Beware the Geese

By Robin G. Jordan

George Herbert, seventeenth century Anglican poet-priest, collected what he described as “outlandish proverbs and sayings.” One of them is “When the fox preaches, beware the geese.” A lot of foxes are stepping into the pulpit these days. Pope Benedict is proclaiming the message of the “new ecumenism.” Rowan Williams sports a red brush that only the most foolish goose would ignore. Behind the seemingly ineffectual pottering lurks a sly Welsh fox. While keeping the global South off guard, Williams has pursued the liberal agenda. See “A Descent into Irrelevance” on Anglican Curmudgeon.

What did the global South Primates who boycotted the latest Primates’ Meeting accomplish? They protested Katherine Jefferts Schori’s presence at the meeting but did little else. The meeting went ahead without them and the liberals made the best use of their absence.

From the absent global South Primates’ viewpoint they saw no gain in being at the meeting. They would be just giving greater legitimacy to the proceedings.

But what did they lose in not being there? They lost an opportunity to stage an old-fashioned 1960s style protest, followed by a walkout. Some of the other primates who attended the meeting might have joined them.

In staying home they reinforced the impression in liberal quarters and elsewhere that they are going to do nothing. Williams and the liberals have little cause for concern. The geese will hiss and flap their wings as the fox encircles them. But they are not going to join together and chase him off. The fox can seize them one by one.



What is happening in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church has been described as a crisis in leadership. At one point it was concern over the ineffectualness of William’s leadership. Now the concern is shifting to the ineffectualness of the leadership of global South primates who boycotted the meeting. The liberals have run circles around them. They have made fools of them.

The global South Primates who stayed home need to take some form of decisive action to restore confidence in their leadership and to show Rowan and the liberals that they cannot be safely ignored. Despite his public statement that their absence was noticed, Rowan and the liberals came away from this meeting with the knowledge that they could use the Primates’ Meeting for their purposes without the presence of the boycotting primates. Stating that their absence was noticed was pure theater.

I have a strong suspicion that Rowan breathed a sigh of relief when they did not show up. He would have to deal only with those primates who were amenable to persuasion, who could be expected to sign whatever documents were drafted and to endorse whatever proposals were made. I imagine that in the privacy of his room he was doing a Snoopy dance, punching the air, and silently mouthing, “Yes!!”

The attachment of the boycotting global South Primates to the Anglican Communion is like the attachment of former British colonies, now independent, to the British Commonwealth of Nations. They enjoy the prestige of belonging to that particular club. Membership in the British Commonwealth of Nations also has other benefits.

The liberal western provinces, however, are making it quite clear that the Anglican Communion is their club. They run it. They determine who is in and who is out. They plan the meetings. The global South provinces can be a part of the club but on their terms.

Those who were members of a backyard club in their childhood remember what happens when one group of the kids forming the club did this kind of thing. The other kids grew tired of not having a voice in what the club did and how it did it, of being ignored or overruled. They left and formed their own club. A few may have hung around for a while but eventually they left too.

I cannot help but think that Rowan and the liberals know this. They are hoping that the troublemaking global South Primates will grow tired and leave. Then they will have the club all to themselves. They will be able to claim that they are the only true Anglican Communion, they represent genuine Anglicanism, and the departing global South provinces do not. It would be a hollow victory. But they do not see it that way.



Before I conclude this article I would like to touch on a related issue. For a growing number of Anglicans here in the United States the Anglican Communion is increasingly irrelevant to their spiritual lives. They do not see any real value in Anglican Communion membership.

This trend is, contrary to what one might think, not related to the present divisions in the Anglican Communion. Rather it is related to a much wider shift in values that affects non-Anglicans as well as Anglicans.

Modern day Christians do not value denominations and denominational loyalty like earlier generations. They assign greater worth to the local church that they attend but of which they are increasingly not likely to be members, and to any affinity-based network to which the local church may belong. Being a part of a world family of churches with a common heritage is no longer as meaningful as it once was.

The consequences of this development may take years to work themselves out. We are only beginning to grasp its implications. But it is clearly likely to impact the relationship of North American churches with churches outside of North America.

(Just a reminder. Shortly after she became Presiding Bishop. Katherine Jefferts Schori had a meeting with Archbishop Rowan Williams. Following that meeting she told reporters that Williams had assured her that The Episcopal Church would not be banished from the Anglican Communion. He has kept that promise.)