"Reduced role" for Episcopalians

I post this not to thumb my nose at the ECUSA, but to point out the noticeable difference in ecclesiology. Such variance from canonical orthodoxy would not stand for very long in either Orthodoxy or Catholicism. The Anglican response (in the person of the Archbishop of Canterbury) seems to be one of public lamentation and calls for calm followed by what looks to be what the Catholic Church would call "penitential silence." Certainly there is room for theologoumena, but the issues at hand that are being dealt with go to the very identity of the Church made clear in Scripture, affirmed by canons, and upheld by Tradition.

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(RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Friday (May 28) proposed a reduced role for the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion because the church has consecrated gay bishops.

Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, said Episcopalians' support for gay and lesbian bishops is out of step with other Anglicans.

"Our Anglican fellowship continues to experience painful division," Williams said in a letter to bishops, clergy and lay believers, "and the events of recent months have not brought us nearer to full reconciliation."

On May 15, the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly lesbian priest, Mary Douglas Glasspool, as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles, despite warnings from Williams and other Anglican leaders. The first gay openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, was consecrated in 2003. I watched this consecration. It was complete with Native American dancing and music, "smudging," and other such events.

Numerous Anglican leaders, including Williams, have urged the 44 member churches in the worldwide fellowship to abide by three moratoria: no more openly gay bishops, no official blessings for same-sex unions, no interfering in other national churches.

"There are still things being done that the representative bodies of the communion have repeatedly pleaded should not be done," Williams said, "and this leads to recrimination, confusion and bitterness all around."

Williams proposed on Friday that the Episcopal Church, which is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, withdraw from ecumenical dialogue with other Christians, and not be allowed to vote on a committee that determines doctrine and authority.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Williams has powers of proposal and persuasion, but lacks the authority of a pope to enforce his will on the rest of the communion.

A Q&A section that follows Williams' five-page letter stresses that the Episcopal Church is not being asked to leave the Anglican fellowship. The "proposals come after several churches broke the communion's agreed moratoria (their promises to the communion)," the Q&A states.

"Nevertheless the churches concerned remain full members of the Anglican Communion."

The Episcopal Church declined to comment on Friday. Individual bishops gave a mixed response. Bishop Marc Andrus of San Francisco said Williams is focusing on issues of sexuality, rather than African and South American bishops who broke the moratoria by crossing boundaries to ordain conservative clergy in the U.S.

Andrus also said Williams' proposals are "not in the spirit of a communion that values the idea of seeking the mind of Christ across the communion rather than investing a central authority with more and more punitive power." Communion exists where there is an agreement as to what is believed, what is practiced, and who constitutes the Church. It is not a buzzword for permissiveness and should not be trotted out as a good apart from what it represents. The early Church used the image of a boat to describe itself. I would say that these two groups are not sailing on parallel courses.

Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas said the proposals are "not a punitive action."

"I think we should take responsibility for the decisions that we've made," Douglas said. "But I do not think greater distancing or putting more space between churches is going to help us live more deeply into the fullness of our unity."