Anglicanism in twilight

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/index.php/2007/10/23/anglicanism-in-twilight/

[Anglican Mainstream] 23 Oct 2007--The tale is simply told yet sad to relate.

In response to the challenge from The Episcopal Church (TEC) in consecrating as bishop a man in an active homosexual relationship, the Archbishop of Canterbury called three meetings of the Anglican Primates. He affirmed that he was not a pope and could not take these decisions on his own.

The Primates commissioned the Windsor Report to ask the TEC to comply with the teaching and practice of the Anglican Communion. The TEC General Convention responded in June 2006. The Archbishop of Canterbury judged that their response was adequate in the opening presentation to the Dar-es-Salaam Primates’ meeting in February 2007. Most primates disagreed. After five very uncomfortable days for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primates unanimously drafted three questions to the TEC to answer by September 30.

One primate has told me personally that the Primates understood that September 30 was a deadline and that the TEC response would be evaluated by their meeting. The Primates’ Meeting has been taking responsibility for addressing the crisis. “The questions posed to TEC were posed by the Primates together. We expect to evaluate the answers together,” he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has now reversed that direction because the Anglican Communion establishment still thinks that it can manage this matter. The Archbishop indicated in his New Orleans Press Conference that the September 30 date was not a deadline; he has said that that he will not call a Primates’ Meeting ( because he has no funds for it and a number of Celtic archbishops have said they will boycott it); and that he will not postpone the Lambeth Conference as strongly recommended by the Primates of the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). Jonathan Petre in the Church of England Newspaper for October 5 said that “the Archbishop of Canterbury and his advisers are making up the rules of the game as they go along.”