Sunday, June 29, 2008

Will Half of Anglican Louisiana Leave Episcopal Church USA?

UPDATE- I will hit this later in another post. But does not the GAFCON Declaration seem to leave Anglo Catholics in the Cold a tad? IS that because of clumsy writing or can they can reconcile it? Does this mean that Anglo Catholic leaning folks might feel themselves left out of even a new conference? What does that mean for Diocese such as Western Louisiana (I am not sure how many Anglo Catholic Leaning Parishes there are) What about those rumors we hear from Rome?

Update II- This blogger from the Western Diocese of Louisiana gives his insights at GAFCON: What's in it for me?

They very well might because of events that has been set in motion at the very least by events far far away.!!. I have often complained that with the Anglican Communion on the verge of Schism Louisiana newspapers seem not to notice one of the leading players is Bishop Bruce MacPherson of the Episcopal Diocese of the Western Diocese of Louisiana.

As you can tell from this map the Diocese of Western Louisiana takes up the majority of the State. Including most of its major cities (Outside New Orleans Metro and Baton Rouge) which are Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles, and Lafayette.

Bishop MacPherson as well as other Diocesan Clergy are in Jerusalem . They are at a conference that for all purposes is a rival to the main worldwide Anglican Conference that being Lambath. Note Bishop MacPherson will be attending Lambath also. However I get the sense that he is ready to take the next step or preapare his Diocese to make the jump alternative conference.

Galcom has just issued this statement The GAFCON Communique . I will be doing a post on the world wide implications of this (despite what the National Review is Reporting I don't think the Worldwide Communion is in Schism yet !!! but time is running out for the Archbishop of Canterbury ). More on all this later as well as the Catholic implications in parts of the statement!!

Louisiana Western of Diocese Anglican Drell’s Descants is asking the question today What The Gafcon Statement Means For Western Louisiana. He seems to take the attitude perhaps not much. I am not so sure

What are Bishop MacPherson ideas and what did he do in Jerusalem. What do local clergy think? For a faith community that has a ancient(at least in Louisiana terms since 1804) when will the Louisiana newspapers start taking notice something significant is up?

This statement does not indicate a Worldwide Schism yet in the Anglican Communion . However will be a split in the United States Anglican Church?

I noticed that in comments here at Drell's post Bruce MacPherson Has Been Invited and Will Be Attending GAFCON in Israel from earlier this that is was mentioned:
"He has been invited as a Bishop of the Anglican Communion. He is going as an individual." However attending sends a message. I am anxious to learn what and hopefully the Louisiana secular press can assit in that.

-Midwest Conservative Journal comments on the situation the Western Diocees of Louisiana is in, as well as others, at IN OR OUT?

Check out the other entries that MCJ has that give background

He notes what one person is saying at UNRAVELING the least of which what is the QUEEN thinking:
Certainly this changes the equation for Rowan Williams, as he is now facing a stark choice between throwing over the North Americans or losing more than half his flock. Mind you, he won’t lose them immediately in an official sense, but he’ll lose them as the Church of England lost the Methodists--although in this case the numbers far exceeds the Methodists, in souls and percentage. Inaction hardly seems an option any longer (although for Rowan Williams it is always an option, for that is what he does best). Certainly, though, when Her Majesty the Queen and the C of E’s Supreme Governor reads her Sunday papers, she will not be pleased that her Archbishop of Canterbury has appeared overnight to have lost more than half the Anglican Communion. And the Anglican Communion is an unstated but critical component of her Commonwealth, the achievement of her reign she has always viewed as the most important. What she will say about this, if anything, no one will know. But she will not be pleased, to put it mildly. .........

It looks increasingly like the best option for Rowan Williams now is simply to resign. He has been tried and found wanting, and if the Communion is to be saved, there will have to be discipline and accountability for the North Americans--and those in his own Church of England who seem emboldened to follow the American example. The longer he waits to return to teaching and writing, the more difficult it will be for his successor to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Events now are moving at such a pace that he is simply not able to keep up. He has in effect been declared irrelevant by more than half of his flock, and so is now unable to slow down anything by his inaction--the only way he knows how to deal with anything.

Hee gives a good overview what this declaration means for us folks that do not know Anglican Speak at DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

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