Thoughts from Archbishop Rowan on an impending Anglican Schism

Nothing new to the Angliscenti, but it's important to put as strong a spotlight as possible on the nominal head of the Anglican Communion in the midst of an Anglican Church-sponsored campaign of discrimination in Nigeria.

From General Synod:

"Whatever happened," the Archbishop lamented, "to persuasion? To the frustrating business of conducting recognisable arguments in a shared language? It is frustrating because people are so aware of the cost of a long, argumentative process. It is intolerable that injustice and bigotry are tolerated by the Church; it is intolerable that souls are put in peril by doubtful teaching and dishonest practice. Yet one of the distinctive things about the Christian Church as biblically defined is surely the presumption (Acts 15) that the default position when faced with conflict is reasoning in council and the search for a shared discernment."

As someone who has not picked sides in this grand Anglican crisis -- but who has simply found himself disturbed into action by one side of the debate -- I find Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William's words to ring with truth, but to be hollow with impotence due to their inconsistent application.

He has on repeated occasions spoken out against what he sees as "doubtful teaching and dishonest practice." But when a concrete example of "toleration" (if not support) of "injustice and bigotry" is right before his nose (I am, of course, referring to the situation in Nigeria), he says absolutely nothing.

Perhaps the Archbishop is being poorly advised.