Ruth Gledhill
Religion Correspondent of The Times
December 10, 2007
This lovely photo has reached my desk from the latest CANA consecrations, reported by BabyBlue, who has a video. The story is also on Thinking Anglicans. Martyn Minns delivered an address to the CANA council that preceded the consecrations. The Times' Tom Baldwin reports today from Washington today that San Joaquin has formally severed its ties with The Episcopal Church, the first to do so. Meawhile, Jim Rosenthal has taken time out from his St Nicholas duties to issue a denial that Rowan Williams has endorsed the actions of Gregory Venables in providing a safe haven for dioceses such as San Joaquin.
This shows Peter Akinola presenting the new bishops.
Recently, Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh visited Britain and spoke to a number of bishops here. He left some of them at least convinced that TEC could not remain within the Anglican Communion if it was to retain any credibility as a Christian community. "The Episcopal Church has just gone too far away from Scripture," one of the bishops he met told me last week, when I asked him if there was any way at all that TEC could be dealt with, and given time. This same supremely orthodox bishop also spoke warmly of Rowan Williams' leadership skills. In the House of Bishops, during their meetings, he has got into the habit of delivering powerfully expert biblical expositions that are both provoking and reassuring.
Bishop Duncan gave me an interview during his visit. He said: "It is hard to imagine how the Communion can be kept together. The American church remains committed to its progressive direction." He compared it to US foreign policy. "The American Episcopal Church, rather like American foreign policy, is determined the world will go precisely the way it wishes. It seems a split is almost unavoidable at this point."
A great many people observing the situation, he said, are speaking in terms of the "Anglican experiment" being over. "That is a great sadness. The question for the rest of us is whether we can again be both Reformed and Catholic. The jury is out. Will it simply disintegrate or will it break into two parts? It is a long-term historical question. The 21st century will give an answer to it but we are only at the beginning of that century."
From my personal perspective, I have to say, things look a little different. My own church, packed every Sunday even though it is is in a large and ancient building, is pretty traditionalist in an Anglican sort of way. It is both Reformed and Catholic, modest in its profile and content to be no more than a parish church. There must be thousands of churches like this throughout England. In spirit, it is a bit like the Archbishop of Canterbury. Maybe his equivocation can provide an answer yet. We can but pray.
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