THE PERSONAL reflections of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, about the future direction and internal structures of the Anglican Communion merit “the most careful and unhurried scrutiny at representative provincial level”, the Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper said yesterday.
The archbishop was commenting following a statement by Archbishop Williams earlier this week in which he said the US Episcopal Church might have to accept a different role within the worldwide Anglican Communion following its decision earlier this month to lift a de facto ban on gay bishops and to consider rites of blessing for same-sex unions.
Archbishop Williams, titular head of the Anglican Communion, outlined his concerns in a statement to its leaders worldwide saying “very serious anxieties have already been expressed” among the world’s 77 million Anglicans.
He spoke of a “two-tier” or “two-track” model – one path for those who remain part of the Communion’s “covenantal structure”, and another with “fewer formal expectations” for those who value autonomy.
“It helps to be clear about these possible futures, however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are – two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out,” he wrote.