Ruth Gledhill: Sorry bishops, but a diocese is not a church.

Dr Williams wrote: ‘The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such. Those who are rushing into separatist solutions are, I think, weakening that basic conviction of Catholic theology and in a sense treating the provincial structure of The Episcopal Church as if it were the most important thing – which is why I continue to hope and pray for the strengthening of the bonds of mutual support among those Episcopal Church Bishops who want to be clearly loyal to Windsor.’

So the Anglican Communion Institute bishops, who along with Fulcrum and the people over at Covenant form a sort of neo-orthodox trinity trying to find a way to be at one and three all at the same time, could be forgiven for believing they are merely being true to Windsor and doing what the Archbishop of Canterbury has wanted all along.

But are they? I’ve got some seriously bad news for them.

Apparently the sands have shifted. That letter to Howe was written in 2007. Now is 2009, nearly two whole years later. The covenant is in its third draft and there can be no doubt, reading it, that when it speaks of ‘church’, as it does many times, it means a national church, or a province.

Ecclesiastical polity is a many-layered complex thing. Even when we imagine we’re still in the land of Richard Hooker it is changing all the time. Yet on one level, that of true polity, it remains exactly the same as it was in Hooker’s day.

I have it on good authority that things are deemed to have moved on rather substantially, but some things cannot change, otherwise we truly will not be a ‘proper church’, not even an ecclesial community, but just a rather drippy federation.

There is absolutely no way the ACI bishops will be enabled to perform some sort of subtle non-schismatic ecclesiological split manoeuvre on The Episcopal Church, leaving their orthodox dioceses at the centre of a covenental Communion along with Cantuar and the conservatives, with the liberal pro-gay majority forced to dance around on the edges in some ‘outer circle’ of recognition.

Whichever side you’re on, either you’re for them or against them, folks. It just will not be possible for either side to have it both ways if the Covenant is to work. It’s called having your communion and eating it too.

See Sorry bishops, but a diocese is not a church. Times Online Blogs

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/ruth-gledhill…

Integrity Responds to Primates’ Communique from Alexandria

MOBILE, AL–Integrity USA is disappointed but not surprised that thecommunique issued by the primates of the Anglican Communion earlier todayrepeated the all-too-familiar call for moratoria on the election of bishops in same-gender unions, rites of blessing for same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions.

“There’s an American superstition that ‘bad things come in threes,’” said Integrity President Susan Russell speaking from the Episcopal Urban Caucus Annual Assembly in Mobile. “And accepting the lumping together of these three issues in one moratoria package would be a very bad thing for the Episcopal Church as a whole and its LGBT faithful in particular.”

“Calling a halt to actions that violate the polity and boundaries of the autonomous national churches that are constituent members of the Anglican Communion is preserving the historic unity of the church. Scapegoating a percentage of the baptized by excluding them from a percentage of the sacraments of the Body of Christ is participating in the appeasement of bigotry. They’re apples and oranges.”

Russell continued, “Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is absolutely correct in stating that moratoria are a matter for General Convention in Anaheim this summer. Resolutions have already been submitted that would move the Episcopal Church beyond the non-canonical restraints imposed by B033 and forward on marriage equality. Integrity USA believes that General Convention will reaffirm that all the sacraments are open to all the baptized. We will be working with our allies to achieve that gospel agenda item next July.”

“Integrity encourages all concerned Episcopalians to contact their bishops and General Convention deputies and dialogue with them on these issues as they prepare for Anaheim,” concluded Russell. “The question on the table is whether or not we mean it when we renew that Baptismal Covenant’s promise to respect the dignity of every human being. Integrity is counting on the Episcopal Church saying, “We will with God’s help.”

Visit www.integrityusa.org/all for more information.