Let The Spin Begin!

This morning the Anglican blogosphere and the world press waited with bated breath for the first concrete news to come from the Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam. After days of filing reports on vague press briefings, writing stories about each other, and speculating on the actions of some of the primates and visitors, today they would finally have something to report--only to be told that the primates postponed the final press conference. So they all sat and waited. The commentary on the delay was remarkably restrained.

Until Ruth Gledhill's story "Churches back plan to unite under Pope" appeared on the front page of The Times (England). While that caused a bit of a stir for a while, it was quickly pointed out by the co-chairs of the International Anglican - Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) that the document in question had been given to the Anglican Primates as part of a continuing discussion that has been going on for a number of years. Their statement can be found here on the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) web site. Then Ms. Gledhill, Religion correspondent for The Times, posted "Schori triumphs in Dar as new Anglican queen" on her blog. That discussion kept things going for a little while until people started noticing that the Report of the Covenant Design Group was online, released by ACNS.

Once that hit the radar screens, the conservative blog sites went nuts within the first hour. Initial comments on the proposed covenant were overwhelmingly negative (check out the Stand Firm in Faith posting of the Report to sample the comments). There were few if any comments to be seen on liberal or moderate blog sites. Most of us continue to wait for the primates' final statement, which as of early this afternoon Eastern Time (United States), they seem to still be drafting.

THAT is when life in the Anglican blogosphere should get very interesting.

And now back to my regularly scheduled day off--getting the last load of laundry out of the dryer, folding and putting clothes away, going grocery shopping, and preparing for tomorrow evening's Education for Ministry (EfM) seminar, which I co-mentor.

Peace,
Jeffri