The Five Protectorates: That is what Moderator Duncan calls the five church entities that gathered in London with the Seven GAFCON / FOCA Primates. He called them that in a TV interview with Anglican TV. Just who would these be?
One gathers these are groups within the Common Cause Partnership:
(i) Anglican Communion Network dioceses together with Anglican Network of Canada, Common Cause Partnership dioceses under "protection" from the Southern Cone (is that one or two?)
(ii) Anglican Mission in America, a Rwanda subsidiary
(iii) Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a Nigeria subsidiary
(iv) The bishops and churches under the "protection" of Kenya
(v) The bishops and churches under the "protection" of Uganda
They were at table with their ecclesaistical superiors, namely the Primates from the "protector" Provinces.This "protectorate" language is new in Anglican land, at least to this hearer. It sounds vaguely like the protectorates that the old League of Nations cobbled together following the First World War. The most famous of those, of course was the protectorate in Palestine. It was a rousing failure.
In the TV interview Moderator Duncan also refers to "militant progressiveism," "seeking rescue," and about "the war that we have come out of." It would appear that the Moderator believes the war is won. "We look forward to a vital global partnership of the sort that the Anglican Communion was always theoretically to be and now is actually that."
The Primates and the representatives of the several partners in the Common Cause Partnership are now proclaiming that the Anglican Communion global partnership that was a "theory" is made actual in what they are doing. They are all shaking hands. They look successful. But they are not the Anglican Communion.
Several other small points (and I am sure I will be given the answers): Whatever happened to the Reformed Episcopal Church? and who is the fellow over on the right in the picture? What ever happened to Bishop Schofield?
It's a bit sad really and rather embarassing.
ReplyDeleteI almost feel sorry for such a small group, a rump really, comprising dissident Americans, a few equatorial African provinces and the tiny Southern Cone.
Protectorate sounds more like Cromwell and the Calvinist take over than any other thing. We know what happened under THAT "protectorate."
ReplyDeleteHow are we to keep up? Are we to keep up?
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing the hard work of trying to make sense of all this, Mark.
You know, it makes sense for these people to speak of "protectorates," since they are the spiritual sons of Cromwell.
ReplyDeleteSo then where do Iker and his Anglo-Catholic ilk fit in? Not exactly the most expected bedfellows of the Cromwellians.
ReplyDeleteThe "fellow over on the right in the picture" is +Wallace Benn, suffragan bishop of Lewes in the CoE.
ReplyDeleteAnglican
Kevin, I have no doubt that the Puritans will soon fall out with their popish counterparts in Fort Worth.
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