Her original motion before the Church of England Synod was, “that this Synod express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America.” It was defeated and an amended version passed 309 to 69 with 17 abstentions.
That this Synod, aware of the distress cause by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada,
(a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family;
(b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and
(c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011.
Lorna Ashworth’s reason for bringing the motion to synod was to “send a strong message of encouragement to people who are practising Biblical historical Anglicanism” – that’s it. The motion was not that the CoE be in communion with the ACNA, only that the synod express the desire that it should be so.
But even that was too much for the synod, so the Anglican-bland amended motion was put forward stating the reverse of the original motion – the desire of the ACNA to be part of the Anglican Communion.
That this is typically Anglican is evidenced by the 1 year delay, the expectation of a report and the fact that it is sufficiently woolly that people on each side of the issue see support or lack thereof depending on what they had for breakfast. For example, some tweets:
eicestercofe @vicardave #synod I’d hate to be on the end of your DIScouraging statements. PH
pastorev Well done Synod! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it USA liberals! 🙂 #synod
frsimon #synod f***s it all up by expressing its desire to join with schismatics. Very very disappointed.
eleysium Thomas Cranmer would be sick #synod
r_rabbit Lke a gun. First you make it safe (the amendment: Bishop of Bristol) and then you decide whether to use it or not. #synod
Lorna Ashworth, before the synod debate, said the heart of her motion was that “we desire to be communion”; the heart was ripped out by the amendment.
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I probably should have asked before posting some of your article. Sorry.
Stuart – it’s fine, no need to ask.
Thanks David.
What does affirming the desire mean?
It is certainly toothless compared to the original motion. Lorna’s motion was a proactive one – the C of E actually declaring something. All this is declaring is something that is obvious b/c the ACNA has publicly told everyone this already… Big deal C of E synod…. went right out on a limb there…
Now we get endless meaningless spin from both sides – and from in England three sides – the embattled conservative sides and their liberals.
But one thing I am happy about in all this is that perhaps some people sitting in pews in England, and maybe some sitting in Synod will now actually follow the Anglican news with regard to the North American situation and realise the conservative / liberal divide is happening in the UK too, before they too have to fight about who owns what building b/c they can no longer agree to disagree.
And then there are those who are the institutionalists who don’t realise the institution is broken and can’t understand why North American Anglicans won’t and can’t follow “process.” Please Lord, how long do we have to wait for these Christians to realise the desperate situation over here?