ex-bishop Duncan, Pittsburgh
The deposition of Bishop Bob Duncan, previously of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, has been much anticipated and fully covered elsewhere (Thinking Anglicans, for example).
I would just point you to responses on the Global South site.
There Mr Duncan is welcomed with open arms. He is described as a modern Athanasius (by Bishop Mouneer Anis) and welcomed as a fellow expellee by ex-bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Brazil.
It is clear that the GAFCON crown will continue to be in communion with him as a bishop - adding one more stone to the de facto schism in Anglicanism.
But I am surprised that Archbishop Drexel Gomez should add his name so publicly to the protest against deposition. Not because of his views nor his past practice, both of which have supported American conservatives, but because of the timing. He is chairing the Covenant Design Group in Singapore.
The man put in charge of holding the communion together by means of a covenant, and who regards the covenant as so urgent that it must be pushed through at almost any cost, is openly taking sides in an internal matter of one of the Communion's provinces. There is no way that this public partisan action is compatible with his role as saviour of the communion.
Drexel should be removed from his chairmanship of the Covenant Design Group with immediate efffect.
This is good news. Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori is rightly flexing her muscles and Bishop Duncan was deposed by a substantial majority.
ReplyDeleteHe is nothing but a troublemaker and however regrettable the de facto schism now is it will be healthier for the Anglican Communion to know exactly where it stands and who's in and who's out.
Those protesting the deposition are remarkably few in number and there are some significant 'missing' names.
Sorry about Drexel Gomez but he's due to retire next year anyway when he's 72. That's why he's in such a hurry about the Covenant, but as I made clear in my last posting (never published by NTSS for reasons unknown) the Covenant is actually already dead.
Let's hope that Lambeth doesn't blow the good work done by Katharine Schori. Will she be the next in Canterbury? - add her to the list.
Penwatch,
ReplyDeleteI don't know why a comment you left was never published - moderation remains off.
And apologies for not responding sooner.