Unlike British journalists Steven Bates (see Take 1, below) and Jonathan Petre, (see Take 2 below) Elizabeth Kennedy of the Associated Press is writing for an international English speaking audience–primarily American, I would suppose, so she can’t assume that today’s development–significant as it seems to Communion-watchers–would seem remotely interesting to most of her readers. So she holds on to the news about the sub-commission report until the 9th paragraph of her story.
I think that’s a wise decision in some ways, but I don’t know whether the lede she has written is quite true. Consider:
“Leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans spent Thursday locked in discussion about the church’s American wing, whose leader is under increasing pressure to reconsider her support for ordaining gays and blessing same-sex couples.”
Increasing pressure from whom, exactly? I think one can read the sub-committee’s report as a call for an end to the consecration of gay bishops, and the authorization of rites for same sex blessings. So perhaps that is what Kennedy had in mind.
But I don’t know that we are talking about an end to the ordination of even non-celibate gay priests, or the occurrence of same sex blessings by individual members of the clergy. And even if we are, Bishops Jefferts Schori can continue to support gay ordinations and same sex blessings as goals, while advocating that our Church accept the restrictions currently being urged upon us to our Executive Council and House of Bishops when she returns.
I guess my point is that making the lead about “pressure” on Bishop Jefferts Schori probably misses the point. Although I recognize the temptation to make the story be about a recognizable figure. And for an American audience, Bishop Jefferts Schori is among the few recognizable figures in the bunch.