One More Nail in the Lambeth Coffin

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6093

[VirtueOnline] 2 June 2007--Further evidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury has already made up his mind that ECUSA/TEC bishops will be invited to Lambeth 2008 irrespective of their response to the 30th September deadline agreed at Dar es Salaam comes from England in the May edition of the Worcester Diocesan News.

In July next year, a 'Diocesan Assembly' is to be held and will be "about celebrating and deepening our identity as the Anglican Church in Worcestershire". Celebrating Anglican identity on the eve of the Lambeth Conference is a bold step to take. In fact, no-one could accuse the organisers of a lack of ambition, having secured the services of the Archbishop of York, Ugandan born Dr John Sentamu, despite the fact that he will be sharing a platform with another key speaker, the Bishop of Rhode Island, Geralyn Wolf, who was among the 62 ECUSA/TEC bishops who consented to the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

So if the second most senior figure in the Church of England is prepared to affirm a form of Anglican identity at such a sensitive moment with a bishop who has consented to an action which has given the clearest possible signal of her church's intention to depart from the historic faith of the Scriptures, what should we conclude?

Given the timing, it seems highly improbable that the Archbishop of York would not have consulted with others at the highest level and so the obvious conclusion to be drawn would be that the Church of England hierarchy has already decided which way it will jump. This can be nothing other than a very clear indicator that the Church of England will continue in communion with TEC irrespective of the Global South Primates' calls for repentance on the part of those who have violated the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 and the clear warning of the 'Road to Lambeth' statement that they will not attend a Lambeth Conference to which such bishops are invited.