Quote of the day :: Sarah Hey

But on the other side of that aspect of holding up the standard was -- hard upon its heels, so to speak -- the looming "rear guard effort" of the Pastoral Council, the "structures for pastoral care", and the Primatial Vicar. That trinity of interlocking pieces was to care for those individuals, clergy, parishes, and dioceses who wished to remain within the Anglican Communion, yet were unable to continue in their present oversight circumstances due to their bishop's inability to accept the Windsor Report.

That trinity of pastoral actions by the primates was like a looming Damocles sword to every bishop who had assumed, in that Golden Episcopal Past, that if he or she violated the boundaries of the Windsor Report and of orthodoxy, there would be no place for Episcopalians in his or her diocese to go, while remaining within the Anglican Communion.

And the key word that seemed to me so shocking and important in the Tanzania Communique was the word "individuals". Not even the Network allowed individuals to partake of its ecclesial structure.

What did this mean? It meant that if a group of Episcopalians was stuck in a massively heterodox diocese and parishes, surrounded on all sides, if they could find one another, organize, plan, act together -- they could appeal as individuals to the Pastoral Council and form parishes. They could be within the Anglican Communion together, as an entity. It meant that every entity within the Episcopal church -- priest, bishop, diocese, parish, and individual -- could be cared for within the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal church.

It was a monster-beautiful plan, from my perspective. It meant that every traditional Episcopalian could, with the hard work of blood, sweat, and tears -- showing some enterprise, courage, commitment, and energy -- plant parishes, form associations, be together, and enjoy the benefits and order of the Anglican Communion.

-Sarah Hey

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