Lambeth Palace has released a copy of the address delivered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at the Church of England’s General Synod meeting in York on July 7. While noting that the results of the “complex process” of General Convention are “predictably less than clear,” the Archbishop praised both Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and “his successor-elect” for invoking their personal authority to make sure that there was “some degree of recognizable response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report.”
The Archbishop made it clear that “in spite of some interesting reporting and some slightly intemperate reaction” to his published reflections on General Convention (see www.diolex.org for full text), his remarks contained no directives and no foreclosing of “the content or character” of a possible covenant. He emphasized that he does not have the authority to dictate policy to the provinces of the Communion. He also expresses his concerns about the “large questions raised” and “possible complications” of the request by several dioceses for alternative primatial oversight from outside the US to be directed from Canterbury, and the recent announcement from Nigeria of the election by the Nigerian House of Bishops of an American cleric as a bishop to serve the convocation of Nigerian Anglican congregations in the US. “I have publicly stated my concern about this and some other cross-provincial activities,” he stated.
A “working party” is also being established in consultation with the Anglican Communion office and others to look more fully at the question of what sort of Covenant could be constructed to fulfill another significant recommendation of the Windsor Report.
He describes in detail the realities of the conditions of several member churches in the Communion, leaving them in conditions of vulnerability. “In other words,” he says, referencing the situation in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, “some mischievous forces are quite capable of using the debates over sexuality as an alibi for divisive action.”
He concludes his message by stating, “ It is a question of how we work out, faithfully, attentively, obediently what we need to do and say in order to remain within sight and sound of each other in the fellowship to which Christ has called us. It has never been easy and it isn’t now. But it is the call that matters, and that sustains us together in the task.” (See full text at www.diolex.org or www.Episcopalchurch.org/ens.)
