Anglican conference announces … what?

If there is one article of faith that all Anglican clerics seem reliably to share, it is the belief in endless consulation, reflection, and discussion. Consider the hopelessly muddled and compromised statement from the Primates of the Anglican Communion meeting in Lambeth Palace to respond to the crisis in the church over the issue of homosexuality. The primates make so many contradictory points that it’s impossible to know what they’re saying. It is apparent that, in an effort to avoid any decisive action and keep the doors of negotiation open, they have produced a document in which everyone can read what he pleases. Thus Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, who fully endorsed the decision by the Episcopal Church to ordain a practicing homosexual as bishop, also signed the Primates’ statement which, in one of its many contradictory passages, “regrets” that very decision.

If you want to understand the real character of today’s Episcopal and Anglican churches, take a look at this photo. The hippie-esque intellectual on the right is Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The indescribable creature on the left is the aforementioned Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA).

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 17, 2003 02:30 PM | Send