The House of Bishops Meeting

The House of Bishops is meeting in New Orleans this week to discuss, among other matters, how it will respond to the Primates Communique. While this is indeed a momentous event for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, there are far better sources of comment and news than me on this issue.

As a starting point, I suggest that you check out the reporting of my colleagues at The Lead. We are working hard to keep up with the reporters and fellow blog commentators, and the group has a good perspective about what is rumour and what is news. Heck, even the Elves at Titus One Nine praised the reporting on the Lead. Here is an example of a post from last night that gives some quite interesting news:

But back to the story from Australia. It is based on an interview with Archbishop Aspinall, given just before he left for New Orleans:

The Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia, Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane, said the mood within the Anglican Communion was one of reconciliation where the vast majority of them were seeking a middle-way to deal with the homosexuality issue that is threatening to break the Communion apart.
In an interview with the Religion Report, broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Archbishop Aspinall talked about the need to find a ‘constructive step’ to resolve the debate on the subject of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex partnership, noting this problem could not be fixed instantly with one solution.

“…No-one is expecting a quick fix and once-and-for-all solution for all time from the meeting this week in the United States. Rather we hope that in conversation and prayer and mutual discernment, we might be able to see constructive next steps,” he said


Aspinall was in the thick of the negotiations in Dar es Salaam. He will be in the thick of things in New Orleans as well. Contrast his tone with that of Archbishop Akinola. They don't seem to be summarizing the same situation. So who has the better grip?


Read it all here.

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