Wednesday, November 26, 2008

And The Winner Is....

In this corner is Ruth Gledhill in the London Times:

A conservative province in the Anglican church faces “punishment” this week for offering a safe haven to conservatives.

Senior bishops and laity meeting in London are to consider suspending the Anglican church in South America for taking rebel US dioceses under its wing.

The move will bring the Anglican Communion closer to a formal split. Early next month, rebel conservatives are expected to finalise plans for a new Anglican province in the US, to sit as a parallel jurisdiction alongside the existing Episcopal Church.

Unless this new province is recognised as part of the Anglican family by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the other 38 primates, it will in effect become a new Anglican church.

In a further indication that the liberals are winning the Anglican wars, The Episcopal Church of the US, which was suspended at a previous meeting, is expected to be welcomed back into the fold after sticking by its pledge not to consecrate any more gay bishops


And in this corner is Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefforts-Schori at Episcopal Life:

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was among those attending the JSC meeting, which was held behind closed doors at the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace in London. She noted that a November 26 report in The Times of London newspaper, that suggested the JSC had discussed plans to discipline the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone for its recent incursions into other provinces, was untrue. "The subject has not come up," she told Episcopal News Service.

And the good news:

Anglican Communion provinces have until the end of March 2009 to respond to the St. Andrew's Draft. The Covenant Design Group will next meet in London in April 2009 and is expected to issue another draft which will be reviewed by the ACC during its May meeting. The ACC could decide to release that version to the provinces for their adoption.

Jefferts Schori told a recent meeting of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council that if the ACC decides to do so, she will "strongly discourage" any effort to bring that request to the 76th General Convention in July.

"My sense is that the time is far too short before our General Convention for us to have a thorough discussion of it as a church," Jefferts Schori told the Executive Council on October 21.


I said that I'd believe it when it happened that the senior bishops would discipline "the Anglican church in South America for taking rebel US dioceses under its wing". Is it possible that it will not happen? Was Ruth wrong? Someone needs to explain to Ruth the difference between a province and a church.

14 comments:

  1. Yes, she is very strange... Doesn't know that the Anglican Communion isn't a church, either. I believe that I referred to her as a Git earlier this week... Should I ask forgiveness?

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  2. Ruth is often used as a flag by the right to test the wind -- they give her "inside information" often not true but that they want to have her write to see if there is any traction for their plans or ideas. Now they can be the poor paranoid victim instead of a small group of malcontents fighting with each other as to who is ickier - women or gays.

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  3. Ruth hangs-out (when nearby) with David Virtue...she´s obviously a sensationalist as he is and apparently doesn´t mind trying to hit a homerun blindfolded...I think she´s discovered that the really ¨colorful¨ NEWS comes from the tormented, anguished and sometimes out-right demented fear/hate-mongers...she, quite obviously, doesn´t mind being used for NEWS!

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  4. And Ruth doesn't mind being wrong? She doesn't mind being used and made to look foolish?

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  5. It's better if I don't post what I think, on your blog any way.

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  6. While Ms Gledhill's source or sources on this story seem to have been badly off target, her recent reporting has been annoying the radical right far more than it has been annoying the "revisionists". Cut her some slack.

    I love the photographs from this week's London meeting which show a broadly grinning Rowan Williams sitting next to the Presiding Bishop. Considering the earlier photographs of an unsmiling ABC standing well clear of "Mrs Schori", I don't think that these are an accident.

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  7. Lapin, I know that it's Thanksgiving and all that, but why should I cut Ruth Gledhill slack? I was close to sure that what she wrote was not going to happen.

    As for the pictures with the ABC smiling at the PB, many of us in the US are beginning not to care whether he smiles on her or not. I can't forget that Gene Robinson was locked out of Lambeth. He insulted not just Gene, but the people of New Hampshire, and all US Episcopalians with that action.

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  8. He insulted not just Gene, but the people of New Hampshire, and all US Episcopalians with that action.

    November 27, 2008 8:19 AM

    Exactly, our Codependent days/daze of trying to get a smile out of the ABC are over...being understanding is one thing, accommodating rudeness and snideness is quite another.

    I don´t wish him ill but I certainly think he ought be in the ¨trenches¨ (perhaps he and the Pope could get a grouprate and share a hotel room)...in The Republic of The Congo, Darfur, Sudan, India or Pittsburgh...we look for moral leadership not more playing of blindmans bluff or excluding, marginalizing, special covenants and ¨screening¨ of LGBT Christians.

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  9. Well, I don't know what all the big talking is about. Those guys have said they want to leave. Why not just sit back and wait for them to leave? Maybe TEC and/or Rowan the Human, et. al. could do something to help them get their new communion up and going. We have lots of resources which we should share. I'll tell you what, when these guys come back, and I think a lot of them will, I don't want it to be because they lacked for support from us. We ought to help them acquire buildings and institutions, set up programs, all that sort of thing that TEC is so good at. Then, when they come back, they will know for sure that they are loved and valued not merely being tolerated. The benefits of that won't be seen for a long time but I think they'll be significant.

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  10. You know, Lindy, that's an interesting idea, well worth pondering. Kill them with kindness. I expect they wouldn't quite know how to react to that. Of course, they may not accept our help, seeing as it tainted by impurities. But it's is an idea worth considering.

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  11. Can I be the first person to start the rumor that ++KJS wasn't telling the truth? Of course we all know she was, but the rumor's going to start anyway, so we can all say we heard it first from me here on your blog? Please Grandmère? Please!!!

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  12. Fr Christian, it seems you have already done just that. The rumor is out here, or out there, or wherever, and together we'll receive our due, either credit or blame.

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  13. Was Ruth wrong?

    Is the Pope Popoid? [This one, anyway. John XXIII was Roman Catholic!]

    For a reliable Anglican newsbabe, I trust Riazat Butt. ;-)

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  14. I agree. Riazat is much more reliable. Ruth mingles with the folks in the top tier, but good reporters know that the people in the second and third tier give better information.

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