An article in today’s Guardian by Stephen Bates (hat tip to Thinking Anglicans) suggests (i) that some conservative archbishops at the recent primates’ meeting behaved fairly badly, and (ii) that in view of the conservatives’ brusque, our-way-or-the-highway attitude, a complete split of the Anglican Communion is just a matter of time — if it hasn’t already happened.
Meanwhile, in contrast to the archbishops’ statement last Friday that they
had met together with "a generosity of spirit … Christian charity and abundant
goodwill", one of the leaders at the meeting has told the Guardian that it had
instead taken place in an atmosphere of rancour and mutual hostility with Dr
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, being treated with contempt by the
conservative faction.
The primate, who is not normally noted as a liberal, was speaking on
condition of anonymity. He said: "Some primates were personally
offensive towards Rowan and gratuitously rude about him behind his
back. They had no respect for him and said: ‘He’ll do what we tell him
to.’ If I wasn’t a Christian, I would walk away from this right now. I
believe a split in the church is inevitable."* * *
The anonymous primate said that the conservative archbishops had ignored a
direct appeal by the Archbishop of Canterbury for them to attend a service at
which he was to preside at Dromantine. Twenty of the 35 attended a "celebration"
dinner hosted by Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola but paid for by American
Episcopalian traditionalists opposed to their liberal church leadership
following the end of the meeting.Some African provinces of the church have begun rejecting financial support
from the US Episcopal Church on which they have previously been heavily
dependent. The primate said: "I understand they have been told that American
fundamentalist millionaires have promised to match any funding the African
church would have received from the Episcopal Church dollar for dollar. Do we
have a communion now? It is already broken."
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