As reported in the Times Online (where you can read the entire article):
"The US branch of Anglicanism faces losing its status of full membership of the Anglican Church in the wake of its consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, an act which has propelled the worldwide church to the brink of schism.
"The final straw came when The Episcopal Church failed to "repent" of its action at its General Convention in Columbus, Ohio earlier this month, and failed to vote through a moratorium on any more gay consecrations. "
(Typical press reporters- when they write "church" they ought to be writing "Communion.") Well, at least this gives us one advantage. Here in America the Episcopal Church will lose any claim that they are somehow more legitimate than we, based on their relatively new theory that real Anglicans are those in communion with the See of Canterbury (which would have come as quite a surprise to the first Episcopalians right after the American War for Independence, when the English bishops could not consecrate the Amercian priests as bishops, and had to send them to Scotland). Beyond that, it hardly presents us with a victory for orthodoxy, since the Church of England is on footing almost as slippery as the Episcopal Church. But, it stops the Ecusans from saying they are legit (pronounced le'zheet) and we are not. Considering that most of the world's Anglicans consider themselves to be in full communion with us, and not with them, we are more legit- in terms of the Anglican Communion.
2 comments:
posted on behalf of Alan,
++ABC seems to have borrowed the idea from the Commonwealth of Nations. There are two classes of members. Most, like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc, still acknowledge the Queen as the nominal head of state. Others such as India and Pakistan, do not. There is some fancy terminolgy for the difference, but the parallels are striking.
Yes, Alan, one does recognize the origin of the concept, and its relevance to secular politics, but has to ask what relevance it has to the life of the Church of the Living God. I can find no justification in either Scripture or Tradition for such a concept.
ed
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