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"But It Shall Not Be So Among You": Some Reflections Towards the Reception of the Windsor Report within ECUSA

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Grieb, A Katherine

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The most important contributions of the Windsor Report are its passionate insistence that it is not too late to learn how to walk together as an Anglican Communion, and its boldness in asking those whose actions and reactions have provoked the most controversy: How much do you care whether we go on as an Anglican Communion? This question is sharply posed in the form of specific invitations to express regret, not for the actions taken, which it is assumed were taken as a matter of conscience, but for the way in which these actions have impaired or risked impairment of communion. Along with the expression of regret, all the dioceses and provinces involved are asked to declare a moratorium on any further such actions and reactions, in order to give the Anglican Communion time for its various members to talk and listen to one another, to think and pray, and to attempt to correct misperceptions of intention and misstatements of fact.

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The Windsor Report also specifically requests of ECUSA an account, based on the traditional sources of authority in Anglicanism, of its actions in consecrating Bishop Robinson and allowing some diocesan clergy to assist at same-sex blessings (para. 135). This invitation models a willingness to consider a minority view within the Anglican Communion, one that has had a difficult time getting a hearing for the last two or three decades. At the same time, it signals that ECUSA has not successfully provided such an account and that feelings on this issue are intense. In all of these ways, the Report has framed the debate in such a way that it is not only possible but actually desirable for serious concessions to be offered on both sides that signal an ongoing commitment to the Anglican Communion. The genius of the Report is that it defines the moral high ground that all sides want to claim in terms of statements and actions that both further the constructive debate and limit the opportunities for escalating the conflict. Its own powerful theology of the cross functions to point out the destructiveness of the rhetorical posturing that defines the opposing view as that of the enemy.

Not surprisingly, the Windsor Report has as its primary conversation partner Paul, who spent most of his career working for church unity against serious odds. In addition to describing Paul's early church experiences, the Report provides an excellent account of "biblical authority" that rightly locates authority primarily in God, in the Word of God, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. Reading the Report, one senses the power of the lively word of God in Scripture and the rich heritage of ecclesial biblical interpretation as treasures that ought not to be squandered in the heat of controversy. The Report describes a tradition of Anglicanism well worth the hard work of staying in communion.

All of these features of the Windsor Report make it an invaluable resource for the present crisis within the Anglican Communion. But the Report does a great deal more as well. Along the way, it provides a curious history of women's ordination in an apparent dramatic contrast to the history of the present conflict. It claims that ECUSA assumed the divisive issues were adiaphora and could therefore be handled locally, while most of the rest of the Anglican Communion did not. And it proposes a number of additional legislative and structural modifications to strengthen the Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion. Among these are the proposed covenant, procedural steps that could be taken by the Archbishop of Canterbury to help protect the Anglican Communion, and the suggestion that the Archbishop of Canterbury's role might be enhanced by a Council of Advice. The Report also suggests that in addition to four named Instruments of Unity, Anglican Communion common law might function as a fifth instrument of unity.

"But It Shall Not Be So Among You": Some Reflections Towards the Reception of the Windsor Report within ECUSA

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Grieb, A Katherine

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