London, UK - The Archbishop of Canterbury has admonished warring Anglicans for creating “recrimination, confusion and bitterness” all round.
He has punished those who have broken the rules by removing them from the body that deals with dialogue with the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and other churches, and the body that decides matters of faith.
In his Pentecost letter, Dr Williams called for Anglicans to pray for renewal in the spirit of God.
And he bewailed the failure by liberals to stand by moratoria imposed on the consecration of gay bishops and on same-sex blessings, and the failure by conservatives to observe that on boundary crossing.
He acknowledged the difficulties of a time “when the voice and witness in the communion of Christians from the developing world is more articulate and creative than ever, and when the rapidity of social change in developed nations leaves even some of the most faithful and traditional Christian communities uncertain where to draw the boundaries in controversial matters.”
These included not just sexuality but also issues of bioethics and financial morality. Referring to the moratoria, he said that any of the provinces who failed to respect these risked exclusion from some parts of the Anglican Communion.
He warned they will no longer be allowed to take part fully in official dialogue with other churches or in debate on doctrine. However, they will be able to continue as “consultants” on doctrine.
Conservatives will be angry that he has stopped short of expelling The Episcopal Church in the US from the main decision making bodies, the Standing Committee and the Primates’ Meeting of the Anglican Communion. “Our Anglican fellowship continues to experience painful division, and the events of recent months have not brought us nearer to full reconciliation,” Dr Williams wrote. “There are still things being done that the representative bodies of the Communion have repeatedly pleaded should not be done; and this leads to recrimination, confusion and bitterness all round.”
He also criticised the legal actions instituted over property disputes. “In several places, not only in North America, Anglicans have not hesitated to involve the law courts in settling disputes, often at great expense and at the cost of the Church’s good name,” he wrote.
Dr Williams was supported by the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, who is stepping down later this year to return to academic life. In an address to his diocesan synod, Dr Wright, a leading New Testament scholar and evangelical, said the consecration of Bishop Glasspool had placed “an ever greater strain on the Anglican Communion.”
He said the point was that the US Anglican church decided to go ahead with gay bishops wihtout agreement from the rest of the communion. “This isn’t something a bishop, a parish, a diocese, or a province can declare on its own authority. You can’t simply say that you have decided that this is something we can all agree to differ on.
“Nobody can just declare that. The step from mandatory to optional can never itself be a local option, and the Church as a whole has declared that the case for that step has not been made. By all means let us have the debate. But, as before, it must be a proper theological debate, not a postmodern exchange of prejudices.”