Anglican Down Under cannot miss this opportunity to welcome the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) to the world of Anglicanism (aka "Anglican World" - which used to be the title of a Lambeth-based publication).
The official birth event is being held as I write this.
Read all about it at (e.g.) Titus One Nine.
The Episcopal Church (TEC) has its place in the Anglican sun but it's just too .... [pop your own words in here, mine are 'elastic in its diversity'] ... to reasonably expect all Anglican Christians in the USA to belong and sleep well at nights. (The Anglican Church of Canada (ACCan) is not quite in the same place as TEC, but perhaps parts of it are, hence the longing of some Canadian Anglicans for ACNA).
So, come on ++Rowan, learn from Barack Obama, diplomatic impossibilities can be attempted: adopt ACNA into the family and tell TEC & ACCan not to get in a huffy about it (see Luke 15:25-32).
Remember, we are a Communion that includes those who ordain women and those who do not, and we live together (albeit, sometimes, some places with incredible tension): TEC, ACCan and ACNA together in North America? Yes, we can!
(Some cynics think the Communion will never agree to such an arrangement because it would encourage separatism elsewhere. That is wrong-headed. The point in North America is that through the ordination of a gay bishop and the promulgation of same-sex blessings TEC and ACCan have etched in stone a new ethic of sexuality which is uncontainable in the old wine of 20th century Anglican polity. If Anglican churches outside of North America do not wish further separation to occur they know what not to do).
++Rowan is in touch with ACNA. BabyBlueOnline reports that he has sent an Official Pastoral Visitor to the ACNA Assembly. This has annoyed at least one commentator. Perhaps ++Rowan is more Obamaian than I thought. Of course there is always the question how much this sort of event registers with the world through Ruth Gledhill and her fellow journalists!
Incidentally, while on the theme of welcome and difference in our Communion: Clayboy has noted that Ghana has just decided to ordain women! Cool!!
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