Primates 24 – Justin Welby Left Spinning
From: Anglican Futures.
“The Primates Meeting has been wonderful,” declared the Archbishop of Canterbury in the official Press Release.
But his face at the Press Conference suggested that it had also been exhausting, which might explain why he appeared to struggle to give coherent answers when it came to some pretty simple questions.
Question 1: Who had come to the Primates Meeting and who had stayed away?
Initially, the Archbishop was assisted by the ACO Communications Director, who told the group, “There are 32 Primates that are present at this meeting, and of those that aren’t here two have sent letters of support, others are not here for personal reasons and not all haven’t attended due to disagreement.”
That did not satisfy, and the same question was asked again. This time Justin Welby tried to answer, admitting, “I haven’t got in my head the exact number. I know that certain primates haven’t attended either because, in one case family illness in one case of pressure in their own province and in a number of cases because of conscience reasons.”
When the question was asked a third time, Justin Welby had had more time to prepare, and his answer was as little more detailed.
“I’ve been doing some sums. What I’ve forgotten is, what I’m aware of is, I can count in front of me nine primates, nine provinces absent by choice, of whom two wrote supportive letters and two were also, the same two I think, were also fully participating in IASCUFO [Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity Faith and Order].
Secondly, I know of two provinces that were absent against their choice and possibly a third from among the nine, that because of situations in their province, travel is extremely difficult or impossible and, er, um, and so you could say nine – seven of whom wrote, er two of whom wrote supportive letters and two of whom had no choice about being absent, er two to three of whom had no choice about being out of the provinces, had no choice about being absent because of their own difficulties.”
So, putting aside all the distractions about who wrote letters of support, or why individuals couldn’t be there, having done his sums the Archbishop of Canterbury was sure that there were eleven primates missing.
But then, in an unusual move, the list of those who attended was published.
And the numbers really didn’t add up.
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