The Rev. Andrew Gerns of the Diocese of Bethlehem has cast recent events in Colorado Springs in illuminating perspective.
He writes:
None of this is good for anyone. [the Rev. Don] Armstrong has damaged his own cause more than he can know. He seems to have been as clever and evasive with the handling of the funds (and the name) of the Anglican Communion Institute as he seems to have been in his own parish. He has led his parish into a dreadful split, and he has caused confusion in the ACI and their allied groups. Clearly the leadership of the ACI thought they were in charge of what they were not, and at a crucial moment in the life of the church, they are in disarray….
Those, like me, who disagree with the essential thread of the ACI’s analysis and approach, might be tempted to gloat like the occasional psalmist. But I find no joy in these events whatsoever. This has made an already complicated situation even more complex, and emotions are so hardened that it makes reconciliation even more difficult. This is a scandal in the truest sense of the word…..
As I reflect on these events, I am absolutely stunned that the ACI has found itself in this mess. I mean, this is a group whose reason for being is to think and write about the structural solutions to the problems within the Episcopal Church. I have a dreadful admiration for their ability to conceptualize their ideas and turn them into political reality. And yet, the ACI was amazingly lax in forming and overseeing their own organization. Their own words indicate that they seemed to have no practical appreciation of the details of actually running their own group…until it was too late.