Episcopal News Service Friday, September 22, 2006
Observers respond to Kigali, Camp Allen statements
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] Reactions to statements issued September 22 by a group of Episcopal Church bishops meeting in Texas and the Global South Primates meeting in Rwanda included both praise and criticism.
Statements were made by Via Media USA, the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDAP), the American Anglican Council (ACC) and the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).
The Episcopal Church's two presiding officers, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, are also expected to comment.
The text of the meeting of the Global South Primates, held September 19-22 in Kigali, Rwanda, is available at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/41/75/acns4193.cfm
The text of the meeting of some Episcopal bishops, held during the same dates at Camp Allen Conference and Retreat Center northwest of Houston, Texas, is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_78011_ENG_HTM.htm
Dr. Christopher Wilkins, facilitator of Via Media USA, said that the two statements "are hard to reconcile" given the Camp Allen bishops' stance toward unity and what he called the Kigali statement's "breathtaking rejection of the entire Episcopal Church, except for those segments of it that the signatories consider truly faithful."
The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, AAC president and chief operating officer said the statement is "what we have hoped and prayed for since 2003."
"It is sure to inspire and encourage biblically faithful Anglicans in North America," he said.
NACDAP, a group made up of 10 of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses, along with congregations and individual clergy, said it welcomed the Kigali Communiqué.
"We are deeply humbled by the care shown for us by our Fathers in God in the Global South," said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, the network's moderator.
Meanwhile, ANiC said the Kigali statement was a "grave warning" to the Anglican Church of Canada, "demonstrating the consequences for churches that stray from authentic, biblically-faithful Anglican teaching."
Wilkins of Via Media USA said that the contrast between the statements was notable.
"The statement from Camp Allen shows Episcopalians, once again, attempting to find ways to express their longstanding commitment to other Anglican Communion provinces, to the faith we have received, and the truth to which it bears witness. It even flirts with accepting greater division in the church as the price of its continued unity, which would be difficult for the church to accept," Wilkins said. "By contrast, and as though in rebuke, the Global South Primates' Kigali Communiqué is a breathtaking rejection of the entire Episcopal Church, except for those segments of it that the signatories consider truly faithful."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_78018_ENG_HTM.htm
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