Love in the Ruins
Ruth Gledhill
...A lot is happening over the next six months. (Incidentally, I made an error in the story that link leads to, Tom Wright did not attend GenCon06, he merely sent a paper.) I think it is interesting that the plan is clearly to invite everyone and their spouses to Lambeth 2008. As they are not married, Gene Robinson’s partner Mark Andrews could not be there as his spouse, but presumably could attend as his “lay chaplain”? Personally, I don’t have a problem with that, even though the entire Nigerian contingent might boycott it as a result, although I doubt the Nigerians can truly resist the temptation to go and have their say and what promises to be the most humdinger of a Lambeth Conference yet, with upwards of 1,300 delegates in all. Matt Kennedy has done an interesting analysis of the situation, I can assure Matt that my story was based on original sources and not put topether from previously published material. There is also a good debate running on AAC…more
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Looking back, when Archbishop Williams was elected their was great concern among the “conservatives” over his stated position on the same sex issue. Then over time he moderated his public position and in more recent carefully worded statements even gave many reason to believe his position had changed, or at least he felt his role as AOC required him to adhere to Lambeth. Under pressure from the Global South and others, he also made some baby steps to keep the ACN and others hopeful.(Remember old headline, AOC recognizes AMIA?”) He clearly felt his job before GC2006 was to pressure TEC to go as far as it could to adhere to Windsor.
We argued on this site and others where the AOC would end up when the dust settled. Some felt that in the end would be leader of a Communion that did not include the TEC in any meaningful way, including an invite to Lambeth. They raised the valid point that working under his gentle direction and leadership was the best way to preserve the broadest possible church in this mess.
Others, including myself, felt that it was unrealistic to believe that the AOC’s personal feelings had changed dramatically on this issue and that public opinion and political pressure in the UK, along with the tireless but largely hidden advocacy of ACC, would prevent him from ultimately breaking ties with TEC. But I have to admit that until this article recent developments had caused me to reconsider this view.
My guess is that we both were right, and wrong. I doubt the AOC’s own views have changed dramatically on the issues of the day. To his credit, however, he takes his position very seriously and has offically honored the Lambeth and Windsor resolutions. But the idea that he would ever be part of a final solution that broke ties with TEC—which is what a non-invite to Lambeth would constitute—was probally never realistic.
In the end, I seriously doubt the Global South leadership would attend a Lambeth attended by TEC unless begged to do so by the ACN which has given up on that issue in exchange for what they hope is “Peace for Our Time.” If the ACN, and the moderate (lukewarm) non-ACN “Windsor” Bishops cut that type of deal I hope they get full de facto and de jure seperation. If that does not occur, there will be no one left in the pews to matter. This entire scandal of TEC has been a millstone dragging down the mission of our church, and needs to be removed.