Like us, The Church of England News wondered about the recent appointment of an American to ARCIC, Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. In the summer of 2010, several Americans had been “asked” to drop out of Anglican ecumenical committees following the ABC’s Pentecost letter.
The obvious answer was that this American was resident in the Church of England. To meet the letter of the, um, letter, it didn’t matter that he was author of “To Set Our Hope on Christ,” something noted in The Lead last Friday.
The Church of England News reports:
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper the chairman of the new ARCIC team, Archbishop David Moxon of New Zealand, was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, while the members of the team were selected by ACC Secretary General Canon Kenneth Kearon in consultation with Archbishop Moxon.
Among those appointed by Canon Kearon was a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Prof. Mark McIntosh, who in 2009 was appointed Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham.
A spokesman for the ACC told CEN “Canon Prof McIntosh is a canon residentiary of Durham and is licensed as a priest in the Church of England. So he is not prevented from being a member of ARCIC.”