Global South Anglican

Source: Chelmsford Anglican Mainstream

The events at the General Convention of ‘The Church Formerly Known As ECUSA’ have been many and varied - far too many and varied for me to keep up with. However, the key outcomes as they may affect things from an Anglican Mainstream perspective seem to be as follows:

Early on it was announced that ECUSA no longer wished to be known as ECUSA - the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (formerly known as PECUSA, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America). From henceforth it would be known as The Episcopal Church, represented in sixteen nations (see the Titus 1:9 site).

Later, TEC elected as its new Presiding Bishop (identical to an Archbishop elsewhere in the Anglican Communion) the Rt Revd Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, currently the Bishop of Nevada.  Schori (pronounced as in "Shorry, I’ll read that again") is a clear Liberal and a supporter of Gene Robinson. Further indications of her theological leanings (and, no doubt, the next error to be embraced by TEC) may be gleaned from the sermon she preached at the Convention which referred to "our mother Jesus" who "gives birth to a new creation" - precisely the theology of female deities studiously avoided by the Bible. In reaction to her election, the Diocese of Fort Worth immediately appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury to begin a process of finding alternative Primatial oversight. Two other dioceses are considering the same action, making clear that TEC is already split.

The enthusiasm with which the Archbishop of Canterbury greeted Bp Katherine’s election may be gleaned from his statement in which he says, inter alia, "it also brings into focus some continuing issues in several of our ecumenical dialogues". If he means the Roman Catholic Cardinal Kasper telling the English bishops just a couple of weeks ago that the consecration of women bishops "would be a decision against the common goal we have until now pursued in our dialogue", he’s dead right.

Finally (from an AM point of view) the Convention almost failed to pass any resolution regarding the Windsor. What did squeeze through was Resolution B033, put forward at the last minute by the House of Bishops. This calls upon "Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

It’s chances of survival may be gauged by a Statement of Dissent already issued by the Bishop of Washington which says that it forces TEC to choose between two goods: "the full inclusion in the life of the Church of our brother and sister Christians who happen to be gay or lesbian and our full inclusion in the life of our beloved Communion."

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s own response has been decidedly lukewarm, saying that "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."

No doubt there will be more to follow!

John Richardson
22 June 2006