Monday, July 23, 2007

Meanwhile, over at the Anglican Chess Game . . .

Dr. John Sentamu is the Archbishop of York, and as such, is the second most powerful man in the Anglican Communion.

So, when Archbishop Sentamu came before General Convention 2003, it was no small thing. When he urged us to be "compliant" with the "recommendations" of the Windsor Report, his words carried enormous weight.

Never mind that I'm still boggled by how one need be "compliant" with "recommendations". I suppose it's evidence of that old truth about the UK and the USA - "two countries separated by a common language".

It could, no doubt, also be said of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion that we are "two churches separated by common prayer."

I don't know this for certain, of course, but I think it's a good guess that the nefarious resolution B033 came into being, in great part, because of negotiations with the Archbishop of York. While it fell short of total compliance, I think it was the "best they could do at this time," in the words of our then newly elected Presiding Bishop.

Today's Telegraph (UK) carries an article wherein the Archbishop speaks directly and publicly to his conservative brothers in Africa who are threatening to boycott Lambeth, saying if they follow through on this threat, they will effectively expel themselves from the worldwide Church.

You can read the entire article in The Telegraph (UK).

There will always be an England, but will there always be a Lambeth?

Stay tuned, folks - but don't order your plane tickets to Heathrow just yet. The days of our lives as Anglicans are getting curiouser and curiouser.


Archbishop warns Anglican conservatives
By Jonathan Petre
Last Updated: 1:48am BST 23/07/2007


The Archbishop of York has warned conservative Anglican leaders that they will effectively expel themselves from the worldwide Church if they boycott next year's Lambeth Conference.

Dr John Sentamu said the conservatives risked severing themselves from the Anglican Communion.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr John Sentamu pleaded with them to attend the conference despite their war with liberals over homosexuality.

But he told them that if they "voted with their feet" they risked severing their links with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with historic Anglicanism, a breach that could take centuries to heal.

"Anglicanism has its roots through Canterbury," he said. "If you sever that link you are severing yourself from the Communion. There is no doubt about it."

Read it all here.

1 comment:

  1. Wasn't it GC 2006? (Or has that much time gone by?) I can see Dan Martins holding the time clock, looking at Dorsey Henderson when it started to beep and being told to let the AB of York to keep on going.

    ReplyDelete

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