Drawing the line? What line?

Yet more Episcopal/Anglican soap opera.  Proceed at your own risk …

I wrote the other day about Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sending a letter to Abp. Akinola in Nigeria, asking him very nicely not to come and consecrate a bishop on American soil, noting (quite accurately) that this was a direct violation of both longstanding custom in the Anglican world (building your province on the territory of another) and in opposition to the recommendations of the highly touted Windsor report.

Abp. Akinola has responded, basically saying (in ecclesiastically somewhat more polite terms), “Is somebody talking to me?  I can’t quite hear what you’re saying …”  His basic thesis seems to be that it’s all the Episcopal Church’s fault, that the relationship is broken, that the House of Bishops just gave him the Primates the finger, and therefore he doesn’t have to recognize any “ancient traditions” or the like.  He doesn’t actually mention the planned consecration, but his position is clear — the Episcopal Church is not part of the Anglican Communion (according to him), and therefore he doesn’t have to respect its boundaries any more than he’d have to respect the boundaries of the Catholic Church.

If this seems somewhat radical, all you have to do is read through the comments at conservative Episcopal sites such as TitusOneNine regarding PB Jefferts Schori’s letter or Abp. Akinola’s response.  To these individuals — all of whom seem to be soundly behind Abp. Akinola, TEC is no longer an Anglican institution.  Indeed, it’s not a Christian church at all, just a heretical sect, a cult, a crumbling big business that will soon be swept into the sea and/or fiery furnace.  The level of personal vitriol toward and contempt about PB Jefferts Schori and TEC is breathtaking.

If that’s the position they want to hold, so be it.  I disagree, but, then, I would, be an heretical cultist and all that.  But if that’s the case, let’s just stop with all the name-calling and sniping and move on with things. 

Aaaah, but then there’s the money issue (we’ll leave aside the “No, we have to clearly be the winners in this” issue).  And money’s the reason, to my mind, why this hasn’t been a simple exodus of folks from TEC moving into new congregations of like-minded folks.  There’s all that property and such that has to be adjudicated.  Folks like Rev Don Armstrong and the rectors of other parishes around the country (and, in some cases, the bishops of some dioceses) don’t want to have to start from scratch.  If it’s all the Episcopal Church’s fault, then, by gum, those darned tyrannical heretics should be the losers, and those <s>Episcopal</s> congregational church buildings that we’ve been paying the mortgage for (backed by guarantees by the local diocese and in trusteeship of the local diocese per canon law, but who cares about that) should stick with us, by cracky!  At which point we get into the “scandalous” round of court cases regarding who gets the property — cases which the Primates asked both sides to back down on in their Tanzania communique, but which Abp. Akinola only raps TEC for not complying.

Here’s my take on this.  If Abp. Akinola is going to come to the US and ordain bishops, and if the rest of the Anglican Communion is going to let them, then what’s the whole point?  Let’s all go our separate ways, and in 0-80-odd years from now, we’ll all personally have a chance to chat about it with the one Judge in the case whose opinion actually matters.

(via Preludium (with more commentary here)