Carey on GAFCON: “It’s crazy”

The former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, “was in Houston this week to install the Rev. Russell J. Levenson Jr. as rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, one of the largest Episcopal churches in the United States.” He spoke with Richard Vara of the Houston Chronicle.

He had advice for his successor:

“If I were in my successor’s shoes, what I would be wanting to do is say that the American House of Bishops must commit itself to the Windsor Covenant and be wholehearted about that,” Carey said of the 2004 report calling for the moratorium. “Around the Windsor Covenant we can actually find a way to deepen the dialogue and get people there.

“If we don’t insist upon that, then I think our number is up and so I worry about that,” he said.

He also had implied advice for the leaders of GAFCON:

Conservative leaders, including Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, are calling for an Anglican conference in June in Jerusalem….

“If the Jerusalem conference is an alternative to the Lambeth Conference, which I perceive it is, then I think it is regrettable,” said Carey, a conservative. “The irony is that all they are going to do is weaken the Lambeth Conference. They are going to give the liberals a more powerful voice because they are absent and they are going to act as if they are schismatics. It’s crazy.”

Despite his thinking “our number is up” he also spoke these words:

“Basically the Anglican spirit aches for unity and I don’t think there are going to be many people who are going to be in a rush to run away from the See of Canterbury.”

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