wfn.org | [ACNS] Statement from Lambeth Palace on the 'network' stories

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3888     |     ENGLAND	|     24 SEPTEMBER 2004

Statement from Lambeth Palace on the 'network' stories

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams, has had a
wide range of meetings and conversations with many groups and
individuals on all sides in relation to the current concerns in the
Anglican Communion. These meetings remain private and confidential.

Amongst those with whom the archbishop met last autumn were those
dissenting from the impending consecration of Gene Robinson; those
involved wished to discuss the shape that might be taken by groups
dissenting from the decision of General Convention but remaining within
the structures of ECUSA.

The term 'network' was suggested as offering one appropriate model to
provide support for those dissenting from the resolution but intending
to remain within ECUSA's structures. The Archbishop felt that this might
prove a suitable working concept, but no proposals as to its potential
form, structure or outworking were advanced.

In relation to the discussion of the term 'confessing church'; this
concept indicated, in accordance with traditional Protestant usage -
that the dissent was understood to be on a matter of conscience that,
for the dissenter, touched on the integrity of the church itself. No
narrower example or more specific comparison, for instance to the church
in Germany in the 1930s, was intended.

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