In case you are wondering what the outcome of the Anglican Primates’ meeting was, the essence is that an Anglican Covenant was discussed and a Communique was released in which the Primates said that the Episcopal Church has until 9/30 to do…what? I’m not quite sure.

For more explanations go to Christopher Johnson and Captain Yips – there are many other great websites, of course, like TitusOneNine and Stand Firm, but for the novice to this situation, the first two present a clearer, more focused look.

A good way to judge what’s actually happening in these moments is by reading the reactions of various sides in the matter. At this point, the "reappraisers" (those who affirm the "new thing God is doing") seem mad. They are saying that the time has come for TEC to walk apart from the Anglican Communion. The reasserters (the ‘orthodox’) are cautious – which is appropriate, don’t you think – optimistic about some of what the Primates have said, but guarded because of the past history of the TEC doing what it likes anyway under the cover of verbal contortions that look like compliance, not to speak of traditional Anglican ways of feet-dragging, deadlines and many, many resolutions and just a few more meetings.

Will this put a stop to the property lawsuits that have started springing up of late?

Will this give parishes (and dioceses) seeking alternative primatial oversight some security?

I’m sure someone out there can answer the question.

Someone will invariably snark in the comments box about why anyone would care what these Anglicans do, anyway. Well, we have a lot of Anglican readers, all of whom are serious Christians who have spent years watching their church home collapse from within, and it pains them. We have a lot of Anglican Use readers who still have a strong interest in their former association. And more importantly, to me, this fractiousness is instructive for all Christians, because all Christian bodies are dealing with the same pressures and questions, if not precisely in the rather tortured (to me) Anglican manner. In the secular culture, the Roman Catholic Church is held up as the Big Bad Obstacle to enlightenment – to the new thing God is doing, but this same secular culture needs to see that not everyone, even outside the Roman Catholic Church, is walking in lockstep under the banner of the New Thing. Secondly, the Episcopal Church is, in some people’s minds, the Roman Catholic Church they wish could be. It is instructive to watch the fruit ripen.

To the practicalities, Captain Yips

The Covenant is a draft and an outline, no more, but it fixes Anglicanism to Nicene Christianity, it establishes Scripture as "as containing all things necessary for salvation and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith," and finds the characteristic Anglican forms in "ts historic formularies, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons."  A good start, that.  There’s much work to be done.

The Communique, especially in the all-important Schedule, shows signs of the pressure and controversy and (probably) exhaustion of the situation, so it’s not easy to extract from it what will happen.  There are two key parts. 

• The Pastoral Council is an overseer.  Two members appointed by ++Jefferts Schori, ++two by the Primates, and a Primate in the chair.  It seems to have two basic functions, (1) to monitor TEC’s response to the Windsor Report and to make recommendations to the Instruments of Unity, and (2) to put into effect the Pastoral Scheme
• The Pastoral Scheme isn’t the easiest part of this to figure out.  As I’m reading this right now, the Pastoral Scheme is designed to create "structures for pastoral care" to enable those "individuals, congregations, and clergy" who "feel unable to accept the direct ministry of their bishop or the Presiding Bishop"  to "exercise their ministries and congregational life within The Episcopal Church."

So how is the Pastoral Scheme to do that?  The Pastoral Council invites "Windsor Bishops" or others determined by it to participate in the Scheme.  The Windsor Bishops then nominate a Primatial Vicar, who will be responsible to the Pastoral Council.  ++Jefferts Schori in consultation with the Pastoral Council delegates powers and duties.  Of especial note here is that ++Jefferts Schori neither nominates nor controls the Vicar.  The delegated powers and duties bit is apt to be messy, but this scheme largely removes the PB from the life of the parishes and dioceses at odds with TEC.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Roman Catholic convert from Anglicanism, has his prediction:

I have to hand it to them, the Anglicans have a genius for holding things together. They are like a group of sailors bailing desperately on a leaky boat. Is it that, or is it like one of those slapstick films where the old guy has one foot on the dock and one foot on a boat that’s drifting away? I hope for their sake they can hang on long enough for some new alliances to be made and for some sort of new worldwide Anglican identity to emerge.

What this will be only the Shadow knows. I predict that it will be a loose-knit alliance of independent denominations and geographical provinces that share nothing but a liturgical history and a charming appreciation of English culture. Their understanding of what Christianity really is, and how it is to be lived in the 21st century will range from rootin’ tootin’ fundamentalism to decadent neo-paganism.

May the best man win.