Windsor Matters.

Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for England's The Times newspaper reports on an important speech delivered at last week's House of Bishops meeting:

"The Bishop of Exeter, Michael Langrish, has delivered an extraordinary speech to Ecusa bishops which makes me believe for the first time that schism might actually be a possibility. Fundamentally, he has told the US bishops that if they consecrate another gay bishop or authorise same-sex relations, the Anglican Communion will break apart, ARCIC will be finished and inter-faith dialogue with the Muslims will be at an end. Two things give this speech added weight. One is that Langrish was speaking at the episcopal retreat of ECUSA's house of bishops in Kanuga as the representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. So we can assume the views stated here are Dr Williams' own...

[Bishop Langrish]: 'I suppose one of the major challenges for the Episcopal Church now has to do with whether there are enought of you to stand broadly on the same ground, holding a range of opinions on Lambeth 1.10 but firm in carrying forward the Windsor vision of a strengthened and enabing communion life. This, I believe, is the key question rather than questions about whether the Episcopal Church will either be pushed out of the Communion or consciously walk away. Let's be clear. On the one hand, noone can force another province or diocese either to go or remain. We are not that kind of church. Yet equally, no diocese or province can enforce its own continued membership simply or largely on its own terms. There has to be engagement. There is no communion without a shared vision of life in communion. So it does seem to me, as I listen to those other parts of the communion that I know best, that any further consecration of those in a same sex relationship, any authorisation of any person to undertake same sex blessings, any stated intention not to seriously engage with the Windsor Report, will be read very widely as a declaration not to stay with the communion.'"

Here's the whole thing.

This is very much at issue in the current episcopal election in the Diocese of Tennessee. One of the things we on the "reasserting" side are insisting upon is a bishop absolutely committed to "walking together" with the Anglican Communion by living into the Windsor Report's norms here in the Diocese and advocating for them in ECUSA. What else do we hope for? See below.