Stepping lightly on the water and watching for the wire.(corrected)

The moves towards the miseries of division is being slowly pitched on all sides.

Hints abound, but not much else.

The Living Church posted an article on the upcoming House of Bishops Meeting, (September 17-19). In the article TLC stated that Ms. Fox, program officer for public affairs at the Church center, "said her understanding was that there would be time set aside for an updated presentation on the activities of some members of the House of Bishops, but she was not aware of any plans for disciplinary action during the fall meeting." This is the first clear hint that the House of Bishops will not move to immediately depose Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh. What they might do, of course, is open to conjecture.

The three senior bishops could pledge to call for inhibition immediately on the bishop's concurrence with the actions of the Diocese of Pittsburgh to depart the Episcopal Church at its Convention in October. The HoB could determine that should the Bishop of Pittsburgh concur with his diocese' action he would be subject to immediate deposition and so instruct the Presiding Bishop that she is empowered to proceed if that event occurs.

But for now it seems there is a bit of caution in the wind.

Then the CANA Convocation was just held. The CANA website simply said about its actions, "Council endorsed the creation of a new regional convocation of congregations within CANA, called the Great Lakes District, which will be led by Suffragan Bishop Roger Ames. Representatives also overwhelmingly passed resolutions applauding the work of GAFCON and the Common Cause Partnership."

BabyBlueOnline blogged on the meeting HERE. Most interesting was her conversation about

RESOLUTION NO. 3-Regarding Recognition by the Primates Council of the Global Anglican Future Conference of a New Anglican North American Province

RESOLVED, that the Convocation Council hereby supports the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) desire to embrace the invitation by the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) leadership to recognize CCP as an the emerging Anglican province in North America. As we set forth plans for the future of Anglicanism in North America, our prayer is that our Common Cause federation will continue to grow and mature as an Anglican province.

She has a bit to say about the "the" and "an" issues here. But we ought to note that the resolution speaks of the "desire to embrace." This resolution supports the desire of Common Cause Partnership to embrace... It is a pretty mild statement. Nothing as demanding as "Do it!"

So what did the Common Cause Partnership state out of its Executive Committee meeting last month? "The intention of the CCP Executive Committee is to petition the Primates Council for recognition of the CCP as the North American Province of GAFCON on the basis of the Common Cause Partnership Articles, Theological Statement, and Covenant Declaration, and to ask that the CCP Moderator be seated in the Primates Council." So the CCP / Ex Con is announcing an intention. No mention as to when it intends to petition. The press release does note that the CCP Council is meeting in December.

Meanwhile, the GAFCON Primates Council has been having a meeting that closed today. Nothing yet from their press office. They may already have received the intended petition from CCP / Ex Con. They may have taken CANA's resolutions as a go ahead for the next step. On the other hand they may be waiting as well for a formal petition to be received. We shall see.

Then The Living Church reports that the Windsor Continuation Group, a committee doomed to the effort to make something out of the Windsor Report, will not meet until after the various dioceses in the Episcopal Church planning to jump ship have met and voted. So WCG will have no further input into process beyond its plea that the dioceses mind their manners and not join other Provinces and that other Provinces not make incursions into the Episcopal Church. The WCG will then be dealing with the results of these votes and presumably will try to respond in ways that promote the development f the Pastoral Forum. The Pastoral Forum is another idea whose time has not come, it appears. Still, we shall see.


Baby Blue has listed a variety of upcoming events HERE. Most of these ave something to do with the next steps. Some of them have very little to do with the unfolding of things in Anglican Land. One sounds like fun, namely a high school reunion in Hawaii. At any event the events unfolding are all aligned with a trip-wire, an almost invisible moment when things will begin to fall into the next phase of the transmogrification of the Anglican Communion.

So what will trip the charge in the belly of the Anglican Communion? My guess is it is either very soon, if The Primates Council of GAFCON preempts the whole thing and grants the petition from CCP /Ex Con sent in perhaps before the GAFCON primates ended their meeting, or things hold until the first of the dioceses votes to leave, with bishop in command. At one end the possibility of the Moderator of the CCP becoming part of the Primates Council of GAFCON, at the other end the Bishop of Pittsburgh becomes a bishop in the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone.

What happens when the wire is tripped? On the one hand nothing at all. We will all get up the next morning or the next Sunday and go to Church. On the other hand quite a lot: When the wire is tripped the various tasks and projects of the Archbishop of Canterbury coming out of Lambeth will be overtaken by events. At that point we will need to begin talking in earnest about finding other, more ecumenical ways to be part of the church universal.

But for now, people are stepping lightly on the water, and watching for the wire.