This would exclude the GAFCON provinces that are becoming increasingly isolated. If the Southern Cone is in this Canterbury connected group, it suggests that Archbishop Gregory Venables is playing on both sides of the fence, or that he is getting cold feet on the side he has backed so far.
There was a meeting on Tuesday 22 July at the Lambeth Conference addressing up to 200 bishops. Speakers included Bishop Mouneer Anis (Egypt [Middle East], Presiding), Michael Scott-Joynt (Church of England Winchester), Tom Wright (Church of England Durham) and Bob Duncan (Common Cause Partnership, TEC [- just about] Pittsburgh). Another key person is Archbishop John Chew of Southeast Asia.
Clearly these were developing a Conservative identity and means of being together. They are pro-Covenant and pro-Catechism (which is where the leading theologian Michael Poon of Singapore comes in - pictured with wife) and presumably pro-Commission of Faith and Order.The intention is some sort of unity, or at least that some Anglicans will accept all this effort put into centralisation, but the outcome could well be a Balkanisation. This means that the Global South via Canterbury is more likely to adopt Covenant/ Catechism/ Commission of Faith and Order for itself (I would exclude Hong Kong) whilst other provinces reject such either because they want to or have to legally and in polity. The outcome then is a more organic and looser confederation of Anglicans that would relate to Western Churches. Even that might split between the progressives because of statements and intentions of the Windsor Continuation Group, and other Western Churches that would be but probably will end up not being more accommodating. And then of course are those who walked off - GAFCON and those four provinces with a Primates Council set on interventions starting with its own Province of North America.
3 comments:
Others have been warning of this sort of thing as well for some time. Fr. Scott's analyses are perhaps the most cogent I've read, though Fr. Haller's are also quite thoughtful as well.
Hello Pluralist
I think you miss the point of Archbishop Venables at both events. Its bridge-building not cold feet you should seek more info on. Perhaps Global South at Lambeth is building outwards to include GAFCON, not to differentiate itself from it. Both are movements not monoliths and thus can work together for the greater common good of all conservatives
It's not my view of GAFCON's control of itself, which I liken to religious Trotskyism, but Venables is interesting in that he is clearly worried about GAFCON being seen as walking off. I can only see a "province of GAFCON" (North America) as further evidence of walking off.
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