Mark Harris of Preludium has advanced the conversation about the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in a major very big way this morning.
The entry at his blog, Preludium is entitled “Enough it is time to move on,” and it begins:
Enough: it is time to move on.
Several commentators have suggested that the time has come to say, “Enough!” It is a time of growing frustration by some of us with an emerging effort at governance by persons and bodies that have no mandate from any people of God to do so. The organized structures of the Anglican Communion, also known as the “focus of unity” and the “instruments of communion” have more and more acted as if they are the voices of a magisterium or a patriarchy, having powers beyond that of recommendation.
As some who read this blog understand, I am deeply committed to the bonds of affection that constitute the Anglican Communion. But in these last days I have increasingly come to believe that these bonds have almost nothing to do with the struggles both from within and from without to mandate from afar solutions to “our” problems. This is not the Anglican Communion to which I have given much of my ministry and energy. This is a perversion of fellowship into some other form of relationship. … (edited to remove flattering reference to this blog)
With some fear and trepidation I offer the following as a statement of some of the concerns that others and I have. What value there is in this I do not know. We shall see.
This is a long piece, for which I am tempted to apologize. But instead I ask your patience. It is, after all, grist for the mill.
We will all be changed.
What follows could well be read as the first draft of a declaration of ecclesiastic independence. Go read it, and then come back, or stay there, to talk about it. Or print out this pdf and pass it around.