference. He has committed himself to being more willing to listen than to talk, more willing to learn than to teach, and more willing to question himself than to question others.

I cannot help but think that the Spirit of God may be freer to dance and breathe through such a rule than through the increasingly leaden structures and inward-looking processes of the Windsor Continuation Group.

Christina Rees

[Stephen Marsden]

'There are many traditionalist, catholic parishes in the Church of England that might well prefer to be aligned with a liberal TEC than a strictly onservative evangelical province.'

Now hang on just a moment, Ruth! There is no way that the sort of parishes to which you refer would have any interest at all in aligning with a church presided over by - in their view - a lay woman, who specialises in the persecution of their traditionalist, catholic friends in TEC. Can you unpick a little more what you were trying to convey there?