Feed My Sheep: A Token of Trust

Here is the immediate response by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the election of Mary Glasspool as one of two new suffragan bishops in the diocese of Los Angeles. Keep in mind, ++Williams has NOT taken a stance on the "creation of an open season on LBGT brothers and sisters in Uganda.


Anglican Communion News Service

Archbishop of Canterbury's Statement on Los Angeles Episcopal Elections
Posted On : December 6, 2009 9:54 AM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: ACNS4674

The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.

Many folks have written about this already. I would like to add just a few comments from the Archbishop's own book, Tokens of Trust.

++Williams writes, "So an explanation that even hinted that some lives were less important than others would be a betrayal of one of the basic insights of faith."

"God is always at work, but the work is not always visible."

"So it is appropriate that in the universe there should be beings who show something of God's liberty, God's love, God's ability to make new things and to make relationships."

"Things are going on in the universe, glorious and wonderful things, of which we know nothing."

"There's no kind of thing or person that is objectionable to God by nature or insignificant for God, nothing that isn't his responsibility."

Finally,

"We have grounds for hoping that our lives here within the complex system of created reality can show in some degree the gratuitous and generous love out of which everything comes, the love of the Creator in whose image we are made."

Archbishop Rowan Williams, you have written about it and I would hope that what you wrote you believe. It is time to act on that belief. As an ordained priest in the Anglican communion your first responsibility is to the laity, to whom you wrote so eloquently, and not to the Anglican Global South, or to the FCA or to the ACNA or even to the Anglican Communion. With all due respect, we ask that you live up to your vows as a priest, "feed my sheep".