Kendall Harmon’s blog Titus 1:9 has posted the text of an article that appeared in the Church Times today:
“The 2007 Primates Meeting will devote four hours to a discussion of the Episcopal Church and its response to the Windsor Report, the proposed agenda emailed to the Primates states.
The agenda for the meeting, seen by many as a the final shoot out between the Communion’s disparate factions, schedules 16 official sessions broken down into four Bible Studies; three sessions devoted to the Episcopal Church’s response to the Windsor Report; three administrative meetings, and six single issue sessions spread over four days at a seaside hotel near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Whether the Primates will follow the London-crafted programme is unknown. The agenda for the 2005 meeting in Northern Ireland took on a life of its own, and the leaders of the Global South coalition of Primates anticipate a similar metamorphosis this year.
US Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori will be granted two of the three sessions devoted to the Episcopal Church to respond to criticisms it had not honoured the recommendations of the Windsor Report.”
Various people are trying at the moment to unpack this report. At first glance it seems to me to keep the balance about right. The biggest issues facing the Communion are the needless deaths of millions of people in Africa and the developing world from preventable diseases like malaria and AIDS. I’ve not seen the full agenda for the meeting, but I’d hope that the leaders of the Communion would spend the majority of their time on matters of life and death rather than allowing their work to be totally consumed by what is by so many people’s account a smallish province of the Anglican Communion’s struggle with the question of inclusion and exclusion.
As so many have said, would that we could harness the passion, energy and creativity to speaking out for the poor and impoverished in the world that we’ve put into protecting the rights of a theological minority in the American Church (albeit a theological majority in the larger Communion.)
Read the rest here: titusonenine » Primates will spend only four hours discussing Windsor
Your final comment reminded me of an old story about a young priest who was impressed at the energy invested in the annual church bazaar. He quickly learned that this enthusiasm was uniquely linked to the bazaar, and there was no way to redirect it to other activities. That may be a fundamental problem with a volunteer organization; ultimately, people make their own decisions about where their energies are directed.
Thanks Paul – maybe it’s time for us to start making that decision…
Gimme a break, Nick. That article was NOT in the Church Times. George Conger writes for the Church of England Newspaper (in this case).
Sorry – it’s like the difference between bishops in the states being appointed and elected I suppose.
I misread Kendall’s post and put the wrong info up there.
Seriously – could you point out the difference between the Church TImes and the Church of England Newspaper? Is it similar to the difference between the Living Church and Episcopal Life? (I’m asking this honestly – I really don’t know…)
Neither is an official publication of the CofE. Indeed there is no weekly or monthly official deadtree publication of the CofE. This is one major difference.
And the CofE central Communications team, unlike ENS, makes no attempt to supply a stream of press releases about events all over the CofE, . CofE press releases are mostly related to official announcements. The CofE leaves the initiation of press coverage of church events to the secular and church press.
The Anglican part of the latter consists mostly of the two weeklies that you mention. The CT has a larger circulation than the CEN. The latter is generally perceived as being conservative in tone and is largely read by people who would consider themselves to be evangelicals. The CT is read right across the spectrum of the CofE, and is more liberal in its editorial standpoint.
The British secular press (both print and broadcasting) provides considerable coverage of religious news here, with several of the national daily broadsheets having religious affairs specialists on their staff, who assiduously attend CofE gatherings such as General Synod meetings. I believe this is another significant difference between the US and the UK.
It’s really not just the rights of a theological minority at stake but the real lives of our fellow Christians and whether or not we honor their baptism. That still does not elevate it to the serious matter of life and death of which you speak but it is quite a different thing.
Linda McMillan
Austin, Texas