More Letters from Lambeth

More Letters!

These letters from Lambeth are ticking time-bombs that threaten the life of the Communion. Yet, despite appearances to the contrary, it is not too late to rescue ourselves. We will, however, need to do the hard work ourselves. No 'Holy Father' is going to do this for us. And, as protestants and Anglicans, we would have it no other way.

The so-titled 'Secretary General of the Anglican Communion' has now announced his own letters, and the bizarre paradigm that Rowan Williams is attempting to create amongst the Churches of the Anglican Communion comes into greater focus. Canon Kearon's remarks are uncharacteristically brief, so one wonders if he himself is a bit dubious of the ABC's new affection for autocracy. However, inasmuch as Kearon bears the sweeping title of Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, and despite the fact that he serves merely as a bureaucrat in the hierarchy of the Church of England, he is compliant. Whether he will remain happily complicit is another question. Is it a divine paradox, one wonders, that this Archbishop who has been terribly preoccupied with fears of the dissolution of the Anglican Communion is now himself the greatest threat to his own Office?

Following the ABC's orders, Kearon notes that he 'has informed' the TEC representatives to ecumenical dialogs and to the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order that their continued participation has been denied. Specifically, Kearon describes that their membership 'has been discontinued' or 'has been withdrawn.' In line with Williams' ironically infamous Pentecost letter, the actions that Kearon describes are wholly unilateral. It is important to note here that this unilateralism is not enacted officially by or on behalf of the Church of England. These attempted actions are those entirely of Williams himself, attempting to use the titular responsibilities of his Office as actual powers of privilege. Williams' declarations, now reiterated through Kearon, are entirely outside any structure, formal or informal, that has ever been associated with Anglicanism. His attempts toward enforcement will surely prove to be bizarre.

For folks here in TEC who will now become agitated and distressed (and for those who will be delighted), it bears keeping in mind that in the real world, the ABC's declarations mean exactly nothing. The ABC has only limited authority in his own Church, the Church of England. Given his bizarre new behavior, it is now all the more important to remember that he has even less authority when it comes to inter-Anglican agencies. TEC may indeed elect not to send her representatives to these ecumenical dialogs and to IASCUFO. However, this would be mere recognition that these agencies are less Anglican and more exclusively Church of England. It will be recognition that the hierarchy of the Church of England is increasingly irrelevant to the wider Anglican world and much more so to the wider world of ecumenical and inter-faith conversation and ministry. It is important to note that it is Williams that is bringing about these stinging revelations; not TEC. If the Church of England, in the person of Rowan Williams, truly wishes to reject her partnership in mission and ministry with TEC, TEC will not be the party to suffer for it.

TEC will continue with its inter-faith and ecumenical dialogs, and its inter-Anglican ministries. Our Presiding Bishop makes this clear in her richly Anglican response to the ABC's pathetic Pentecost address. If TEC does elect not to send its representatives, it will not be because Williams has declared that thus and so it shall be. It will be because the ABC's attempts to foist upon us and upon the wider Anglican Communion a new and un-Anglican autocracy are growing hindrances and distractions to our Christian witness, obstacles to our ecumenical integrity. One hopes, though, that TEC will send her representatives anyway, reminding Williams that he has no authority, nor does the Church of England, to 'withdraw' memberships that do not belong to them. This approach would compel Williams' own Lambeth hierarchy to choose either to act in accord with Williams' efforts toward a bizarre new paradigm or to respect the true limits of both their own authority and his. Williams is implementing a strategy of trying to divide the Churches of the Communion against one another and so to conquer us all doctrinally and organizationally. By responding with respectful refusal to defer to his imperialistic whimsy, we may successfully turn this strategy around upon him and his Church of England bureaucracy and so, defeat his efforts. Williams won't like it; that's obvious. But whether he stays in Office, resigns, or is removed, even he will be the better for our rejection of his imperialistic impulses.

It is important that every Church now respond to Williams in a way that reminds him that the Office of the ABC has no authority unilaterally to define or to limit the membership of agencies that are Inter-Anglican, and that a remedy for his confusion may well be the constitutionalization of each such agency and committee. This approach would preserve the strengths of diversity on each committee, make each agency truly inter-Anglican and less predominantly Church of England, and relieve the beleaguered Williams of the paternal burden of having to continue to act unilaterally. It seems clear, though, that this ABC perceives nothing else about Anglicanism to be so of value as the illusory creation of a Roman-style hierarchy fit to his tastes and political convenience. Sadly, if the agencies of the Communion are in fact to be rescued from this attempt at autocracy, it seems apparent that they will need to be wrestled free from Williams' grip upon them. It seems unlikely that he will turn them over graciously to the custody of the wider Communion.

In any case, it is important that TEC, that Canada, and that all Churches of the Anglican Communion, whether they agree with TEC or with this particular ABC, speak up immediately and reject soundly this attempted new paradigm of autocracy. Perhaps some will look favorably upon Williams' efforts because at this time these efforts seem to serve their own homophobic or misogynist ideology. So, let everyone please recognize that, if permitted to stand, if accepted as valid, this new autocracy now being claimed by this Archbishop of Canterbury would be embraced by every one of his successors; every Church of the Communion would become the subject of this new autocracy; every Church would become its target sooner or later.

This is particularly important, I think, for those on the self-proclaimed 'conservative' side of those matters upon which Williams and the homophobic community are capitalizing for their play for power. For TEC to consider withholding its funding of the administrative expenses of those very agencies of the Church of England that are now attempting to restrain us is quite different from the consideration of a parish or diocese to withhold its funding of the Church of which it is a member constitutionally and canonically. There is no violation of vow or canon in a decision by TEC to withdraw its funding from foreign agencies who are attempting to withdraw our membership therein. There is no comparison between the violation of vows, whether sacred or constitutional or both, and the decision to respond in kind to a foreign organization that is trying to claim affiliation while simultaneously trying to silence our witness. Quite to the contrary, in Williams' original terms, TEC would simply accept Williams' "proposal" to withdraw from participation. To suppose that this withdrawal would not include withdrawal of funding would be amazingly foolish and arrogant on his part.

Under such an autocracy as Williams is now attempting to enforce, the ecumenical and global prestige of the Office of ABC would be diminished, the Church of England would become more artifact than actor on the world stage, and the Anglican Communion would become a closed chapter in history. And the behavior of Rowan Williams would be to blame; not that of TEC and not even that of the border-crossers. Neither TEC nor the homophobic community of Primates and bishops can compare to the threat to the Anglican Communion that is the increasingly bizarre and predatory behavior of the current Archbishop of Canterbury.

But it is not too late. In order to preserve autocephaly and autonomy as characteristic strengths of the Churches of the Anglican Communion, in order to preserve even the Office of Archbishop of Canterbury itself, every Primate and bishop, every member and friend, of every Church and diocese needs to speak up against the anomalous autocracy that this current ABC is seeking to impose upon us all. We must reject the propaganda inherent to these letters from Lambeth. We have only to refuse to react to them as though they are valid, and instead to act upon the virtues of Anglicanism that continue to challenge us all, and so to strengthen us all. Vocally, we need to reject his claims to such authority as is not his and to remind him and the Church of England that our funding of their bureaucracy can be withdrawn as quickly as he can put pen to paper. Practically, we need to act in ways that reflect this reality and so that simply ignore his claims and decrees as the sad and bizarre phenomena that they are. Williams has surrendered effectively his credible responsibility for the Anglican Communion. It belongs to the rest of us, as it always has. It's now incumbent upon us to behave accordingly.

Jim +