The Archbishop of Canterbury tonight issued a statement,following the adoption by the General Convention of Resolution B033.
He said he was ‘grateful’ to the Bishops and Deputies for the seriousness with which they addressed the issue, and for their hard and devoted work. He added that ‘it is not yet clear’ whether the adopted reolutions are enough to satisfy the requests of the Windsor Report.
The statement in full reads:
I am grateful to the Bishops and Deputies of the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) for the exceptional seriousness with which they have responded to the request of the Primates of the Anglican Communion that they should address the recommendations of the Windsor Report relating to the tensions arising from the decisions associated with the 74th General Convention in 2003.
There is much to appreciate in the hard and devoted work done by General Convention, and before that, by the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, in crafting the resolutions. This and the actions taken today show how strong is their concern to seek reconciliation and conversation with the rest of the Communion.
It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report. The wider Communion will therefore need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.
I am grateful that the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and ACC has already appointed a small working group to assist this process of reflection and to advise me on these matters in the months leading up to the next Primates’ Meeting.
I intend to offer fuller comments on the situation in the next few days. The members of Convention and the whole of the Episcopal Church remain very much in our prayers.
Poor ABofC, “Why me, Lord” would be my reaction!
Anyway I think that the proposal and rejection of A161 will be the telling issue. If there was no need for a moritorium on gay-partnership blessings why was it proposed by SEAC, and in A161 to the end ? And if B033 is truly a moritorium on consecrating “gay-partnered bishops” why is it weaker language than A161 ?
“It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report. The wider Communion will therefore need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.” “adoption…of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report” BY JUST THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH??? When the heck is the “wider Communion” going to “reflect carefully” on how ***THEY*** are failing to adopt all the WR proposals (w/ their frequent diocesan-boundary invasions, to say NOTHING of failing… Read more »
Why expect anything more from Williams?
Its clear this won’t be enough for conservatives, but no doubt it will be enough to let the whole saga drag on for another couple of years.
Its blatantly obvious to me that I have no shared beliefs with conservatives, and that there is absolutely no logical reason why liberals and conservatives should continue to share the same denomination.
I pray for Rowan Williams. He has quite a burden. He is being tested at this time. Money or Faith. I hope he choose Faith.
Sorry, JCF – all this was perfectly predictable a week ago, but GC has gone ahead regardless.
GC can do whatever it likes for ECUSA: but it can not dictate to the Anglican Communion.
Between the meddlings of +Durham, +Rochester and ++York you’d think the CofE would have thought they’d done enough TEC kicking and intimidation. Now we have that millymoused, bushybrowd, Duncan looking ABC saying “She will be a problem for our collegiality” and “this isn’t enough.” Look MR Williams, you haven’t asked anyone else do live up to their part of the bargain, you treat us in TEC like bad school boys (who should be sent down but you can’t, who’d pay the bills?) and can’t even stand up for your friends ie. Jeffrey John+. I agree JC with you but the… Read more »
All too late now.
10 ECUSA network diocese left ECUSA yesterday, and have appealed to the ABC to recognised them.
The Global South’s position is completly consistent and clear.
The ABC is being told, NOW, in no uncertain terms
that he has no choice except to recognise Duncan and the Network – and excommunions Shori and all of ECUSA by the end of the week – or the Global South, Wright, Rochester & Sentamu will do the job for him
Like I said a while ago, it took a man from the “left” to deal with “Militant” in the Labour party and it looks like it is going to be an ABC from the left who has to deal with the Anglicans’ militant minority of liberals. The ABC has a horrible job, made much worse by his old friends using his watch to push their agenda. JCF writes, “If the meeting at Lambeth has a *shred* of human decency—and Christian morality—it would ONLY be if +Gene Robinson is at its CENTER!” – not sure how GR and “Christian morality” can… Read more »
Then he would also have to excommunicate a good number of the Church of England too!
Merseymike- This is the point you still have not answered: Anyone who styles themselves ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ has no claim to scholarly credentials, and therefore no claim to be heard. Why? Because they are saying they know how they will conclude in advance of examining and weighing the issues. (How can they know this?) This being the case, there is no point their examining or weighing the issues at all. But if they do not do so, they will not have thought about the issues, and therefore have no claim to be heard. People who really honestly weigh issues may… Read more »
“GC can do whatever it likes for ECUSA: but it can not dictate to the Anglican Communion.” General Convention and the Episcopal Church have no intention of trying to ‘dictate to the Anglican Communion.’ Point to one resolution, one speech, one sermon deovered at GC in which we tried to make the Anglican Communion do anything. We don’t try to mess in the polity of other constituents of the AC. The same cannot be said for some of them regarding us. The bullying has come from some members of the Communion and some nosy-parker C of E bishops. The bullying… Read more »
“10 ECUSA network diocese left ECUSA yesterday, and have appealed to the ABC to recognised them.â€â€”Sinner
If true, this is great news! Now Duncan et al can finally be deposed! Of course, Anglophile American tourists might beg to differ, but most Episcopalians will welcome the opportunity to get rid of them.
