Quotes of the day

The Puritanical primates of the Communion have concluded that The Episcopal Church will meekly accept whatever abuse they heap upon it, and they are taking advantage of this insight to create a tyrannical fundamentalist curia intended to dominate the Anglican Communion in the future. The Episcopal Church has become the co-dependent enabler of this behavior. Alas, this dynamic would have been impossible without the feckless coöperation of Archbishop Williams, who, all along, had the power to, if not break the cycle of abuse, then at least to expose it clearly for what it was.

Let me be perfectly clear: We have no hope of finding ourselves in a satisfactory Anglican Communion as long as we are unwilling to walk away from the Anglican Communion as it presently is.

That's Lionel Deimel.

Hear also what Mark Harris has to say:

Several commentators have suggested that the time has come to say, “Enough!” It is a time of growing frustration by some of us with an emerging effort at governance by persons and bodies that have no mandate from any people of God to do so. The organized structures of the Anglican Communion, also known as the “focus of unity” and the “instruments of communion” have more and more acted as if they are the voices of a magisterium or a patriarchy, having powers beyond that of recommendation.

As some who read this blog understand, I am deeply committed to the bonds of affection that constitute the Anglican Communion. But in these last days I have increasingly come to believe that these bonds have almost nothing to do with the struggles both from within and from without to mandate from afar solutions to "our" problems. This is not the Anglican Communion to which I have given much of my ministry and energy. This is a perversion of fellowship into some other form of relationship.

And hear what Bill Carroll says:

We should be seeking to de-centralize and de-colonialize the Anglican Communion. A more democratic and participatory process is called for, in which ALL voices are heard. Only a covenant that supports full provincial autonomy and liberty of conscience is a reasonable proposal for the Anglican future. Like the WR, the covenant design process is the last gasp of the British Empire. It may well be, given the overall make up of the committee, that no reasonable proposal is forthcoming. It will have to be amended beyond recognition by the provinces before they can adopt it by their own synods and conventions. It may well be that the Anglican Communion has outlived its purpose and that similar divisions will come to the fore in many other provinces. It is time to pull the veil off the combination of Anglo-Catholic fantasy and institutional self-preservation that leads anyone to think that these kind of documents are a good ideal. Our future should be defined by mission, not conciliarist dreams.

I tend to agree, a Declaration of Independence is required. But then, what of schismatic dioceses and parishes? Do we pull an Abraham Lincoln on them?

Thanks to Scott of Hybla for the link to Deimel. I have borrowed liberally from the dailyepiscopalian here and here.