Archbishop of Canterbury appoints Windsor Continuation Group
From Anglican Communion News Service:
The Archbishop of Canterbury announced the formation of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), as proposed in his Advent Letter The WCG will address outstanding questions arising from the Windsor Report and the various formal responses from provinces and instruments of the Anglican Communion.
The members of the group are:
The Most Revd Clive Handford, former Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East (chair)
The Most Revd John Chew, Primate of South East Asia
The Right Revd Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas
The Right Revd Victoria Matthews, former Bishop of Edmonton
The Very Revd John Moses, former dean of St Paul's, London
The Most Revd Donald Mtetemela, Primate of Tanzania
They will be joined as a consultant by: Dame Mary Tanner, Co-president of the World Council of Churches and assisted by: Canon Andrew Norman of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Staff and Canon Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Communion Office
Bishop Clive Handford, who will be chairing the group, said: "We are conscious as we undertake this work that the Archbishop has given us an important responsibility to assist the Communion to move forward. A significant element of our work will be face-to-face conversation with those who have key roles in shaping the future of our common life. I believe in the Anglican Communion, and hope that our work will help it to find healing and new strength."
The group will be working intensively in the period running up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, where its initial work will contribute to the shared discernment of the bishops in strengthening the life and identity of the Anglican Communion.
The Archbishop of Canterbury commented: "I am deeply grateful to those who have accepted the invitation to carry forward the important work in our Communion's life that I indicated in my Advent Letter. This is a demanding assignment. I trust they can count on our prayers throughout the Communion as they bring their combined wisdom and attentiveness to the strengthening of our common life through the Windsor Process."
And the group includes no lay people, one woman, and only one cleric who's not a bishop!
Posted by Sarah Dylan Breuer![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 12, 2008 2:10 PM
Good point, Dylan. How are we supposed to believe that he and his closest advisors are not interested in creating a curia when he appoints panels composed almost entirely of bishops?
Note this passage: "The group will be working intensively in the period running up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, where its initial work will contribute to the shared discernment of the bishops in strengthening the life and identity of the Anglican Communion."
You have to wonder whether they will make any effort to ascertain how the members of the Communion think its life and identity could be strengthened, or if that will be left entirely to one Cathedral dean, two bishops and three Primates.
Posted by Jim Naughton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 12, 2008 2:49 PM
I think Mad Priest has it right -I'm getting right pissed off with these mysterious people who keep trying to shape my common life. I'm perfectly capable of shaping my own common life, thank you very much (see OCICBW...) and everyone I know, is also capable of making their own common life decisions. If I wanted my common life shaped I would become a Roman Catholic or an evangelical. I am a credal Christian, that's what I signed up to in my ordination vows. It is immoral to ask more of me and it is foolhardy to ask it of the laity
Posted by Ann Fontaine![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 12, 2008 8:41 PM
Sarah: As I see it the reason that Bishops are appointed to this type of council is that that it's really their job. Of all the orders, and I count four - lay, deacon, priest, bishop - only the bishop is ordained under the call to "guard the faith, unity , and discipline of the Church" (bcp.pg.517) While I am (as a priest) called to do and be lots of things, I have not been ordained by the church to the work of preserving unity. I have lots of opinions, but it's not my job. I figure if we all could focus a bit more on the work with which we are charged we might find a lot more being accomplished and a bit more sanity in our church wide discourse.
-Jonathan Wickham
Posted by Jonathan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 13, 2008 12:04 PM