When Will the Archbishop of Canterbury Figure It Out?

by Bryan Taylor (Diocese of Fort Worth)

Mr. Taylor wrote this piece in response to the recent letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He raises several issues here that warrant further dialogue. The Episcopal Majority invites others to voice their opinions on the many issues now at play in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

When will the Archbishop of Canterbury figure out that what the Network types want more than anything is recognition by him as having equal standing with the legitimate structures and duly chosen Primate of The Episcopal Church, and that every time he does something like this he both insults our church and undermines our polity? Inviting other representatives besides the Presiding Bishop to Tanzania just feeds their resistance to resolving their conflict with the legitimate authority of this Province. It does not encourage them to seek compromise; rather, it encourages them to believe they will eventually get what they want: full recognition of an Anglican body, either parallel to The Episcopal Church or replacing it. It inflates their egos and their appetite for status far beyond the small minority they actually represent in our church.

True, he hasn't yet said who will be invited, although one of the Network's bloggermouths says it will be one or more of Bishops Duncan, Iker, or Schofield. Someone else has said it might be Don Wimberly of Texas, who organized the Camp Allen meeting, by invitation only, of others he thought of as "Windsor-compliant." It's also true that they aren't being invited to the Primates' Meeting itself. But none of those particulars really matters much. While Bishop Wimberly is at least in good standing in TEC, his actions mirror Canterbury's fallacious "consensus by subtraction" (I am indebted to Tobias Haller, BSG, for that apt phrasing) and foster factionalism rather than unity. It is just as inappropriate for Rowan Williams to endorse a party leader like Wimberly within the House of Bishops as it is for him to grant status to the others who are in open rebellion against the church who made them bishops. And it is still an insult to imply that they have a right to such access to the Primates while he is being generous in "not withholding an invitation" to our duly chosen Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori!

Moreover, the Archbishop's approach is fostering the same kind of rebellion in his own back yard as we have had brewing in the U.S. far longer than the stated provocation of General Convention 2003. The Church of England can now look forward to the same kind of divisive wedge politics, and rival pre-schismatic structures like the Network in the U.S., since a group there has made demands for circumventing bishops they deem too liberal. Her Majesty's Government had better wake up to the fact that Rowan Williams is leading the Church of England right over a cliff, emboldening reactionaries at home with his meddling in the affairs of provinces abroad. If he keeps this up there won't be a single Anglican Communion for him to play with very much longer.

His position from the beginning should have been: "You Yanks sort this out among yourselves; it's none of my business. All the rest of you Anglicans around the world, mind your own business. See you all at Lambeth." Instead he continues to inflate the importance of the Windsor Report and repeat the fantasy that he or anyone else has the right to judge the Episcopal Church's "compliance" with it. He won't give a clear "no" on the ridiculous "alternative primatial oversight" innovation being proposed, at least not in a way that the Network folk can hear it. His notion of a two-tier Communion of "constituent" and "associate" provinces has fed the flames of faction and schism. He's encouraging factionalism among our bishops with his support of the Camp Allen "Windsor-compliant" foolishness. Now he seems to think he's being gracious by inviting our Primate and Presiding Bishop to Tanzania, as if the Dromantine Primates' request that TEC voluntarily refrain from attending meetings of Anglican consultative bodies applies, and is within his gift to choose to apply or waive. Let's ask Frank Griswold if he thought that was going to apply to him or his successor, and whether this is what he thought "voluntary" meant!

Voluntary has become mandatory. Windsor process has become Windsor requirements. Dialogue has become a steady diatribe of one-way shaming and judging. None of our attempts at conciliation and cooperation are being credited. Our polity is being trampled on, ignored, and wantonly insulted from every side. Our Presiding Bishop, elected by the whole church to serve and represent the whole church, is discounted, mocked, and insulted. Men who won't even receive communion from her are being treated as her equals or worse, as having the moral high ground of their self-chosen victimhood.

This is bullying. This is abuse. This is tyranny. It is time for our Executive Council to tell the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Anglican Communion, as the American colonists once did: Don't tread on me! What is going on is a complete distortion of the Windsor Report. We cannot possibly begin discussing an Anglican Covenant under such conditions of duress--indeed that whole idea is about conformity and control, pure and simple, and ought to be rejected now. We can no longer agree to meetings about us that don't include us. We cannot tolerate intrusions by foreign bishops in our jurisdictions any longer. All these things have proceeded despite our efforts to be conciliatory, our willingness to accept criticism, our efforts to remain open to peaceful resolutions and compromises.

In all this Rowan Williams has not been nearly impartial or objective enough to serve as mediator. Although he hasn't given the reactionaries all they want either, that's not the same as neutrality, and that is what's required to broker a fair compromise. He's no longer in a position to do that.

For all the holy talk, our efforts have been interpreted as weakness, and that perceived weakness is being exploited in the rawest, crudest political struggle for power. TEC is held to an ever-narrowing interpretation of the Windsor Report, while continuing and worsening jurisdictional violations--such as the recent consecration of an American by Nigeria for operations within our Province--by other Anglican provinces are essentially ignored, no worse than "unhelpful." I do not say we should respond in kind, but we must wake up to the nature of the threat and defend our autonomy and independence. Other churches in the Communion would do well to think long and hard about what's going on, too, because Canada? Scotland? New Zealand? I don't know, Brazil or South Africa? You're next!

Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth? Lord Carey could use some company in the House of Lords. If Rowan Williams remains Archbishop of Canterbury much longer the Church of England can look forward to the same kind of mess we have over here, and there won't be an Anglican Communion past Lambeth 2008.