It looks as if Akinola will walk - accompanied by nothing like even a majority of the rest of the self styled Global South.

It is also certain that the majority of the Anglican Communion will not throw out The Episcopal Church.

The US conservatives’ strategy of disengagement from The Episcopal Church depended on reconnection with the Anglican Communion through Nigeria and like minded provinces. If those provinces themselves leave the Anglican Communion, the strategy falls apart.

Bishop Martyn Minns is the one to watch here. He is a smart operator and his alliance with Nigeria is only tactical. I predict that he will be part of a US accommodation, whereby liberals and conservatives live together, but keeping distance from each other, probably with some kind of primatial vicar oversight such as Bishop Schori has already offered.

As part of this, Bishop Minns will become Bishop of a conservative US diocese.

In a hundred years, all of this will have been forgotten.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon at Zanzibar Cathedral on Sunday can be read at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/070218.htm

The Times front-page article on the Catholic question is also worth reading.

badman is right - none of this will matter in a hundred years given the rate of decline in "liberal" churches we have seen for decades

I have to note that I find the headlines regarding the Primates' Meeting to be tiresomely consistent in that they are blatantly stirring the pot. The Telegraph's is a perfect example. Here we have all but one of the primates participating in the Eucharist service, and even if some did not receive Communion, that is 1) not the end of the world, let alone the Anglican Communion (perfectly OK to skip Communion if they weren't entirely reconciled) and 2) still a distinct improvement over Dromantine, when 14 refused.

Yet if the Telegraph and others are to be believed, major schism is imminent and the end is nigh. Something tells me that Nigeria won't leave on its own, and even if it did, the loss of one primate, tragic though it would be, is hardly the disaster we were led to believe was coming.

Thus, amazing as it may seem (and to the obvious disappointment of the spectacle-seeking press), the Anglican Communion is surviving this storm more or less intact. Even though many conservatives are unhappy about the lack of ECUSA being given the stick, I for one am happy to reconcile with them, continue to work on Windsor, and am pleased at the chance at a continued shared future as Anglicans.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.

"Bishop Martyn Minns is the one to watch here. He is a smart operator and his alliance with Nigeria is only tactical. I predict that he will be part of a US accommodation, whereby liberals and conservatives live together, but keeping distance from each other, probably with some kind of primatial vicar oversight such as Bishop Schori has already offered."

Don't count on it. The days of offering these so-called conservatives (more appropriately, anarchists) any kind of deal is over. Individual lay people who want to leave TEC and go somewhere else should do so...quickly, please! Clergy who cannot in good conscious honor their ordination vows in TEC need to either repudiate their actions and these anarchists, or renounce their orders and find themselves another gig.

I hope PB KJS comes how from this fiasco in Africa realizing that you cannot do business with Duncan, Akinola, and these other anarchists. Time to declare EC dioceses in rebellion against TEC vacant, time to make presentments against bishops who are fueling this anarchy, and time to stand with faithful Episcopalians in parishes that have attempted to leave and steal EC property.

"As part of this, Bishop Minns will become Bishop of a conservative US diocese."

Unlikely under the present canons and constitution. He is no longer clergy in TEC, having been deposed by Bp Lee. He would have to somehow regain his orders, then be nominated in a diocese needing a coadjutor, elected, and then given consents by the Bishops and Standing Committees of a majority of dioceses [or, depending on timing, obtain consents at General Convention, like +Gene]. A very long shot indeed. He is smart, but he may have been a little too smart this time around.

badman - We may know shortly. Minns may be able to get back in but I wonder if Duncan who (in his request for APO) and Yates who(in the Washington Post Op Ed) have gone on record as stating that the TEC is apostate - can come back without some sort of retraction.

C.B.

"The US conservatives’ strategy of disengagement from The Episcopal Church depended on reconnection with the Anglican Communion through Nigeria and like minded provinces. If those provinces themselves leave the Anglican Communion, the strategy falls apart."

Well, no. The message shifts. "The Anglican Communion has ended and the Global South is the true heir." Expect to hear it out of the mouths of the Usual Suspects in 3... 2... 1...

"The Anglican Communion has ended and the Global South is the true heir."

To be closely followed by 50% of the GS Primates saying "Well, I didn't agree to that."

NP asserted
badman is right - none of this will matter in a hundred years given the rate of decline in "liberal" churches we have seen for decades.

