I am just back from vacation and haven't caught up on my professional reading, but the Anglican media seem most interested right now in the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent proposal of two-tier status for provinces in the Anglican Communion. One tier would be for those who accept the idea of a common "covenant;" the other for those who wish to be part of the communion but, in effect, make their own rules.
Admittedly, if this characterization is accurate, it would only formalize current reality. The U.S. church and Canada have been making their own rules for some time. On the other hand, some African and South American bishops have been making their own rules about interfering in North American provinces, and this hasn't been regarded with the same opprobrium attached to pro-gay resolutions of General Convention.
Moreover, there are indications that liberals in the Church of England will push for greater recognition of gay relationships. That might change the scene entirely. As the Pope is Catholic, so the head of the Church of England is most certainly Anglican. --J. Douglas Ousley
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I feel it is more complicated than what I will call "Global North America" versus the self-proclaimed Global South, largely led by Archbishop Akinola and his central African allies plus the ACNA crowd of US-dissenters.
The comments, over the past two years, from substantial segments of other Provinces, notably the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Wales, the Church of Ireland, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, suggest that this is not the rest of the Anglican world against the Episcopal Church in the USA together with the Anglican Church of Canada.
Further, it seems that the Church of England, while perhaps less open (and less candid) than the Episcopal Church, has a very large number of dioceses and parishes that are less likely to support what Archbishop Williams is trying to do. There seems a certain inertia among clergy in England, but given the choice of something historically antithetical to what the Anglican Communion has been, and has meant, it is my belief that Archbishop Williams could be sowing the seeds for the disintegration of the Church of England itself.
For that reason, and for reasons of historical rejection in England of impositions from outside that realm, I also do not believe that a multi-Province designed "covenant" would be approved by the Synod of the Church of England.
So, we may be coming to a fork in the road that means much, much more than (TEC+ACC) diverting to the north, and everyone else in Anglican Land diverting to the south.
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