A Slip of the Ideological Tongue
The Primates, in their Communiqué made a slip of the ideological tongue: "The Windsor Report did not see a "moral equivalence" between these events (actions by The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada on the one hand and the boundary crossings), since the cross-boundary interventions arose from a deep concern for the welfare of Anglicans in the face of innovation."
What the Windsor Report actually said, in paragraph 155 is this:
"We call upon those bishops who believe it is their conscientious duty to intervene in provinces, dioceses and parishes other than their own:- to express regret for the consequences of their actions
- to affirm their desire to remain in the Communion, and
- to effect a moratorium on any further interventions."
The phrase, "moral equivalence" does not appear in the Windsor Report, and more importantly, the call to regret, affirm and effect a moratorium is not in any way limited by the calls of "conscientious duty." Issues of moral equivalence, or the lack of it, are not raised in the Windsor Report, but later.
Such slips of the tongue are signs of a greater sloppiness of thought and ecclesial insight. The Primates Communiqué is the last ditch effort of some of the Primates to become the ruling body of the Anglican Communion. Their grasp has exceeded their reach.
that part was probably written by Martyn Minns in the hotel room overlooking the pool and sent back via Akinola to the meeting. Of course it misquotes the Windsor Report. This crowd have been misquoting Windsor and Dromatine and Lambeth 98's 1.10 for some time now. It helps their cause to make these documents say whatever they want them to say.
ReplyDelete"Some might say" (to quote Fox news) that these people have been doing this with the scriptures, too.
Seems we're doing a bit of that transference-thingy that is all rage right now amongst the Episcopal leadership, eh Dennis?
ReplyDeleteIt seems clear to me that the ABC has not accepted the invitation of our bishops. Coming to the HOB meeting with a bunch of other univited folk is not what he was asked to do.
ReplyDeleteTime to tell him goodbye.
FWIW
jimB
Mark, calling this a "slip of the tongue" makes it sound more accidental than I think it really is. Sloppy thinking, sure. But also, I suspect, an intentional re-framing of what the Windsor Report actually said, in order to excuse the Akinola party's intransigence while keeping the spotlight on TEC. This sort of revisionism is precisely the danger in allowing the primates to become the final arbiters of Anglican compliance, as envisioned in the draft Covenant.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the primates may see themselves as a (excuse, "THE") juridical body of the 4 instruments of Communion and that the appropriation of such power to themselves may be thought of as an "usurpation". To what extent has the ABC, de facto, accepted this usurpation? Do we know? To what And, if the appropriation of such power to the primates be affirmed, would the affirmation of such juridical power to this group require a 2/3 ratification by the provinces?
ReplyDelete