Advice for orthodox Primates

Posted on October 2, 2010 
Filed under Opinion

In his weekly message, Bishop David C. Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, has some advice for the orthodox Primates, after the announcement of a meeting of the Anglican Communion Primates in January.

“If asked my opinion, I would strongly advise the orthodox Primates to 1) organize before the Primates’ meeting, and 2) attend and remove by force of numbers the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (not physically, but by either voting her off the “island,” or recessing to another room and not letting her in). The meeting is a place to gather and potentially to settle some of the issues that are pulling the Anglican Communion apart, and to begin to restore health to a most wonderful communion.”

October 1, 2010

Beloved in Christ,

We now know that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has called for the next meeting of the Anglican Communion Primates (head archbishops of each Anglican Communion Province) to be held at the end of January 2011 at a site near the Dublin, Ireland airport. The sites chosen for these meetings are usually able to lock down the participants in a compound to keep the press and advocacy groups out, and the Primates in, and we imagine that the site now chosen will fulfill those requirements.

Although at times Dr. Williams seems to grasp the severity and danger of the Anglican crisis over which he is presiding, he doesn’t seem to be able to keep the facts all in focus. Having told TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori not to come to a recent Anglican leaders meeting, and having her ignore him, he has apparently not bothered to tell her to stay away from the Primates Meeting. Even if he did advise her to absent herself, she will come anyway, for she believes she has a right to attend, has done nothing wrong, and knows that one on one she can out talk him, out bluff him, and out push him, and frankly, she is right on all three counts.

The fact that, deep down, Dr. Williams thinks much the same as Jefferts Schori on liberal issues, conflicts him to the point of inaction. He doesn’t like the way she goes about things – it isn’t humble, it isn’t playing by the “old boy” rules, and it isn’t British. He only barely understands that she wants to take power and control into her own hands, that he can be emperor if she can be shogun.

He does understand that the African segment of the Communion, as well as some additional Provinces, are not on the same page as he is, and the Anglican Communion is in danger of coming unstuck, but he is relying on the “muddle through” principle, and believes in a Hegelian approach: argument, counter argument, new truth emerges out of the conflict.

Dr. Williams is being advised that numerous provinces won’t attend the Primates Meeting if Jefferts Schori attends. Having booked the venue, he might as well have the meeting since he is committed to paying for it, but without the orthodox Primates in attendance it could be a dangerous meeting, giving opinion and credence to teachings and beliefs that are not representative of orthodox Anglicanism.

If asked my opinion, I would strongly advise the orthodox Primates to 1) organize before the Primates’ meeting, and 2) attend and remove by force of numbers the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (not physically, but by either voting her off the “island,” or recessing to another room and not letting her in). The meeting is a place to gather and potentially to settle some of the issues that are pulling the Anglican Communion apart, and to begin to restore health to a most wonderful communion.

In the above case, if Dr. Williams did not go along with Jefferts Schori’s exclusion, then I would suggest having the next-door-meeting without him. I just don’t believe staying home from the field of battle helps win a war over the truth and nature of Christianity within Anglicanism. The Christian Church needs a spiritually strong and muscular Anglicanism to re-evangelize the West; are we willing to make the sacrifices in order for this to happen?

Blessings and Peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council