Alan Marsh, I’m not sure I understand you. What is ECUSA trying to dictate to the Anglican communion? As I understand it, we have only asked for the freedom to worship as the Holy Spirit leads us, and we have not asked any province that is unwilling to join us. From here it feels very much like the dictating is going the other way around.
Ah, yes excommunication. Now there is Christian witness for you, vigorous, apocalyptic, orthodox, brave, heroic, …. running like a rabbit from fear of women and queer folks and scientists and university rhetoric specialists and poets and artists and any unchurched person with enough moxy to still value themselves, while blathering on and on and on about pure theories of Apostolic authority, handed down by sacred tribal touch only among humans with penises. If you cannot stand the heats of diversity, then instead of taking a break from the kitchen stoves where difficult menus are being cooked and the clamors of… Read more »
drdanfee Rhe issue is not you, any group, any prejudice….the issue is whether we accept the authority of the bible or not. Some do not want to accept the authority of the Bible and claim the Holy Spirit is leading them into new ways (which is unlikely as that would be contradicting what he inspired in the Bible). some want to make up new rules (even for ordained people) – they joined a club they thought would always tolerate them breaking the rules and pay them despite their decades of failure, financial burdens on everyone else and dwindling congregations -but… Read more »
re:”…dictate to the Anglican Communion” Goodness! It should be clear now that GC cannot dictate to the Episcopal Church, or any diocese within that church, let alone the Anglican Communion. I see the point often made that the TEC represents a very small percentage of the world’s Anglicans, under 3% I believe, and as such should have little voice in defining “Anglicanism.” I quite agree. Could the world not find something else to occupy its attention? We would be quite happy, I expect, to be ignored. If we are in error, allow us to reap the fruit of our own… Read more »
Something needs to be clarified for me. When did “The Windsor Report” become a binding document on the Anglican Communion. My understanding is that it is a “report” which yet needs to be studied, replied to, and accepted by the autonomous churches that make up the Anglican Communion.
Suddenly the WR seems to have acquired some “authoritative” nature that I do not yet see it having.
Any thought?
ECUSA and GC live in a dream world called the USA. They imagine themselves to be pioneers, to lead the way on civil rights, to have evolved intellectually and theologically ahead of the world outside, and to have a unique relationship with the Holy Spirit which is not vouchsafed to any other denomination, or even to other Anglicans. They proclaim autonomy as a cardinal virtue – they no longer accept the Body ecclesiology of the now discredited St Paul, although they are quick to misinterpret Galatians 3.28, in a somewhat fundamentalist manner, in support of their androgynous world view. All… Read more »
“It is all about the authority of the Bible – this is the heart of the disagreement” Exactly – although the actual argument is over whose understanding of the bible message is correct. What galls me is the arrogance of the bible literalists who feel that they are the only ones who “know” what the Bible means. Give me a break! If you are so convinced of your understanding of the bible, AND also of your belief in the absolute truth of the same, then why don’t I see you stoning your children, or refraining from eating shrimp or not… Read more »
One of the recurring “big lies” in several of the comments above is that the “liberal” church is shrinking in population. A careful analysis will show that in fact most urban progressive churches, particularly the “inclusive” ones, are in fact growing again quite nicely, thank you. Young families in particular are flocking to these churches. There is some great data now showing how ultra-conservative denominations are starting to lose population like the mainline churches did in the past two decades. Our particular “broad church” branch has grown from 400 to 800 members in just four years – and like many… Read more »
Oh dear — my bad — am I the only person who thought it amusing that ++Rowan would suggest that a statement from someone else was “unclear”?
Byron:
Good for you! That should make you even more willing to fairly accommodate the needs of those who want to depart and take their buildings with them. After all, you DON’T need them. They are merely holding you back with their traditional ideas and attitudes and you can continue to grow, grow, grow unencumbered by such.
Steven
No, you are not alone in this Aelred ! Thanks for pointing it out ! 🙂
Three cheers for Prior Aelred! Why didn’t ++Rowan Cantuar attend GC2006 himself rather than send emissaries? His emissaries, especially +Tom Dunelm’s pompous intrusion (by letter), largely determined the ‘undesirable’ outcome of TEC’s responses to the WR, with Americans inevitably recalling the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party. ++Rowan Cantuar (as well as the ‘purist’ terminator of Abuja) might greatly benefit from reading ++Michael Ramsey’s 1977 Nashotah House Lectures (The Anglican Spirit, ed. Dale Coleman [1991]). Said the 100th Cantuar: “May I add a cautionary note? While holiness is both a fact and a potentiality, it is impossible to… Read more »
John Henry —
Thank you for the quotation from ++Ramsey — it would have improved my homily this morning!
The 100th ABC was one of the greatest men it has ever been my privelege to meet. I look back & say, “There were giants in those days!” I sincerely hope that someone in the future (& thus with greater perspective) will be able to look back at our day & say the same.