The Canadian House of Bishops has issued a statement that said this:

“A continued commitment to the greatest extent possible to the three moratoria — on the blessing of same-sex unions, on the ordination to the episcopate of people in same-sex relationships and on cross-border interventions — until General Synod 2010. Members of this House, while recognizing the difficulty that this commitment represents for dioceses that in conscience have made decisions on these matters, commit themselves to continue walking together and to hold each other in prayer.”

A casual reading makes it appear that Canadian bishops are indeed willing to stop conducting same sex blessings; but then there is that surreptitiously inserted phrase “to the greatest extent possible”.

Later in an interview with the Anglican Journal, Fred:

acknowledged that this stance allows dioceses such as Montreal and Ottawa some wiggle room to continue what their bishops have recently described as “incremental” and “experiential” steps toward same-sex blessings.

“Experiential”? Doesn’t that mean “doing it”? “Incremental” is presumably intended as a condescending pat on the head to the recalcitrant fundamentalists who, given enough time, will become enlightened like Fred; just thinking about that gives me the willies.

So what is really going on, other than the usual emissions from Freddie’s Industrial Strength Fog Machine?

It seems clear that the official HoB statement is designed as a pacifier for Rowan Williams to suck on: through it Fred is whining: “listen Rowan, I’m a good boy, I’m saying what you told me to say, please, please don’t cut me off from Lambeth.”

As usual, Fred wants to hold on prestige and power at all costs, won’t discipline his wayward bishops because he secretly agrees with them and is waffling at full throttle in an attempt to conceal what is really going on.