Jeg har forstått at Den anglikanske kirkes framtid er usikker, spesielt etter sommers stormøte i Den episkopale kirke i USA – der de valgte en svært liberal (kvinnelig) ledende biskop, og også nektet å bøye seg for kritikk fra mer konservative anglikanske kirker – men jeg hadde ikke regnet med at splittelsen kunne komme allerede nå. Men i går startet et viktig møte mellom mange kirkeldere i Tanzania, og erkebiskop Rowan Williams er ikke sikker på om det anglikanske fellesskapet overlever neste uke:
“I fear schism,” Rowan Williams told the BBC, and with good reason. Today the annual meeting of the Anglican Communion officially begins in Tanzania, and it is not at all clear that the communion will last the week. No fewer than thirty-seven Anglican archbishops have assembled at a hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, charged with the task of deciding what to do about the communion’s recalcitrant American branch, otherwise known as the Episcopal Church.
… Rather than preach the repentance of sin and forgiveness of Christ, the liberal church primarily exists to help create the “kingdom of God” by advocating for social justice, inclusion, and so on. In bishop Schori’s new book, A Wing and a Prayer, it seems that she does, in fact, affirm doctrines like Christ’s divinity and resurrection. But for liberals such as Schori, such matters are relatively unimportant. For Schori, disagreement on such issues is possible, even desirable, within the Church. The only nonnegotiable doctrines have to do with the Church’s new central mission, defined as matters like gay rights and the UN Millennium Development goals.
… The details remain to be sorted out, but it is likely that most of the Episcopal Church will be demoted to second-rank Anglican status, leaving an orthodox remnant to form what eventually will become a new Anglican province in the United States.