DEFINE THE LIMITS OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION?

From Anglicans United comes a report on the Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston, SC.

In the "About" link on the home page of Anglicans United is the following:

Purpose: to grow a faithful church for the promulgation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, while forming Christian disciples in the evangelical, catholic and reformed Anglican way.

Anglicans United traces its roots to the 3R’s Conference held in Winter Park, Florida in January of 1986. The conference brought together evangelicals, charismatics and broad-church traditional Episcopalians who shared a growing sense of alarm at the continuing moral and doctrinal slide of their Church.

Opposed to moral and doctrinal relativism, the conference highlighted the Revelation of God in the Scriptures, and called for the Renewal of God’s people. Alarmed by trends within the denomination, everyone saw the need for Reformation. The conference ended with the issuance of a 3R’s Statement and publication of a book, “The Gospel Conspiracy in the Episcopal Church”, written by the Rev. Charles Irish and the Rt. Rev. Michael Marshall.

Alarm! Alarm!

This is the first I hear of Anglicans United, or, if I have heard of them previously, I've forgotten. Perhaps, I'm derelict in not knowing or remembering.

The Mere Anglicanism conference appears to be sponsored by the Diocese of South Carolina. (Note the absence of "Episcopal" in the name of the diocese.)

The theme for the 2011 Mere Anglicanism Conference, which will be held January 20-22 is "Biblical Anglicanism for a Global Future: Recovering the Power of the Word."

At the conference, Abp. Mouneer Anis, Cairo, Egypt, the Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Diocese of Egypt, gave the main address, titled “Recovering the Power of the Word for the Anglican Communion”. The entire text of the address may be found at Anglicans United.

The archbishop spoke first about the recent New Year's Eve bombing in Alexandria.

This year the bomb happened in the New Year’s Eve service 2011, as they were coming out of the church this bombing took place. It shook the nation, as well as the moderate Muslims as well. We are not used to this. We are a peaceful nation and this happening is upsetting many Christians. Something good may come out of this. Many moderate Muslims condemned this and speak of the right of the Christians to be there and worship. I want you to pray that the Church will continue to speak in love. The Church in Egypt was founded on the blood of the martyrs. Pray for us. We are not afraid and are ready to die for the sake of Jesus Christ in Egypt.

Yes. Please pray for peace between Christians and Muslims in Egypt and other countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Then, Abp. Anis spoke about faithfulness to the Word of God, meaning the Bible. He says the following in reference to the Lambeth Conference 1888: Resolution 11.1 “The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as “containing all things necessary to salvation”:

We were formed as a Biblical Communion. We are commanded to read and interpret Scripture together in order to define the limits of Anglican Communion in regard to the interpretation of Scripture. I believe we are far from that. If we followed what our predecessors decreed since 1888, we would not be an impaired, dysfunctional Communion today.

Um - no. To set limits to who is in the family of the Anglican Communion, and who is out, according to a certain group's ideas of the proper interpretation of Scripture seems quite un-Anglican, if one knows even a little of the history of the Anglican Communion.

Later, in the Q&A period, Abp. Anis gave the following response to a question about the upcoming Primates Meeting:

With the regard of the upcoming Primate’s meeting, (Dublin, Ireland Jan 25-30, 2011) we are not boycotting. Many have said that we are boycotting this meeting. We however are not attending.

Why? Because we did ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to follow up on the recommendations of the previous meeting (Dar es Salaam, 2006; no meeting was held in 2008 because of the Lambeth Conference). At that meeting we discussed, decided and recommended actions. This was never done. It is time for decisions after comprehensive discussion.

For this meeting, we received an invitation to sit in 2 separate rooms: the revisionists in one and the Global South in another. This is a joke. We were not given a chance to affect the process and have some ownership of the meeting. When we are given that opportunity, we will attend.

Can the invitations really have gone out inviting the Primates to meet in separate rooms?

Back in October of 2010, David Anderson of the American Anglican Council gave the following opinion on the arrangements for the Primates Meeting:

Dr. Williams is being advised that numerous provinces won't attend the Primates Meeting if Jefferts Schori attends. Having booked the venue, he might as well have the meeting since he is committed to paying for it, but without the orthodox Primates in attendance it could be a dangerous meeting, giving opinion and credence to teachings and beliefs that are not representative of orthodox Anglicanism.

If asked my opinion, I would strongly advise the orthodox Primates to 1) organize before the Primates' meeting, and 2) attend and remove by force of numbers the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (not physically, but by either voting her off the "island," or recessing to another room and not letting her in). The meeting is a place to gather and potentially to settle some of the issues that are pulling the Anglican Communion apart, and to begin to restore health to a most wonderful communion.

Can it be that Abp. Rowan Williams took David Anderson's idea of meeting in separate rooms and ran with it? I don't have the answer, but I'd like to know.

And the bishops are not boycotting the Primates Meeting; they are just not attending, because Abp. Williams has not followed through on recommended actions. I'm guessing Abp. Anis refers to actions not taken by Abp. Williams to discipline certain member provinces of the AC. And it seems that Abp. Anis was offended, rather than appeased, by the invitation to meet in separate rooms - if such is the case of the invitations going out as the archbishop describes them.

If this post seems rambling, bear with me. I'm writing in part to try to get the groups and their shenanigans straight in my head, and I'm not sure I succeeded.

H/T to Simon Sarmiento Thinking Anglicans.