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The Episcopal Church has demonstrably fallen short
by Dr. Andrew Goddard
October 19th 2007
A discussion of the timings of the development and release of the Joint Standing Committee statement, and an evaluation of it.
Following discussions with Lambeth Palace, it was agreed that the JSC report would be submitted to the Archbishop if the point was reached where 2/3 of the JSC had signified assent. Those who had yet to respond were therefore asked by email if they could signify assent or make any other comments. By Tuesday morning it was clear that 2/3 of the JSC had given approval to the report and so the report was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and circulated to all members of the JSC and all Primates. This timing also enabled the content of the report to be known by the relevant Primates when the Archbishop of York attended the CAPA meeting in Mauritius.
Summary Conclusion
The more serious problem is that -as has become increasingly obvious since its report was published - they gave the HoB credit for clearing the Windsor/Dar bar when, in fact, they have demonstrably fallen short. That failure at New Orleans sadly means the Archbishop of Canterbury must now face even more difficult decisions than those JSC have already outlined in Part Two of their report.
To read Dr. Goddard's full analysis read here: http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/images/stories/jscfinal.pdf
---The Rev. Dr Andrew Goddard is Tutor in Ethics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.
