A great comment over at T19 describing the various players in the COE and the situation confronting that church.  I couldn’t resist posting it over here.  Note also that PM has placed transcripts of the various speeches by FIF in the comments—if I had time I’d post them up over here.

Giles Fraser, former Vicar of Putney and advocate of all things ‘Inclusive’ has been richly rewarded for his chairmanship of Inclusive Church, for having Bishop Gene Robinson preach at his church contrary to the wishes of the ABC, and his readiness to write and talk to the media on all occasions which present themselves.  He is now at St Paul’s Cathedral as Canon in charge of interesting evening talks.

However it is also true that he is not very inclusive of those he disagrees with.  As he admits with honesty: “compromise has a limit - especially when the issue is regarded by many as a fundamental question of justice”.  Justice, not faith, truth, Christian teaching, or theological integrity.  No it is all trumped by a right-on secular agenda.

What is he talking about, why it is women bishops and how those awful neanderthal mysogenistic Anglo-Catholics cannot get their heads round ‘justice’ and get with the program.  They keep bringing up theology and the teachings of Christ, and the understanding of the rest of the church over the world, and all through time.

Now I am not saying that we should necessarily not have women bishops, but I do say that we should make provision for those clergy and laity who have fundamental theological problems with it; a provision that actually deals with the issues.

Today may turn out to be rather an important day, as much as it is one of the important days we have regularly.  An important day not just for the Church of England whose particular issue this is, but also for the Anglican Communion.

What is so important?  Well today the Church of England Revision Committee meets.  People are making submissions at the last minute, and my - are they Inclusive!

WATCH, Women and the Church, pushed in a supermarket trolley from Synod ‘08 by TEC-in-a-bag ladies, Christina Rees and Canon Marilyn McCord Adams has put in something which is quite hard to read or make sense of, so apoplectic is it at the temerity of the Revision Committee for making any provision whatever for the Anglo-Catholics.  It is an A1 rant:
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/004041.html
and yesterday in more measured tones, but equally hard-line, the Anglo-C’s brother Affirming Catholics put the jack boot in demanding the statutory concessions go and by implication the Anglo-Catholics too:
http://affirmingcatholicism.org.uk/pages/default.asp?sID=0&mode=news&article=45

You can just feel the love can’t you?

Interestingly even on Thinking Anglicans some of the commenters are having trouble stomaching the WATCH spiel.  No repentance or mercy for the disgraceful treatment of the Anglo-C’s at Synod ‘08 by the chief mischief-makers of WATCH and Affirming Catholicism, notwithstanding the latter’s oh so calm and holy recent statements.

So why does it matter?
1. The Pope - now with his generous pastoral offer, the Anglo-C’s have another option, one they received with deep gratitude at their recent FiF Conference which was humble, gentle and extremely thoughtful and theologically argued in comparison to the theologically light offerings above.
2. GAFCON, or rather FCA - who have served notice on the CofE as well that if proper provision is not made for conservatives in the CofE, they are going to:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=16521
3. Reform have also issued a statement making it clear that there is no need for those who do not wish to to go to Rome, because FCA is here now, if the Revision Committee do not pass muster:
http://www.reform.org.uk/pages/press/latestpress.php
4. And the Global South Council have stated:
“We urge the Archbishop of Canterbury to work in close collegial consultation with fellow Primates in the Communion, act decisively on already agreed measures in the Primates’ Meetings, and exercise effective leadership in nourishing the flock under our charge, so that none would be left wandering and bereft of spiritual oversight.”
http://www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/weblog/comments/pastoral_exhortation/

And what of the people all this is about, the Anglo-Catholics and others who have been made so unwelcome thanks to the efforts of the ever ‘inclusive’ WATCH and AffCaths?  They have been deeply upset; are deeply grateful to the Pope and others, some following the reports of two of the flying bishops [Provincial Episcopal Visitors in the parlance] are taking great interest in the offer from Rome; are taking an interest in FCA; are still taking an interest in what the Revision Committee has and may yet come up with and have also expressed deep thanks for the support they have had personally from the Archbishop of Canterbury who has tried to ensure that they can be kept in.

While you may find the Affirming Catholics esconced in the cathedrals and the evangelicals in the rich suburbs and cities, it is the Anglo-Catholics who you will find at work in they traditional calling, the poor and difficult areas, where following the call of their Master they minister to the least, and in their churches and their ceremonies try to show a glimpse of magic and deep reverence for our Lord [...and it has to be said our Lady]

I have tried to understand more about the Anglo-Catholics, it was alien to my churchmanship, but they are some of the most up to date and effective bloggers, and I have wandered onto their sites including Anglican Wanderings and our own Father Ed Tomlinson’s and his friends.  To start with I think there was a degree of incomprehension on my part and maybe on theirs, but with a few jokes we got chatting.  I think that as a church we will be enormously poorer without them.  The theologically vapid and liberal AffCaths are no substitute.

And bringing all the above together, the Revision Committee are between a rock and a hard place.  If they go with proper statutory provision for the Anglo-Catholics they might make a difference to so many and give a lead to the rest of the Communion in that the CofE can still deal with things in a Christian manner and keep the balanced mix that we have always had.

Then again if they do not go with the WATCH/AffCath bunch they will hack off the liberal end and no doubt Christina Rees and her friends will have a complete fit of the screaming hab-dabs - toys being thrown all over the back of the Merc.

If the Revision Committee do go with the WATCH bunch then we can expect the Pope’s offer to be increasingly attractive, and the FCA will move in

And for the rest of the Communion, they will see who we have decided to become, and whether we are either capable of giving a lead or for that matter worth following any longer;  whether our future lies with the intolerance of TEC or with the Communion.

Prayers for us today would be good, and for the Revision Committee.

Do listen to the FiF conference speeches here, particularly those of Bishop Broadhurst of Fulham, Bishop Nazir-Ali and the PEV’s:
http://www.forwardinfaith.com/news/na09-10.html
and John Hind, Bishop of Chichester’s transcript here:
http://www.diochi.org.uk/downloads/Bishop of Chichester/Adresses/2009 1023 FiF.pdf

[Hmm…I wonder if this is my longest comment]