LAMBETH REPORT WILL BE DISASTROUS FOR ANGLICAN PANSEXUALISTS

Anglican Communion Will Be Reshaped. Anglican Communion Office to Close.

Special Report | By David W. Virtue | September 3, 2004

The Lambeth/Eames Commission's report is going to have teeth; it will be disastrous for the Anglican Communion's pansexualists; there will be some kind of "formal suspension" of The Episcopal Church, following which there will be a radical restructuring of the Anglican Communion that could see the dissolution of the Anglican Communion Office in London because of its ultra-liberal pro-Western stance.

The Queen has apparently made it clear to Dr. Rowan Williams that she will not permit the break up of the Anglican Communion over the gay issue, and that Williams must do everything to see that the orthodox are not "penalized" for their views, sources in London told Virtuosity.

Virtuosity was told that Dr. Williams has made it clear that he will come down on the side of unity and will not risk losing the orthodox wing of the church. The Anglican Communion will not break up, Virtuosity was told, but the liberals — including the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold — are "living in complete denial" about what is going to happen to them.

Two sources made it clear to Virtuosity that the Lambeth/Eames Commission "will have teeth," it will not be an "Anglican fudge" and it will be "disastrous for the church's gays." If the communion does break up it will be only because the orthodox choose to leave.

Religion Correspondent for the London Times, Ruth Gledhill, likened the new structure to the equivalent of a "federation" modeled along the lines of the Lutheran Church Federation. Another analogy is that the shape of the communion will be like a wheel with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the center — the provinces of the Anglican Communion will be like the spokes — but "the rim will disappear."

"The Anglican Communion Office will disappear because it has been funded by the American Episcopal Church and they will withdraw its funding," said a liberal source. It will also cease to be relevant to the shape of the new Communion.

A source close to the Commission told Virtuosity that the choice is between the vibrant, burgeoning church of the Global South or a declining liberal Western Church — and this is a no-brainer for the Archbishop.

The Lambeth Commission is under extreme pressure to find a solution to the Communion's struggles. What is truly needed is for the ECUSA and the leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada to repent and remove V. Gene Robinson, and for Griswold to publicly and honestly admit that when he signed the declaration at Lambeth and proceeded to carry out the actions he had signed to oppose, to say so and repent.

The idea of a complete and total exclusion of the ECUSA from the worldwide body is not likely to happen, but temporary measures will be imposed in order for the Episcopal Church and Griswold to repent of his actions. If that does not happen, more serious action will be taken.

The commission, chaired by Dr. Robin Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, is made up of representatives of both the conservative, liberal and catholic wings of the Anglican Church from both the West and the Global South.

Bitter fighting has been going on in the Episcopal Church since the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, with more than a dozen Primates having declared themselves in either impaired or broken communion with the Episcopal Church.

The Nigerian Church will shortly send a bishop to the U.S. and is already planting new evangelical Anglican churches on American shores. A number of orthodox Primates have already taken several Episcopal Churches under their protection in response to the crisis.