In that interview the reporter asks:
After years of debate and threatened schism in the Communion, the Church has taken a decisive and progressive step towards appointing women as bishops, with a final Synod vote due in 2012. How do you see the way forward?
And Williams answers:
That's news to many of us - we thought the main issue was whether scripture and tradition would permit women to serve as bishops. It seems that for this Archbishop, the overriding concern is neither scripture nor tradition but rather what will Rome say. You might have thought that the current Pope's plan to poach conservative members of the Church of England would, by now, have answered that question.
After years of debate and threatened schism in the Communion, the Church has taken a decisive and progressive step towards appointing women as bishops, with a final Synod vote due in 2012. How do you see the way forward?
And Williams answers:
I think it’s well-known that in the Church of England there is a very significant minority of people who believe that the Church of England and the Anglican Churches generally should not take a large step like ordaining women bishops without more consultation with, or sensitivity to, the other great Churches – the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
That's news to many of us - we thought the main issue was whether scripture and tradition would permit women to serve as bishops. It seems that for this Archbishop, the overriding concern is neither scripture nor tradition but rather what will Rome say. You might have thought that the current Pope's plan to poach conservative members of the Church of England would, by now, have answered that question.
In terms of the place of The US Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion, the reporter asked:
In your February 2010 address to the General Synod, you warned that infighting over women bishops and gay priests could split the Communion. You even conceded that, unless Anglicans find a way to live with their differences, the Church would change shape and become a multi-tier Communion of different levels – a schism in all but name. Which way are things heading on these two fronts?
And this Archbishop answered:
In your February 2010 address to the General Synod, you warned that infighting over women bishops and gay priests could split the Communion. You even conceded that, unless Anglicans find a way to live with their differences, the Church would change shape and become a multi-tier Communion of different levels – a schism in all but name. Which way are things heading on these two fronts?
And this Archbishop answered:
I think I’ll be able to be clearer about that after the next primates’ meeting. But at the moment I couldn’t say I felt completely optimistic about that. I feel that we may yet have to face the possibility of deeper divisions. I don’t at all like, or want to encourage, the idea of a multi-tier organisation. But that would, in my mind, be preferable to complete chaos and fragmentation. It’s about agreeing what we could do together.
So he's still worried about what other churches will do and is willing to propose second class status on the US Church. At least now we know where his priorities stand.
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