The Final Nail In Windsor's Coffin?

This afternoon Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, installed the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as the Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Both our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams asked Archbishop Akinola not to come to Virginia and perform the installation. But he did, and by all accounts it was a joyous service.

And the Windsor Report is now in total shreds. If it ever had a hope of being an instrument of reconciliation for the Anglican Communion, that hope went out the window this afternoon. No matter how many accusations of non-compliance have been aimed at the Episcopal Church, bishops from other provinces of the Communion have not ceased crossing provincial lines. The Primates in their Communique from Dar es Salaam basically refused to hold themselves or any other bishops accountable for breaching the same document they have been trying to ram down the Episcopal Church's throat for the last two-and-one-half years.

Here are two of the relevant paragraphs from the Windsor Report:

154. The Anglican Communion upholds the ancient norm of the Church that all the Christians in one place should be united in their prayer, worship and the celebration of the sacraments. The Commission believes that all Anglicans should strive to live out this ideal. Whilst there are instances in the polity of Anglican churches that more than one jurisdiction exists in one place, this is something to be discouraged rather than propagated. We do not therefore favour the establishment of parallel jurisdictions.

155. We call upon those bishops who believe it is their conscientious duty to intervene in provinces, dioceses and parishes other than their own:

• to express regret for the consequences of their actions
• to affirm their desire to remain in the Communion, and
• to effect a moratorium on any further interventions.

We also call upon these archbishops and bishops to seek an accommodation with the bishops of the dioceses whose parishes they have taken into their own care.

Instead of calling themselves to account, they proposed a "Pastoral Scheme" that, in effect, would have set up a parallel jurisdiction within the Episcopal Church. They should not have been surprised when the Bishops of the Epsicopal Church turned it down flat.

And now the Primate of the Church of Nigeria has come to the United States and installed a missionary bishop. As Mr. Rogers might ask, "Can you say hypocrite?"

Peace,
Jeffri