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.