THE rejection by The Episcopal Church of calls for moratoria on gay consecrations and same-sex blessings represents a failure to comply with the demands of the Windsor process. This process was set in train by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in an attempt to resolve the crisis after the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Whether the Anglican Communion now descends into a process of formal schism depends entirely on the response of Dr Williams.
The problem at the General Convention was that radical liberals felt that anything seen as a step backwards in their embrace of the gay agenda would be to sacrifice gays and lesbians on the altar of the Anglican Communion. This they were not prepared to do.Some new administrative structure, free of the bounds of diocese, parish and province, will have to be found to retain even a semblance of unity in the Anglican world. The most likely structure to emerge will be a form of federation, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the focus of unity.
The strategy of leaders of the Anglican church at Columbus had been to engineer the moderate middle ground to be Windsor-compliant, marginalising the radical liberals and the orthodox, for the sake of unity.
This strategy failed.
Advertisement
In the end, the key resolutions were too liberal for the conservatives or too conservative for the liberals.
The Liberal line has all along been that they are still at the table and in conversation. The Global South will say that they have not responded as was needed. The rest will say: “To your tents, O Israel.”