http://www.forwardinfaith.com/artman/publish/article_451.shtml
{FIF International News] 1 Aug 2008--Last autumn I visited a friend in Boston. Her son's family recently moved there, and each Thursday she delights to look after her grandson. On the Thursday I was there, we spent time at the playground in a public park near her home. The playground was fenced, in part so that if a minder's attention wandered, the child being minded would not be able to get too far away.
Such fences as may have once bounded the Anglican "playground" seem to have fallen in disrepair, and the "children" seem to be running off. And it remains to be seen whether will be possible for the "minder" to catch them and bring them back.
The Communion's chief "minder", Archbp. Rowan Williams, in his address to the Lambeth Conference on July 29th, spoke from the center. One sees him standing there in the form of the Crucified, arms outstretched, reaching to both sides of the present conflict within the Communion. But the question is, have the "children" already run too far for those arms to touch and gather them?
Both traditionalists and innovators (to use the Archbishop's tags) seem to agree that Archbp. Williams has fairly represented the positions they wish to affirm. But in a sense the Archbishop may have failed to look far enough beyond the presenting issues.
Presentations like that of Prof. West yesterday suggest that the two sides are both seeking to live under Scripture, but have come to understand what it says - and in its details, not just in a general way - differently. The Archbishop's remarks suggest that he holds a similar view; that is perhaps the basis on which he believes the two sides can be drawn together.
That may be true of innovators and traditionalists in the Communion as a whole. It seems to be what innovators from the American Church are saying about themselves here. But is that really what is going on?
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