Oh please - is that the only wax cylinder you have in your collection - it's getting a bit worn out and hissy. We know that the whole of the universe will belong to ConsEv plc within ten years, so why not leave us who are unfitted for survival to our Darwin-appointed fate and go and spread the good news of God's wrath and condemnation where folk'll appreciate it and listen?

"Minns may be able to get back in " - again, I doubt it. I don't think he's a try, because what would he say to all of those he has led out of TEC? Now suddenly TEC is no longer apostate? I am not a good predicter of either secular or church politics, but I don't see how either MInns or Yates could return to TEC unless they went through someone like +Dunkin' - but they would still all have a lot of 'splainin' to do...

"the whole of the universe will belong to ConsEv"

So, do I become Buddhist or Zoroastrian?

Ford - try Zoroastrian. If everything is ConsEv, would you REALLY want to be 'one with everything'? :-))

apologies.

Of course we do await the pending near future Communique.

However given the shifts that have taken place during Tanzania, pretty much other than was supposed to happen according to the best conservative realignment thinking and envisioning, well what next? Any believer - right or middles or left - who allows a communique to separate them from the love of God in Jesus is looking through an odd lens, maybe.

Small wonder that Akinola's back went into spasm, if that is what happened. Stress contributes. Rest. Rest. Rest. Rest. This, too, shall pass.

One rather expects Minns to keep on being a Nigerian bishop, leading a cohesive flock of Nigerian believers in the USA who are obviously not a part of the province per se. He can be as friendly as he dares, up to the point of incurring his home province's Nigerian wrath. He has no formal diocesan pastoral or episcopal authority in TEC. Presumably Minns could get invited to Lambeth, except if Akinola forbids it as a costly jamboree that means nothing except fellowship across forbidden doctrinal or other lines of difference, though he can attend the next GC as an observor or guest. Weighing his pastoral and leadership status and functions in USA is probably more the question. Some conservative realignment believers are already saying, just make do with CANA and AMiA as safe havens. That would however leave Bishop Iker/Fort Worth, Bishop Duncan/Pittsburg, and Bishop Schofield/San J. asking for alternative Anglican oversite.

So far as I can tell, we may still hope and pray that the heavy realignment winds have shifted, though believers may continue to be as conservative as they think best inside the bonds of our diversity and affection. Fellowship and worship and Tikkun Olam may do what doctrines and confessions cannot do. Without the realignment gaining official institutional traction, however, that leaves the rest of us equal leeway as we continue to draw carefully upon scripture, tradition, and reason.

Attention must surely now turn to the covenant. If it must have Drexel Gomez' beloved police powers, then at least we shall scrutinize and talk together to make sure that we are agreeing to an even-handed covenant that is, indeed, capable of good change when circumstances demand it.

Hi Ford:

I'd go Zoroastrian if I were you. Lots of history and you get to connect with the heritage of the Magi, who were some of the first to understand who Jesus was and worship him.

Steven

“The days of offering these so-called conservatives (more appropriately, anarchists) any kind of deal is over.”—Pete

Hold it, Pete. I’m a political anarchist, and these conservatives have NOTHING in common with anarchism! If anything, they are far to the right of even the individualist anarchists (“free market” anarchists) that I know. (I, myself, am an anarcho-socialist).

The only thing is that the only Zoroastrians who take converts are in North America and are part of the "back to the Gathas" movement in that religion, which seeks to shake off the old traditions of their Parsee (which is their heritage, I think) ancestors and rejuvenate their faith by going back to the Zoroastrian scriptures and leaving out the later Avesta, the Vendidad, the works. Abandonment of tradition for the "pure word" of scripture, now where have I heard that before?

Ford - please never leave JC!
Prov 3:5-7

NP,
I don't think you appreciated the fact that what I said was more than half, but not entirely, joking. Frankly, if the Anglican Church were to become entirely Evangelical, that would be proof to me that She is in error. I would have to worship somewhere else. In all honesty, I'd go Orthodox, or perhaps Roman. To be candid, I believe Evangelical doctrine to be in error, while I respect the right of Evangelicals to believe as they do. Evangelical worship not only does nothing for me spiritually, it tends to be a temptation for me to judge, thus leading me into sin. Sorry, it may be a great thing for you, but I simply can't find anything in it that inspires my soul.

From other things you have said, Ford, I don't think that is true - I could see you as an evo because JC is at the centre of evo faith.