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Technorati“If they are not working effectively, the challenge is to renew them rather than to improvise solutions that may seem to be effective for some in the short term but will continue to create more problems than they solve,” he said.
Just weeks away from the Communion’s once-a-decade global gathering, Williams said one of the most significant focuses at the Lambeth Conference will be structural renewal and restoring confidence in Anglican identity. Lambeth is scheduled to take place in Kent, England, from July 16 to August 3.
Many conservative bishops, who attended GAFCON, said they will not attend Lambeth, partly due to their opposition to the invitation of bishops, mainly from the U.S. Episcopal Church, who supported the consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003. The task of structural renewal, however, requires all “to play their part,” the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He invited GAFCON leaders to take part in the drawing up of the Anglican Covenant, a document seeking to uphold the autonomy of the Communion’s 38 provinces while asking for their voluntary commitment to a process of joined-up deliberation to solve disputes over contentious issues. The draft document is scheduled for discussion at Lambeth.
Also on Monday, Williams rejected the accusation from GAFCON leaders that some liberal member churches are preaching the “false gospel” of sexual immorality.
“It is wrong,” the Archbishop said, “to assume we are now so far apart that all those outside the GAFCON network are simply proclaiming another gospel.”
“This is not the case; it is not the experience of millions of faithful and biblically focused Anglicans in every province,” he stated.
“What is true is that, on all sides of our controversies, slogans, misrepresentations and caricatures abound. And they need to be challenged in the name of the respect and patience we owe to each other in Jesus Christ.”
He appealed for patience from GAFCON leaders. “An impatience at all costs to clear the Lord’s field of the weeds that may appear among the shoots of true life (Matt.13.29) will put at risk our clarity and effectiveness in communicating just those evangelical and catholic truths which the GAFCON statement presents.”
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