Pastoral visitors plan ‘is too little, too late’

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4069

[Religious Intelligence] 9 Mar 2009--American Church leaders claimed this week that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s new group of Pastoral Visitors is ‘too little, too late’. As the number of lawsuits between the Episcopal Church (TEC) and breakaway conservative groups approaches 60, some say the initiative – intended to help repair the torn fabric of the Anglican Communion – lacks integrity.

The names of the bishops who will act as ‘mediators’ were announced this week by Lambeth Palace. The statement said that the bishops had attended a meeting at Virginia Theological Seminary in the USA from February 25 – 28. The purpose of the new group is to assist in healing the current tensions in the Anglican Communion by holding ‘face to face’ meetings with church leaders in both the new American provinces and TEC.

But the Rev Philip Ashey, Chief Operating Officer for the American Anglican Council, a grouping of conservative Anglicanism, was deeply concerned about Lambeth’s response. Speaking from Atlanta, Georgia, he said:

“Every pastoral visitor programme suggested so far has admitted the participation of the parties who have been aggrieved, those people who have left TEC.”He continued: “Still no contact has been made by any Pastoral Visitors so we have no reason to believe that a seminar they attended at Virginia Theological Seminary by the people who are, in part, the leadership of TEC, will make much difference.”

Ashey went on to say: “We have no confidence that the process is going anywhere.”