The Anglican and Old Catholic Bishops in Europe meet annually for consultation, prayer and fellowship. They gathered recently, and the ABC’s sanctions of The Episcopal Church were discussed. The Rt. Rev. David Hamid, Church of England lead bishop for pastoral oversight of the archdeaconries of Gibraltar, France, and Germany and Northern Europe, reports,
As well as sharing information about news and developments in each jurisdiction, there was much discussion about the implications of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Pentecost Letter and the response by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church, both dealing with the present divisions within the Anglican Communion. The decision by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, subsequent to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter, to ask the Revd Carola Von Wrangel from the Episcopal Church to step down from membership on the Anglican-Old Catholic Coordinating Council was received with sadness by the bishops. We noted that the Coordinating Council is not strictly speaking an ecumenical dialogue, but an instrument of Churches already in communion, so we will be be following up this matter with the Anglican Communion Office.
We also spent some time discussing a paper by Bishop Pierre Whalon of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe entitled “Should the Episcopal Church Create a Missionary Diocese in Europe?”.
A commenter at Thinking Anglicans writes,
I think we should be making something of the Old Catholic and Swedish connection. If the Church of England remains in communion with two churches or groups of churches that manage to have blessing for same-sex relationships and a lesbian bishop, then why are we so anxious about people in the USA and Canada doing this? And certainly there is NO justification for trying to exclude them from ecumenical dialogues that may include Old Cathpolics and members of the Church of Sweden.