Call My Bluff

Oct 30, 2024 by

from Anglican Futures:

“We are committed to remaining within the Church of England and hope that the bishops will come to the table to negotiate an acceptable settlement.”

Such have been the consistent expectations of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) and their co-belligerents in the broader “Alliance” of orthodox groupings- extensive negotiations and an acceptable settlement.

In an interview this week with the Australian podcast ‘The Pastor’s Heart’, a leading light of both CEEC and the Alliance, Canon Vaughan Roberts reiterated what ‘acceptable’ means. He confirmed that what was sought was a ‘settlement’ where, “…the conservatives, the Bible people and the traditional Catholics won’t come under the jurisdiction, or if you like the false teaching bishops, but will come under a separate Province, separate episcopacy…” and that  “…first order difference requires first order differentiation…”

As consistently as CEEC/the Alliance have made such demands, so they have been rejected out of hand, just as consistently, by the bishops to whom they are made. In fact, so comprehensively so, that in their latest communication last week the Alliance lamented that, “To our disappointment none of our criteria for flourishing have been taken into account or integrated into the deliberations of the Leicester groups [convened by Bishop Martin Snow of that diocese] nor by the House of Bishops at General Synod. Even the concept of having “three spaces” within the Church of England which was proposed by the Leicester groups was dismissed by the House of Bishops”.

CEEC have got nowhere near bringing the bishops to the negotiating table and they have got nowhere at all in securing the type of ‘pastoral provision’ they describe as essential. And so, in the interview Canon Roberts said,

Read here

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