The news machine ran out of gas this morning. Which is another way of saying that my office is closed due to icy roads, and my wife needed to use our home computer to finish a school auction catalog. But now we find ourselves all revved up without many places to go.
It is about 7:15 p. m. in Dar es Salaam as I begin this post, and the big news of the day seems to be that Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is still at the Primates Meeting. Reuters has the story, which includes this from the ever illustrious, always embattled Jim Rosenthal:
Her presence is absolute. There’s no question about her presence — that’s actually what the archbishop said,” Jim Rosenthal, director of communications of the Anglican Communion, told reporters.
“She’s here because she’s the elected primate of the American church and there’s no expectation she’s not going to be here for the rest of the time,” he added.
In other news, Davis Mac-Iyalla has met Peter Akinola, but not Henry Orombi.
And Ruth Gledhill is reporting that the Archbishop of Canterbury, has floated the first innovative idea I’ve come across since this whole conflict began. In fact, if this is anything other than a trial balloon, I think she has buried her lede:
“Dr Williams, meanwhile, has his own “nuclear option”, insiders said. In a recent document, The Road to Lambeth, the Global South Primates said that they will not attend the Lambeth Conference if the US Church’s gay bishop Gene Robinson and those who consecrated him are not disciplined and if they are invited to Lambeth.
The Lambeth Conference traditionally happens every ten years. But although the University of Kent has been booked, it is understood that Dr Williams is prepared to postpone the Lambeth Conference and hold a “covenantal assembly” instead.
Bishops, clergy and laity from around the communion would be invited to attend, to discuss whether they can continue to live together under the banner of the Anglican Covenant document to be revealed on Friday.”
I could warm up to that idea, I think. It would be so much more open and democartic than the process in which we are now engaged.