Cherie Wetzel, Editor, THE ANGLICAN VOICE
Two important news items have surfaced. The first is from Anglican Communion Office, London:
ACNS 4177 | ACO | 18 AUGUST 2006
Statement from the ACO
Following consultation with the Presiding Bishop the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a small group of bishops from the Episcopal Church (USA) to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions.
Along with Bishop Griswold, those invited include Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Bob Duncan, and Bishop Jack Iker . The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion will also attend. The first meeting
will be taking place in New York in the first half of September.
This is important because it accentuates that Griswold realizes that the break-up of ECUSA will now proceed at a much more rapid rate than after 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson. He has enlistted The Archbishop of Canterbury's help in trying to resolve problems and the meeting is on a fast-track for early September, several weeks before the Global South Primates' meeting in late Sept/October in Kigali, Rwanda .
Earlier this week, calling for a "cooling off period," Griswold cancelled the Fall House of Bishops' meeting. For practicality, this was cancelled so the bishops could attend Jefferts Schori's installation in Washington DC in November. Few can afford to do both.
But, this also takes the immediacy out of the expedited deposition against John-David Schofield, Bishop of San Joaquin. Bruno (Los Angeles), Lamb (N. California), Swing (California) and Mathes (San Diego) hoped to get that over with at the Fall House meeting, where a vote by the bishops is all it takes to declare San Joaquin "vacant. " Now that issue will have to wait until March.
By March, we expect that the invitations to Lambeth 2008 will have been issued by the Anglican Communion office, and the annual Primate's meeting in Tanzania will be over. One of the topics on their agenda is the 2006 General Convention and response to the Windsor Report and reports on the development of the Covenant for the Communion. The Global South is not impressed with the two-tier approach. We trust that their statement will give clarity to what they will press for between now and Lambeth 2008.
We will keep you posted!
