The 2016 Primates’ gathering in Canterbury is over and few are happy about the outcome. Liberal Anglicans, particularly in the U.S., are outraged, rebellious and, doing what liberals do best, experiencing pain and reinforcing their victimhood, while conservatives, even the GAFCON primates who attended the gathering, believe the sanctions against TEC were too weak.

The Anglican Church of Canada emerged unscathed because they have not yet adopted a marriage liturgy that accommodates same-sex marriages; the vote to alter the Marriage Canon will occur in 2016 and again in 2019. The sanctioning of TEC will undoubtedly cast a pall over the ACoC 2016 general synod but it’s anyone’s guess whether the threat of similar sanctions will prevent the motion succeeding; my guess is that it won’t.

Since both conservatives and liberals are less than satisfied by the meeting’s outcome, it is reasonable to assume that a compromise has been reached. But what has been compromised?

On the second day, the Archbishop of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, moved a resolution that asked the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada to voluntarily withdraw from the meeting and other Anglican Communion activities until they repented. Neither Fred Hiltz nor Michael Curry received this idea with enthusiasm, the resolution failed to pass and Stanley Ntagali left the meeting. He was uncompromising.

The remainder of the conservative Primates stayed to attempt to win support from other undecided Primates and to present the Gospel truth regarding same-sex marriage to the entire meeting. They compromised; I think they would say that they did not compromise the Gospel message, a claim whose truth I would not dispute, but they did make a political compromise. Whether it was a wise compromise, only time will tell, but this is why I think it may not have been:

TEC has been given three years to repent of their actions. Short of a sovereign act of God on a par with parting the Red Sea, TEC will not repent. Every reaction I have seen from TEC clergy has been defiant; their presiding bishop, Michael Curry not only has no intention of repenting but thinks that TEC’s role in the Communion is to convince conservatives of the error of their ways. TEC’s Rev. Gay Jennings serves on the Anglican Consultative Council, a role which, according to the sanction, she will be denied for the next three years; she plans to show up anyway and has defied anyone to stop her. If no one does stop her – and I doubt anyone will – who will stand up to an unrepentant TEC in three years time when secular and, I suspect, mainline church values have become further hardened against an orthodox view of marriage?

Lambeth 1.10 declared that same-sex blessings are unbiblical. That seems to have been forgotten in the Primates’ gathering. The ACoC allows same-sex blessings but, since the rigour of what is permitted or not permitted has loosened, the ACoC has been let off the hook. There has been a sleight of hand a – to use a Welbyesque corporate idiom – moving of the goalposts. In three years time, who knows to what remote region of outer space the goal posts will have been transported?

Sadly, I think the GAFCON primates have been manipulated by Justin Welby. The conservative Primates seem to me to be wonderful Godly men – who are politically naive; I intend that as a compliment.

The underlying problem that did not appear to be addressed in the meeting is that there exist within Anglicanism two different religions. One is orthodox Christianity with 2000 years of history and a consistent understanding of what the Gospel is behind it and the other is, at best, a sub-Christian mish-mash of Unitarian, new-age, relativist, anti-biblical, feel-good religion whose main aim is to reinforce the idea that virtue resides in the acting out of our inner desires no matter what they may be. The two cannot co-exist and a less than definitive censure on the deviant variety may well be worse than none at all, since it makes conservatives complicit in perpetuating the illusion that they can and the illusion of progress where there is nothing but liberal stalling.

Only time will tell – and I hope I am wrong, I really do – but I believe that three years from now TEC will have strengthened their resolve, there will be more committees, more meetings, more dialogue, more listening. The only thing missing will be a resolution to the problem.

At least I’m not alone in my disappointment.

The ACoC escaped without so much as a scolding, the likelihood of the sanctions producing repentance are non-existent, there is no mention of recognition for ACNA and no mention of the continuing litigation; for all intents an purposes this is a marginally less feeble repeat of Dromantine; and there is going to be more talking.

From here:

Statement by the GAFCON Chairman, The Most Rev. Dr. Eliud Wabukala and The GAFCON General Secretary, The Most Rev. Dr. Peter Jensen

January 14, 2016

The Anglican Communion is our spiritual home and the GAFCON Primates travelled to England in the hope that godly faith and order could be restored through renewed obedience to the Bible.

We are pleased that Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America has played a full part in the Canterbury meeting of Primates and that sanctions have been applied to the Episcopal Church of the United States, (TEC) recognising the need for mutual accountability on matters of doctrine within the family of the Communion. However, this action must not be seen as an end, but as a beginning.

