Brad Drell’s Tanzania Predictions

Brad Drell
02/13/2007

It is about time I weigh in on what I think will happen in Tanzania. While I can say I’ve talked to a good number of folks, including my own bishop who is arriving in Tanzania today, these predictions are my own, and are not to be attributed to anyone else. This piece will appear on both Drell’s Descants and StandFirm, as Greg has invited me to be a guest poster over there during the Primates Meeting.

Of course, the Living Church now has a story up stating that the Global South Primates are going to be pushing for a “two Province” solution to the crisis as a temporary measure to meld the Windsor Dioceses with the AMIA and CANA until an Anglican covenant is created. The mechanics of this remain a mystery. So, what might this look like?

I believe the approach that the Primates will take will be to recognize those bishops within the Episcopal Church who have committed to following the recommendations of the Windsor Report, as accepted by the Primates at their previous meeting. This will be the main point that both +Duncan and +MacPherson will make in their presentations. I don’t think they will try to tell the Primates what to do with the Episcopal Church; they are simply going to make the pitch for their own recognition within the wider Anglican Communion. My prediction is, of course, not anything new - it is what these two bishops have said on more than one occasion in public statements over the last three years. In any event, it is a whole lot easier to recognize the faithful bishops than to name the unfaithful ones, and give any bishop an opportunity to obtain recognition within the Anglican Communion.

All other bishops in ECUSA will be “suspended” and not invited to Lambeth. Presiding Bishop Jefferts Shori will be among the suspended. The suspended bishops will be given the opportunity before Lambeth to accept the Windsor recommendations. This measure will largely be addressed to some fence sitting bishops out there. However, to be fair, even Bishop Jefferts Shori could secure her invitation to Lambeth in this manner and even be seated at the Primates Meeting if she does this. The question is, will she? Highly unlikely, in my opinion, but I do recall her pushing the House of Deputies pretty hard to pass B033 on the last day of convention. Word around General Convention was that she really wanted to be the recognized Primate in the Anglican Communion and to go to the next Lambeth. If she wants it bad enough, she could do it.

The melding of the CANA and AMIA parishes into the Windsor compliant province will not happen until after the covenant. Things will continue to plod on as they are. The strange part is that the Dioceses of Dallas and South Carolina will be on the same footing as parishes within those Dioceses that are in the AMIA as far as recognition by the wider Anglican Communion, but they will still maintain these separate episcopal structures for the time being. However, this ultimately makes no ecclesiological sense, but there it is. Interestingly, the onus will be on Windsor Bishops to create this structure; it will not be spelled out by the Primates Meeting.

This article comes from Drell's Descants
http://descant.classicalanglican.net/

The URL for this story is:
http://descant.classicalanglican.net/?p=2611