UPDATE ON ARCHBISHOP BEACH

Foley Beach, archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America and chair of the GAFCON primates council, has reiterated his claim that the Archbishop of Canterbury has insulted him. On May 1, I posted an entry about Beach's reaction entitled "Bishop Lawrence Not Invited to Lambeth; Archbishop Beach Says He Is Insulted." Find it here . 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has invited all of the 887 bishops of the Anglican Communion to the Lambeth Conference to be held in Canterbury next year. At first, he verbally invited all of the bishops' spouses, then announced he would not invite the same-sex spouses. Then, last week, the ABC announced he was inviting other Christian denominations to send observers to the Conference. He included the Anglican Church in North America among these. This made it plain that the Archbishop did not recognize ACNA bishops as members of the Anglican Communion, something he had already made clear long ago. Beach said he was "insulted" by this.

In the past few days, Beach has been in Sydney, Australia, for a conference. Yesterday, May 3, he held a news conference and part of it was posted as a video on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wdgev627QU). Referring to Welby's invitation to observe the Lambeth Conference, Beach said, "they insulted us in the way they issued it to us." Apparently, he expects special treatment from Canterbury. He also said the Lambeth Conference was in violation of itself for failing to follow Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Actually, the Conference is not self-perpetuating. It does not invite the participants; the Archbishop of Canterbury does. Moreover, the LC is not a governing body that makes law. It is only a deliberative body that can adopt non-binding resolutions. The forty provinces of the AC are independent churches that govern themselves.

The invitations to the LC are entirely at the discretion of the host, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 2008, the ABC (Williams) pointedly did not invite an Anglican Communion bishop (Gene Robinson), because of his sexuality. This time, the ABC (Welby) is inviting the partnered homosexual bishops but pointedly not inviting their legal spouses, a half-way solution that has really pleased no one. At any rate, Archbishop Beach, who is not even in the Anglican Communion, is loudly proclaiming his offended state at the way he is being treated. 

Finally, Beach said in the video that the GAFCON primates had sent a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and were awaiting a response. He did not say in the video that GAFCON would boycott Lambeth or that ACNA would refused to send observers.

Watch the video that was posted on YouTube:

All of this amounts to a manufactured crisis. Beach, and all the bishops of ACNA, are not members of the Anglican Communion. They have absolutely no right to expect the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite them to participate in the Lambeth Conference. Beach, Lawrence, and all the other bishops of ACNA are not in the Anglican Communion. 

Three GAFCON primates have already said they will boycott next year's Lambeth Conference in protest of the inclusion of open homosexual bishops. This is their prerogative. What remains to be seen now is how many other GAFCON bishops will go along with the boycott. At the moment, the fundamentalists (they call themselves "orthodox" although they are not) and their friends are throwing up every criticism they can in an effort to sabotage next year's Lambeth Conference. 

In the last two decades, GAFCON created a new fundamentalist form of Anglicanism devoted to certain social views: the subjugation of women and the condemnation of homosexuality. As part of this, they have created a parallel organization directly challenging the longstanding structure of the old Anglican Communion on what it means to be an Anglican. GAFCON has declared some church that are not in the Anglican Communion to be "Anglican." They have even made the head of ACNA as the chair of GAFCON. Thus, what we are seeing now is a tug-of-war between the classical Anglicans, led by the ABC, and the fundamentalists, led by GAFCON, for the soul and the future of worldwide Anglicanism. The Archbishop of Canterbury has the tenuous upper-hand at the moment but it remains to be seen whether he can maintain this in the face of the fierce challenge of GAFCON. The future of universal Anglicanism is at stake. It is in the interest of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and the Episcopal Church, that the Anglican Communion survives, indeed thrives.


ADDENDUM 7 p.m.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY APOLOGIZES

The ABC apologized today, not to Beach, but to the Anglican Communion, particularly the Anglican Consultative Council for his handling (bungling) of the spouse invitations. Must read article by Mary Frances Schjonberg in the Episcopal News Service, here . 

The apology was part of an amazing conclusion of the ACC meeting in which the members arrived at a unanimous statement (88-0) "The dignity of human beings" promising to move toward healing on issues of sexuality. It was a remarkable display of classical Anglicanism at its best. This scores a big victory for Welby, for the Anglican Communion, and for the Episcopal Church and it should help make next year's Lambeth Conference a big success.