Move Along, Nothing To See Here...

Fr. Dan Martins is reporting that seven TEO Bishops, Communion Partners and Anaheim Statement signatories +Little, +Lawrence, +McPherson, +Stanton, +Lillibridge, +Smith (N.D.), and +Love, either are or have been in London at Lambeth Palace meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.  Not much is known about the topic of the meeting, but a sound guess is that they are discussing implementation of +Williams' two-tier plan of dealing with TEO, and the mechanism whereby individual Dioceses can sign on to the as-yet not completed Anglican Covenant.

Interesting?  Mildly.  But in my view this meeting is not likely to produce much of substance, or move the orthodox ball down the playing field enough to register a first down.  Why?  Several reasons, the first of which is that TEO effectively derailed the Covenant at the ACC meeting in Jamaica, and there is no clear sense of when it will be done, much less what it will say, or whether it will be worth the paper it is printed on whenever it is done. 

Does the two-tier system mean that TEO will not be involved in any future work on the Covenant?  That, of course, would simply add another level of reasons why it is unlikely for TEO itself to ever sign on to any such document.

Second, given the actions of these Bishops over the past several years, there is little reason to think they will be pursuing any form of open separation from TEO, much less any movement in the direction of ACNA or any other new, orthodox province in North America.  There have been ample occasions over the past several years to dramatically separate themselves from the Presiding Heretic's pseudo-theology, and her Constitution and Canons-be-damned management style, but nothing has happened so far other than some very nice public statements of disagreement.

I suppose this is probably just another manifestation of the pursuit of a "third way" within TEO.  The public statements of disagreement have been eloquent and pointed, but the problem is that they are all still ultimately associated with, and counted as part of, TEO.  How seriously do rank-and-file Episcopalians take fine words at this stage of the game, when more powerful action is needed and called for? 

The reality here is that the majority of TEO, in the form of General Convention Bishops' and Deputies' votes, has spoken in favor of fully ripping TEO away from the Anglican Communion - the fabric is not just torn, but shredded into fragments.  These votes were not even close.  So, while the notion of making a resistance from within is perhaps a noble one, how many more souls can the orthodox afford to lose in its pursuit?  As I said earlier this week, would it not be better to move to the lifeboats and get away, and provide safe havens within which the orthodox may worship and flourish, as opposed to fiddling away as the flood waters rise?

Comments

[Tregonsee]

Having already fled to one of the CANA/ACNA rescue ships, this is less pressing than it would have been earlier. These bishops are all faithful to the Gospel. However, I am concerned that they are inadvertently giving false hope to the faithful within TEC that there is somehow a place for them there. Based on past performance, ++Rowan will give them something which sounds encouraging, but which will have not actual effect.