The Anglican Church plays Chess in Jamaica

The Anglican Communion's Game of Chess Continues. As members of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meet in Jamaica, the first 5 days seem to have pawns, knights and Bishops being moved as pieces of a Chessboard.

There has been much to do about who might win this game, but it appears that at times the Queen Katie Girl of the TEC gains control of the board, leaving the King of it All ( the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury) wondering who is really in control – if in fact anyone is.

Here are some of the moves both verbally and by strategic ploy that I have found interesting thus far:



First was the refusal of the ACC to honor the seat to be held by the Rev. Phil Ashey – who lives in Atlanta, was a Priest in TEC, but is canonically resident to the Arch Bishop Orombi of Nigeria, which has caused a volley of transatlantic salvos. This is as I understand it, a play made by the Queen of the TEC, to overtake the Pawn(Ashey) and the Bishop using the Windsor Report's moratorium on crossing jurisdictional boundaries …. will the other part of the Windsor Report get played? The part where there is suppose to be a moratorium on the blessings of same sex marriages and unions, not to mention the consecration of homosexual Bishops and clergy??? We will of course have to wait for that counter move.

"Our reasons for appointing one of our American priests to represent us as our clergy delegate are our reasons, and are not for the Joint Standing Committee to question. Section 4(e) does not give the Joint Standing Committee or the ACC the right to interfere in the appointing body's determination of the "qualification" of a delegate. For the Joint Standing Committee to assume this power is nothing short of an imperialistic and colonial decision that violates the integrity of the Church of Uganda."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams made a final appeal for unity here saying that both sides in the Communion must make a final stab at reconciliation "before we say goodbye to each other. We owe it to the Lord of the Church to try one last time."
We need a common mind upon the issues which threaten to divide us, he said. Williams noted that where the Moratoria created impaired communion, there were "consequences" and that something should be done at either the diocesan or provincial level. Williams acknowledged that the Moratoria demanded that no further bishops living in same gender unions be permitted, that permission for rites of blessing for same sex unions not be put in place and that interventions in provinces should cease.

The Episcopal Church was given a stiff warning by the Archbishop of the West Indies and chairman of the Covenant Working Group today that if it passes any sexuality resolutions at GC2009 it will "imperil" the future of the Anglican Communion.

The Most Rev. Drexel Gomez said at a press conference that if GC2009 rescinds Resolution B033 and removes any barriers to persons involved in same-sex relationships, it will imperil the work of the Covenant (in its final draft) and will have an impact on the rest of the communion because of the responses others will need to make.

Gomez said the content of the Covenant is not new, but a restatement of what Anglicans believe. He said that the establishment of the Anglican Covenant is a mechanism, an enhancement of life in the communion.

The Anglican Communion is close to the point of breaking up, said the Archbishop of the West Indies, The Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, in an address to delegates of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting here in Kingston.

"If we cannot state clearly and simply what holds us together, and speak clearly at this meeting, then I fear there will be clear breaks in the Communion in the period following this meeting. Many of our Churches are asking to know where they stand - what can be relied on as central to the Anglican Communion; and how can disputes be settled without the wrangle and confusion that we have seen for the last seven years or more."

thanks to BB and Virtue