The Blogging Bishops offer some thoughts onthe final day of the Lambeth Conference. Most emphaized the value of the conversations at Lambeth. Several expressed disappointment at the “Reflections” document issued earlier today.
For a man at the heart of a bitter dispute that threatens to sunder the Anglican communion, Bishop Gene Robinson seems more relaxed than almost any of the 650 bishops and archbishops gathered for the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade assembly that brings together the leaders of an estimated 80 million Anglicans worldwide.
The Archbishop of Canterbury put the squeeze on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada today, saying that the Anglican Communion would be in “grave peril” if the North American churches did not adopt a moratorium on same- sex blessings and the consecration of gay bishops.
The Most Rev. Carlos Touché Porter, Primate of Mexico : I was prepared for much worse. One thing I enjoy about being Anglican is to live with uncertainty and unresolved questions, and that is how we are going home. But if we are not of one mind, I think we are of one spirit.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s final presidential address to the 2008 Lambeth Conference is now online.
The Reflections Document from the 2008 Lambeth Conference is now online. Here is the section on the Windsor Report and the three moratoria. I have
One can take heart in the fact that some of the most ardent homophobes in the Communion feel that they are losing ground, yet the fact remains that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion Office and the majority of the bishops at this conference want us to maintain our de facto ban on the consecration of partnered gay candidates to the episcopacy, and to ban either the authorization of rites of same sex blessings–it isn’t clear which.
Today, much talking about the talk, so to speak: How language challenges us. How we hear things, how we say things, and how to truly listen–and speak–when there’s so much noise. The Bishops are coming to the end of indabas and bible study with colleagues from around the world, and are feeling pangs of sadness at it being time to go, wonder at what has been accomplished (even if it hasn’t seemed like much to those outside).
Update with reactions The penultimate draft of the Reflections paper from the Lambeth Conference is now available on the conference web site. Section K on
“I think what we’re running into is a kind of difficult rubbing between the indaba process which has been in large measure very conversational, very relational” and the work of the WCG, which is “seeking to find structures and procedures whereby we can remain in communion with one another,” said Archbishop Hiltz. “How the two can interface for the well-being is a huge challenge at this moment.”