I'm sure Anderson has spent more time thinking about the two statements than I have. While I see the relational tone she writes of in the communique, and the absence of threats and demands, I also see that the WCG report is embraced and intertwined into the communique. Hence whatever criticisms there are of the WCG report also apply to the communique.

I don't see it that way, John. I think the communique says very little about the yearning for centralization evident in the WCG report. It is far from a wholesale embrace of the report.

The communique's only treatment of the authoirty issue is as follows: "We affirm the recommendation of the Windsor Continuation Group that work will need to be done to develop the Instruments of Communion and the Anglican Covenant. With the Windsor Continuation Group, we encourage the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Anglican Communion Office to proceed with this work. "

That's pretty bland. The communique goes into much greater details about sections of the WCG that Ms. Anderson doesn't discuss in her statement, pastoral forum, recognition of ACNA, etc.

What astonishes me is the lack of interest from the Primates on the issue of the pending NEW laws in Nigeria that will further demonize, persecute and harm LGBT Anglicans and others. Furthermore, the preaching of the ¨imported¨ disease of homosexuality in Uganda and the ¨witch hunt¨ currently underway there and instigated by +Orombi and others is a Communionwide disgrace...+Orombi has no troblem demeaning LGBT Christians/others in Uganda and in the U.S.A.!

Dangerous and unnamed ¨prejudices¨ against fellow Christians/others is a violation of hope for basic human fundamental respect for Primates or any possible reconcilliation even with their improved posturing...“we are each burdened and diminished by each other’s failings and pain.¨ Please, the pain, is REAL and ignoring the brutual persecution and dehumanizing of LGBT outcasts in Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and beyond isn´t making peace...it´s called denial of the REAL problem surrounding the integrity of Primates at The Anglican Communion.

Bonnie Anderson IS Exhibit A, in why the Primates (a good number of them---and their lackies on the WCG) WANT to aggragate more power unto themselves. "An uppity laywoman who doesn't know her place: the nerve!"

Keep on keepin' on, Bonnie. Those of us in the pews are with you!

JC Fisher

I think the sublime tone of the Communiqué represents the fatalism of those who have filled past communiqués with threats and demands.

In one of his latest pieces of questionable journalism, David Virtue interviews both Henry Orombi and Gregory Venables together after the meeting ended. They have decided that the AC, as it has been known, no longer exists. They state that there are now two forms of belief, their traditional orthodox belief, and the new false Christianity of the West. They are satisfied with this truth and have settled into the peace that comes with a belief in the righteousness of their cause and no longer feeling the need to fight. Virtue did not mention who, but stated that one of them inferred that some primates would not likely attend any future Primates Meetings. Orombi is quoted as saying that the lion of Nigeria had gone home happy.

I think Jim has got it right when he says there is little evidence of an embrace of the WCG report by the primates. Plenty of commentators are getting terribly upset on both the left and the right about WCG, assuming that centralisation is on the way.
Yet the conservative primates and Jim agree that the primates meeting did not endorse cemtralisation, and I agree FWIW. (Sorry Jim, I could not resist including you with the conservative primates - its not an opportunity that happens often)

John Sandeman

On the contrary, John, I am delighted, and thank you for pointing it out. The one place we differ (on this particular issue, I mean)is that I believe the Archbishop of Canterbury and many influential figures in the Church of England want this centralization very badly, and that their cause will advance and perhaps prevail.

I will confess that I obtained my personal interpretation of the relationship between the WCG report and the communique from listening to the ABC at his news conference. To me it appears he does see the communique as deriving (1) the WCG report, and (2) the demotion of the importance of the Anglican Covenant. And he is talking about strengthening the instruments of communion say they can address the presenting issue, and reducing autonomy.

I of course could well be wrong, and even if I am right it could be that only the ABC sees things that way and everyone else was humoring him. I really can't see greater centralization happening -- none of the primates seems to want that.

I think, Jim, that you're correct. Indeed, I think the WCG Report is well in line with Rowan's conviction that we need something more like a "church" in the way recent Roman statements have defined the term.

I think much will depend on how the draft Covenant comes out. If it takes the same tone, I can't imagine many will sign on. If it takes a different tone, it will be interesting to see Rowan's response, considering he wants his centralization established by the new Covenant.

Marshall Scott