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FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE COMMON CAUSE MEETING IN PITTSBURGH
With this second digest in two days, the events of the past week will be better focused for you. My own scribblings and those of a number of respected writers around the Anglican Communion are included.
A few thoughts on Friday's announcement of a "new ecclesiastical structure."
First of all, it was NOT an announcement about a new North American Anglican Province. That is way too premature at this time. It is, however, a beginning, and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to see where it is all going.
Several orthodox dioceses will hold conventions where votes will be taken to stay or leave. We will probably not know anything more definitive until the end of the year.
An orthodox bishop told VOL that if David Booth Beers, Mrs. Schori's attorney, litigates against all the parishes, their priests and dioceses planning to leave The Episcopal Church, it will probably bankrupt the church. "The Episcopal Church has about $200 million in Trust Funds at their headquarters. The Church Pension Fund, a separate organization, cannot be touched by Beers or the TEC leadership."
According to an attorney I spoke with, in these days of high litigation costs, $200 million would last the church about ten years for a team of high-priced lawyers to sue everyone in numerous courts around the country. In the end, it would reduce the Episcopal Church to a minor sect while bankrupting it. With virtually zero growth, aging priests and congregations, and low attendance, the Episcopal Church will be a non-entity in the next ten years.
The questions that remain have to do with how the Archbishop of Canterbury will view this new development. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan has said he will take the matter up with him in concert with Global South Primates sympathetic to yesterday's action.
Based on what Dr. Williams said in New Orleans, he will not be sympathetic to this move. He left saying nice things about The Episcopal Church and clearly had no wish to discipline or remove them or Mrs. Schori from Lambeth or the primatial table. She is here to stay. Homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson was not reprimanded for his behavior. Williams made no efforts to stop future consecrations, even though the HOB said they would exercise voluntary restraint. It would take a resolution of General Convention to reverse homosexual ordinations which will never happen.
The bottom line is Williams is not opposed to what he sees as an unfolding revelation on sexuality issues.
If he rejects a new ecclesiastical structure that will no doubt morph into a full orthodox Anglican province, we will have full-blown schism. There is no other way to interpret it. If he should accept this new province, then the liberals will scream bloody murder and The Episcopal Church could set in motion the wheels that started turning at GC2006 to have its own communion with 16 provinces tucked in its back pocket.
Williams is in a no win situation, it would appear.
All Blessings,
David W. Virtue DD
VirtueOnline
