In my prognostications about the year 2008 I said, among other things, " The Common Cause Partnership will move toward being an ecclesiastical structure in which women are not ordained and gay people not welcomed to exercise ordained ministry or to vocations of holy union. It too will be a smaller group than now."
On Monday, January 14, the Anglican Province of America, one of the Common Cause Partners listed on the Network of Anglican Dioceses and Parishes web pages, has decided that now is not the time to move forward with the federation. When the Common Cause Partners initiated the federation, they indicated that some of the partners was not yet in a position to announce their inclusion. The Common Cause College of Bishops stated, "Those presently-participating bodies which have not yet joined the Common Cause Partnership will decide at the next meeting of their legislative bodies, either to enter the Partnership or leave full membership in Common Cause, becoming observer bodies. It is expected that all presently-participating bodies will be able to enter the Partnership."
It turns out that APA, present at that meeting, was not able to enter the Partnership.
The Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America, The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, wrote an email, available on Stand Firm, giving the reasons for not joining the CCP at this point. It is a well thought out letter and worth the read.
While this confirms my prognostications for 2008 (two down and more to go), I don't take much joy in it if only because of Bishop Grundorf's comments. His concern was not to draw the APA back into the midst of a struggle they have mostly left behind.
1/15/2008
3 comments:
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Did y'all notice the paragraph of the APA bishop's letter which began, "At this time, when the majority membership of the CCP has just recently departed from the Episcopal Church..." ?
ReplyDeleteIt shows a real way forward for the dissatisfied "conservatives." The APA left w/o trying to steal property. They focused on presenting a positive church experience to their members and tried to leave the strife they were involved in behind. Good, solid advice. Wonder if the AAC/ACN types will give it the thoughtful consideration it deserves ?
David, that struck me, too. I blogged about it last night here.
ReplyDelete(Mark, it's ok if you don't want to post this comment. I don't know whether you want links to other blogs posted here.)
I echo david's comment -- as much as I may disagree with the APA's doctrine, their manner of departure -- seeking "to build a positive expression of traditional Anglicanism and not being an anti-Episcopal Church" is a class act.
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