Sunday, May 30, 2010

Canterbury proposes resignation of ecumenical commission members


From ELO-

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is proposing that representatives currently serving on some of the Anglican Communion's ecumenical dialogues should resign their membership if they are from a province that has not complied with moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.

Williams made his proposal in a May 28 Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion, in which he specifically refers to the May 15 consecration of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the ongoing activity across provincial boundaries. Glasspool is the Episcopal Church's second openly gay, partnered bishop.

Two Episcopal Church members serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue and one on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order are expected to be affected by the proposal.

When a province "declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the communion, it is very hard to see how members of that province can be placed in positions where they are required to represent the communion as a whole," Williams said. "This affects both our ecumenical dialogues ... and our faith-and-order related groups."

Williams said that affected provinces "will be contacted about the outworking of this in the near future."

Episcopal Church members currently serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue are the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church's interim deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Assistant Bishop William Gregg of North Carolina.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122562_ENG_HTM.htm

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