Funny how what goes around comes around.

This is a most interesting - and heartening - turn of events: A diocese requesting transfer to another Province so that the vocation of women into the corridors and councils of power and authority in the institutional church may be honored and affirmed.

Uruguay asked for a diocesan option to ordain women. The Province denied the request. No surprise. This is the Province that accepted the break-away Diocese of .Fort Worth over the issue of women (Oh, they'll say it was more than that, but Jack Iker's stand about the ordination of women in general and his refusal to abide the authority of +Katharine Jefferts Schori are more than well known).

There doesn't seem to be any hysteria or ad hominem attacks. Uruguay seeks an orderly one-year transfer of authority, appealing, if necessary, to the Anglican Consultative Council, following provincial canons.

The Diocese of Uruguay has been patient - waiting nine years - hoping their patience would be rewarded. This is not a case of the tail wanting to wag the dog, but the dog wanting to control every movement of the tail.

This says as much about the Province of the Southern Cone and its leadership as it does about the leadership of the Diocese of Uruguay.

Hmmm . . . Centralized authority? Table for one province? Centralized authority? Yes, we have a table for you in the un-Anglican section. It's right near the seating section for Rome where you'll have an unobstructed view of the Delusions of Grandeur. We have provided complimentary copies of the Anglican Covenant at each table. Enjoy!

Good for Uruguay! Good for The Anglican Communion!

Does anybody else find the language used rather telling? E.g. that Uruguay wishes to ordain women in order "to minister within a very difficult agnostic milieu."

What is the ultimate source of the press release?

It is interesting to see a diocese voting to leave its province for reasons of inclusion rather than exclusion, but I'm not so quick to cheer them on. Ecclesially, how is this different from Quincy, San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, and Fort Worth?

But even beyond that admittedly simplistic comparison, where does it leave the Communion if we all reshuffle into like-minded provinces? Wouldn't that just enable a real split into two Communions (or more likely, one Communion and one Church with a unified hierarchy)?

Well, Kevin, the difference between Uruguay on the one hand and Quincy. San Joaquin, Pittsburgh and Fort Worth on the other is that Uruguay is operating within the canons, not unilaterally making up canon law on the fly.

That is quite significant.

Another angle: Uruguay asked for provision to ordain women in its diocese. It's not saying it will leave if the province doesn't believe what it believes about the ordination of women or (fill in the blank).

Likewise, as implied in a comment above, it's hard to imagine that Uruguay wouldn't accept alternative primatial oversight on the terms offered which is something the Fort Worth's of the world refused.

Kevin, the main difference is that the canons of the province made provision for the process which Uruguay is following.

The relevant canons;
11.4 "A Diocese with sufficient reason and with the consent of the Provincial Synod may move to another Metropolitan Jurisdiction."

11.5 "A Member Diocese with sufficient cause and with consent of the Provincial Synod may withdraw from the Province. If the condition for such a withdrawal has been completed, the President of the Province shall notify the president of the Anglican Consultative Council and will ask that a provision for Metropolitan Jurisdiction be made for said Diocese. If the prior procedure is not possible, the Diocese may go directly to the Anglican Consultative Council."

It was reported earlier by ENS that when Uruguay proposed the resolution that it failed in but one house of the Southern Cone's three house synod. The laity and the bishops passed it by the required 2/3s majority and it failed by a tiny margin in among the clergy.

BTW Howard, the wording for the announcement appears to be from +Lyons of Bolivia.

The interesting thing is that the Southern Cone has taken in ordained women from Recife (and probably Cavalcanti continues to ordain women) and Canada, and Don Harvey's first ordination after he joined the Southern Cone was of a woman.