Justin Welby doesn’t want to hold another Lambeth conference only to discover a large number of bishops absenting themselves because they are upset with the presence of the Anglican Church of Canada and TEC; both provinces have wandered away from received Christian truth according to Primates from the Global South. As a result, Justin Welby is meeting with the Primates, ostensibly to listen to their concerns, and, no doubt, to try and convince them to show up.
Fred Hiltz thinks this is “okay”; anyone adept at reading between the lines will notice a concealed “just” in front of the “okay”. Hiltz isn’t very happy about it: it isn’t “okay” at all. The reason is simple enough: the Global South Primates have little use for the obfuscating tactics of Western Anglicanism: Indabas, the listening process, holy listening, facilitated conversations and other such claptrap. They will tell Welby exactly what they think of TEC’s and the ACoC’s elevation of homo-erotic gratification to the status of holy – and it won’t be pretty.
Reading what Hiltz said gives the impression that Welby and Hiltz are simpatico – I hesitate to imply that Welby is in the pocket of the North American Primates. The Global South and Hiltz are, of course, antipathetic, if not downright mutually hostile.
Hiltz said that sort of consultation is “okay,” but noted that it is a change from the way the meeting has been called in the past. “He may want to style it so that it is the Archbishop of Canterbury in consultation with and support of the primates, but historically it is the Archbishop that convenes a Lambeth Conference, and then people decide whether they will come or not, including some primates.”
Communion. St Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.” We believe that our absence at this Lambeth Conference is the only way that our voice will be heard. For more than ten years we have been speaking and have not been heard. So maybe our absence will speak louder than our words.
that derive from these broader realities and that either inform them or point to a potential future: the Communion may need a Faith and Order Commission with the training, energy, and focus necessary to engage expeditiously and unperturbedly in common discernment over matters of teaching and witness on behalf of the Communion; a Pastoral Forum has been proposed and will be set up that can act swiftly in the mediation of conflict among and even within Communion churches, for the preservation of the truth, the reconciliation of brethren, and the protection of mistreated members and “minorities”; associations and partnerships of Communion-committed dioceses and congregations has been encouraged; the Archbishop himself clarified what a same-sex “blessing” involves, and it is far more basic and encompassing than the parsing of “public liturgy” that the North American churches have argued; diocesan covenants were affirmed; a quick succession of potentially important meetings was outlined; a positive outreach to GAFCON was made, on the basis not only of good will but of shared evangelical commitments. Although none of these added up to a “plan”, they pointed to the fact that the broad direction of the Communion’s bishops discussed above carries with it a logic that might be expected to involve practical action.
