Anglican Mission in England

Looking away from the mainland from Ynys Enlli  

Thinking Anglicans has the CofE's statement on the Anglican Mission in England ( GAFCON announcement and Church Times report earlier).

To summarise Lambeth speak, they're not happy.  They can spot a threat at fifty paces on a foggy day.

The statement points to a lack of clarity of relations between the existing episcopal structures and to AMiE's newly appointed 'panel of bishops'. Or, as has been said elsewhere, tanks on the lawn.  Pluralist has a clear take on the politics despite a somewhat meandering approach.

It then says "The issue is one of episcopal collegiality." But it isn't, it's a question of jurisdiction.

The difference is crucial.  In this context to point to collegiality is to cringe before a bully, to say 'lets talk' even when you know from experience that no talking will suffice. To that extent it's willful self-deception. To be clear about jurisdiction is to make a legal assertion which can be followed by substantive action.

If people wish to leave because they disagree with the majority it is a matter for regret and repentance. But there must come a point where people of goodwill who cannot agree decide that parting is the only acceptable step. Leadership entails recognising and acting on the inevitable no matter how much it goes against the grain.

While he was passing, the Archbishop of Canterbury dropped in on the people in Kenya responsible for AMiE. We don't know what was said but we can deduce that the Archbishop was not persuasive.  So the statement has the delicate words,

it seems that there were misunderstandings of the precise requirements of English Canon Law and good practice as regards the recommendation of candidates for ordination and deployment in mission.

Which, being translated, is that they were spitting feathers and using entirely unsacramental language in Lambeth Palace when they first realised what was happening - and then realised their impotence. After all, wasn't all the effort and expense of the Windsor Report and bulldozing through the Anglican Covenant supposed to end all this misbehaviour by giving the Communion to the conservatives?

With the Ordinariat clipping one wing and AMiE the other there is some prospect that the future Church of England will be smaller, more cohesive and happier. By that time the present Archbishop of Canterbury will be serving out his retirement somewhere like Ynys Enlli.