Archbishop
urges bishops to seek the center
by Steve Waring
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered an unscheduled presidential
address Tuesday at the Lambeth Conference that calls for all bishops to seek
the center. He repeated the proposal made in his opening presidential address
for council and covenant as the way forward through the current fracture in
the Anglican Communion.
"We [need] a bit more of a structure in our international affairs to be able to give clear guidance on what would and would not be a grave and lasting divisive course of action by a local church," he said. "While at the moment the focus of this sort of question is sexual ethics, it could just as well be pressure for a new baptismal formula or the abandonment of formal reference to the Nicene Creed in a local church's formulations; it could be a degree of variance in sacramental practice - about the elements of the Eucharist or lay presidency; it could be the regular incorporation into liturgy of non-scriptural or even non-Christian material."
The address did not receive the same enthusiastic response as the first address on July 20, according to three bishops who spoke with a reporter afterward. They said the Windsor Continuation Group proposal delivered Monday is very similar to the so-called moratorium which the House of Bishops agreed to during its meeting with Archbishop Williams last September in New Orleans.
Bishops from The Episcopal Church held two provincial meetings Tuesday, one before the address and one afterward. Many of The Episcopal Church's bishops expressed strong reservations of the recommendations for a moratorium on public rites of same-sex blessings and the consecration of more partnered homosexual persons as bishops in a 90-minute hearing Monday.
"There is no willingness to give us a middle ground, to find the via media," Bishop Sergio Carranza, assistant bishop of Los Angeles, said in an interview with Episcopal News Service. "They are blaming The Episcopal Church and the Canadian church for all the problems."
Bishop Coadjutor Steven Lane of Maine said his initial reaction to the Windsor Continuation Group's idea of a pastoral forum was to wonder why it would succeed when previous attempts at forming similar groups have failed. Those groups include the Windsor Report's call for a council of advice, an Anglican Consultation Council recommendation for a panel of reference, and a primates' meeting suggestion in 2007 of a pastoral council.
Archbishop Williams did not mention The Episcopal Church or Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire by name in his address, but there were several passages which seemed to speak to their concerns.
"Some have expressed unhappiness about the 'legalism' implied in a covenant," he said. "But we should be clear that good law is about guaranteeing consistence and fairness in a community; and also that in a community like the Anglican family, it can only work when there is free acceptance. Properly understood a covenant is an expression of mutual generosity."
Some traditionalist bishops have expressed a growing concern that sacrifices will have to be made if unity is to be restored. One influential bishop said that only the resignation of Bishop Robinson would stop the geographical border incursions and permit a genuine listening process to occur. Bishop Robinson and many of his supporters at Lambeth have repeatedly said such a proposal is unacceptable as it would put all of the burden of sacrifice on them.
The "relationships of the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] baptized are not for sale as bargaining chips in this game of global Anglican politics," said the Rev'd Susan Russell, president of Integrity, an advocacy group affiliated with The Episcopal Church. "At the end of the day [this is] too high a price to pay for institutional unity."
Archbishop Williams addressed those concerns in his address as well, repeating what "the not so traditional believer" tells him.
A lot of the time they
feel as they are being made the scapegoats, he said, pointing out that "other
provinces have acute moral and disciplinary problems, or else they more or
less successfully refuse to admit the realities in their midst." Those who
have faced complex issues around gay relationships in what "the not so traditional
believer" believes is "an open and prayerful way are stigmatized and demonized
.
—Steve Waring is news editor of The Living Church. From that
publication's
Web site.
