+Rowan Speaks

The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement this morning entitled "Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future" and subtitled: Reflections on the Episcopal Church's 2009 General Convention from the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion.

You can read it all here ... but here are a few key "bits" and some off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts:

The statement begins:

No-one could be in any doubt about the eagerness of the Bishops and Deputies of the Episcopal Church at the General Convention to affirm their concern about the wider Anglican Communion. Their generous welcome to guests from elsewhere, including myself, the manifest engagement with the crushing problems of the developing world and even the wording of one of the more controversial resolutions all make plain the fact that the Episcopal Church does not wish to cut its moorings from other parts of the Anglican family.

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However, a realistic assessment of what Convention has resolved does not suggest that it will repair the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican provinces; very serious anxieties have already been expressed. The repeated request for moratoria on the election of partnered gay clergy as bishops and on liturgical recognition of same-sex partnerships has clearly not found universal favour, although a significant minority of bishops has just as clearly expressed its intention to remain with the consensus of the Communion. The statement that the Resolutions are essentially 'descriptive' is helpful, but unlikely to allay anxieties.

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He then goes on to make all the arguments we already know ... and while his comments will doubtless be "spun" every-way-to-Thursday, I think (for once) the orthodite bloggers have it right when they opine:

For me, this is the money quote: “Two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out but which would not exclude co-operation in mission and service of the kind now shared in the Communion” means that he believes in a basic equality of TEC with all it’s innovations and heresy. He did not say that TEC is wrong, only different. This is very disappointing.

Or not. +Rowan Williams is doing what he believes he's supposed to be doing: acting as an "Instrument of Unity" for the whole communion, trying to keep as many as possible at the table doing the work of the gospel.

I do not envy him that task.

But those who have been waiting for the casting-out-of-TEC-into-outer-darkness are not getting what they want. And as we continue to move forward in mission and ministry with those who embrace historic Anglican comprehensiveness I believe those "outer darkness" threats are going to ring more and more hollow until they fade away altogether.

I was asked by an RNS reporter this morning about the "two tier" Communion system that +Rowan seems to be advocating. No surprise. Remember the context: Church of England AKA Classism Incarnate. "Separate as Inherently Unequal" doesn't fly there. (See also the "untainted" communion wafer story in last week's Times of London.)

My one big disappointment -- and a point I think we need to keep arguing -- is +Rowan's categorizing TEC's commitment to full inclusion of the LGBT baptized as a "rights" issue rather than a "theological" issue. I'm frankly tired of being told we "haven't done the theology" when the truth is those telling us that don't agree with the theology we've "done."

But we can keep doing that. We can keep reaching out. We can keep working together with our communion partners on mission and ministry all over this Worldwide Anglican Family of ours with those who will work with us.

And we can stay in conversation with those who won't.

And meanwhile, we can live into the liberated-for-mission message our General Convention sent home from Anaheim and bless those who come to us asking for the church's blessing on their already-blessed-by-God relationships and raising up into ALL orders of ministry those who God calls into vocations of deacon, priest and bishop.

Because, as the closing word's of +Rowan Williams' statement assure us:

If the present structures that have safeguarded our unity turn out to need serious rethinking in the near future, this is not the end of the Anglican way and it may bring its own opportunities. Of course it is problematic; and no-one would say that new kinds of structural differentiation are desirable in their own right.

But the different needs and priorities identified by different parts of our family, and in the long run the different emphases in what we want to say theologically about the Church itself, are bound to have consequences. We must hope that, in spite of the difficulties, this may yet be the beginning of a new era of mission and spiritual growth for all who value the Anglican name and heritage.

As American Anglicans, we've "rethought structures" before (see also: "1789") and lived to tell about it! And -- at the end of the day -- that may in fact be the good news we have to offer our Big Fat Anglican Family as we move forward together into God's future.

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