TLC: Archbishop Williams' Letter 'Not a Roadmap for the Future'
10/23/2007

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Oct. 14 letter to Bishop John W. Howe of Central Florida was not a statement of Anglican Communion policy but a particular response to a local situation.

In a formal statement released on Oct. 23, Archbishop Rowan Williams said the letter “was neither a new policy statement nor a roadmap for the future but a plain response to a very urgent and particular question about clergy in traditionalist dioceses in TEC who want to leave TEC for other jurisdictions, a response reiterating a basic presupposition of what the Archbishop believes to be the theology of the Church.

“The primary point was that – theologically and sacramentally speaking – a priest is related in the first place to his/her bishop directly, not through the structure of the national church; that structure serves the dioceses. The diocese is more than a ‘local branch’ of a national organisation,” the statement noted. the rest