Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Today at Lambeth Tuesday July 22

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/07/23/today-at-lambeth-tuesday-july-22/

[Anglican Mainstream] 23 Jul 2008--This is clearly Archbishop Rowan Williams conference. Do the math. He gave an opening welcome. He has led a three day retreat in which he gave five addresses. He presided at the opening Eucharist at which he chose the preacher. He gave a presidential address. He has chaired both plenaries that have happened this week.
There can be no complaints about lack of leadership. This is his conference.

There was a gathering on Tuesday afternoon of 150 – 200 orthodox bishops at which among others Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt of Winchester, Bishop Tom Wright of Durham, and Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh spoke. It should not be forgotten that on September 20 the House of Bishops of TEC will be voting on whether to depose him. It must feel odd for him and his wife Nara to be on campus for three weeks with those seeking to remove him.

The press are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Told that they could not have an interview in the press schedule with the Archbishop of Sudan, they went ahead and organised their own press conference in which everyone got to ask the questions they wanted to.

The Sudanese statement has taken the conference by surprise: first the TEC rushed a spokesperson into the press room after the Archbishop had spoken. After all TEC bishops were with the Sudanese bishops at Salisbury for the pre-Lambeth conference. Second, the Archbishop was asked directly by one man (not on the press corps) if a particular American bishop on campus had written the statement for them. He was given a flat no. The Archbishop does have an earned Ph.D by the way. Third the Archbishop of the Sudan was very direct: Gene Robinson should resign and his consecrators should confess their wrongdoing to the conference. That for him is the way to save the Anglican Communion.

The Windsor Continuation Group has produced its first set of observations and is due to bring another set on “Where should we be?” on Wednesday. On Monday they will present “How do we get from here to there?” The final Indaba on Saturday August 2nd will focus on this issue, and written summaries of the responses from the Indaba will be given to the WCG who will meet in late 2008. They will report to the Archbishop of Canterbury as planning takes place for the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica in 2009. Who are missing from this scenario? The Primates’ Meeting.

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