Brother Causticus at Titus One Ten, has a humorous, but nonetheless factual take on the recent statement from Tanzania:
Rifling through his stacks of old Church Times, BC finds a description of an interview the then Bishop of Monmouth gave clearly stating that he knowingly ordained a practicing homosexual – when, oh when will these homosexuals become proficient at it? – as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, in clear contravention of the canons of the Church of England and, depending upon whom one asks, Scripture and Nature itself, thereby befouling with abomination an institution that had previously known only chaste connubial bliss. +Monmouth remains to this day publicly unrepentant and the priest continues unchecked wreaking his putative ministry upon unwitting parishioners and, one imagines, the poor and needy of his district who would no doubt fling away the bowls of soup he proffers were they to know the challenge his manner of living presents to the wider Communion.
This defiant, erring Bishop of Monmouth clearly has no place at the Tanzanian table. It is very meet, right, and a bounden episcopal duty to shun the brazen foray of this notorious and open sinner to the Sacrament as the communion between him and the Anglican Church of Tanzania is utterly null and void, as stated heretofore in paragraph (i).
That the bishops of Tanzania have boldly declared themselves out of communion with the Bishop of Monmouth – or as he is now known, the Archbishop of Canterbury – and have thereby ejected themselves from the Anglican Communion – whose muddled ecclesiology admits to no certainties other than communion with ++Cantuar defines membership – is no doubt an auspicious step forward for Biblical Christianity, but perhaps a bit of an impediment to the full success of the upcoming Primates’ Meeting, where it appears the ostensible convener will have no place at all.
It’s probably not too late, though, for the Anglican Church of Tanzania to get its deposit back from the caterers.