There is much that causes us concern, especially the failure to recognise the fact that the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) has also rejected the collegial mind of the Communion by unilaterally permitting the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of those in active homosexual relationships.

We fear that other provinces will do the same. Since the beginning of the crisis in the Communion brought about by the actions of both TEC and the ACoC, the Anglican instruments of unity have been unable to guard biblical truth and restore godly order.

There must therefore be doubt about the effectiveness of the sanctions that have been agreed. In particular, it must be recognised that the continuing brokenness of the Communion is not the result simply of failed relationships, but is caused by the persistent rejection of biblical and apostolic faith as set out in Lambeth Resolution 1.10.

We are therefore disappointed that the Primates’ statement makes no reference to the need for repentance. The need for the GAFCON movement is being recognised by an ever increasing number of people and we are encouraged in our conviction that God has called us to work for an Anglican Communion which is a truly global family of Churches.

We long to see a united, confident and courageous witness to God who by the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ has given us an unshakeable hope and assures us of his unfailing love.

The official statement from the Primates’ gathering has been released. I note that a Task Group to maintain conversation will be formed. That makes me feel so much better:

Statement from Primates 2016

14 Jan 2016

Both VOL and Anglican Ink are reporting that TEC is to be sanctioned over its same-sex marriage canon.

VOL:

Reliable sources have told VOL that the Episcopal Church will be sanctioned by the Primates of the Anglican Communion following the passage of the Marriage Canon passed last summer at General Convention in Salt Lake City.

The Primates unanimously recognized that the Marriage Canon passed by the Episcopal Church was a departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of Provinces, and was a departure from the mutual accountability and interdependence implied through being in relationship with each other in the Anglican Communion.

As a consequence sanctions have been passed that for three years TEC may no longer have representatives on ecumenical and interfaith bodies. Secondly, TEC should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and can only have voice but not vote in the Instruments of Communion.

Anglican Ink:

The primates of the Anglican Communion have suspended the Episcopal Church from full participation in the life and work of the Anglican Communion. On 14 January 2016 a motion was presented to the gathering of archbishops and moderators gathered in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral that called for the Episcopal Church to be suspended for a period of three years.

The resolution as shared with Anglican Ink calls for the Episcopal Church to lose its “vote” in meetings of pan-Anglican institutions and assemblies, but preserves its “voice”, demoting the church to observer status..

The motion asks that representatives of the Episcopal Church not be permitted to represent the Communion in interfaith and ecumenical bodies or dialogue commissions, nor serve on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council, nor vote at meetings of the Anglican Consultative Council — whose next meeting is this summer in Lusaka. Unlike the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which called for the “voluntary withdrawal” of the Episcopal Church from the life of the Communion, today’s vote directs the archbishop to discipline the American church.

The Episcopal Church may not take part in the decision making process “on issues of doctrine or polity”, either, agreed the primates.

The motion further asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to “appoint a task group to maintain conversations among ourselves with the intention of restoration of relationship, rebuilding of mutual trust, healing the legacy of hurt, recognising the extent of commonality, and exploring our deep differences, ensuring they are held in the love and grace of Christ.”

The archbishop’s task group will be tasked with implementing the dialogue and codifying what “this looks like” a source familiar with the deliberations told AI.

The motion was passed by a two thirds margin, sources tell AI.

The three year time frame to repent and bring its house in order was given so as to “respect the polity of the Episcopal Church” a source tells us. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has no authority to bind the American church. That can only be done by the Church’s General Convention which is scheduled to meet in 2018.

Fred Hiltz managed to worm his way out of being lumped with TEC by pleading that the ACoC has not yet passed its marriage canon resolution:

Leaders of the GAFCON movement, at the start of the meeting, sought to group the Anglican Church of Canada with the Episcopal Church, but Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz told the gathering his church had yet to adopt provincial-wide rites for same-sex marriage. It would come before the next meeting of General Synod, he explained, but had not been settled. Archbishop Hiltz’s explanation appears to have satisfied the group as a whole as the motion proposed and its accompanying debate focused on the Episcopal Church.

Although time will tell, I very much fear this is too little, too late and that the Archbishop of Uganda had the right idea when he walked out.

Perhaps, though, if ACNA is recognised as an Anglican Province in communion with Canterbury it would compensate somewhat for lashing TEC with nothing but a wet noodle.