A.S. Haley: Shine, Perishing Communion

May 10, 2009

Confused about what happened in Jamaica with the Anglican Consultative Council? You are not the only one. Even the ECUSA camp couldn't get its signals straight. At first The Lead at Episcopal Café put up a piece headlined "Despite TEC Setback, controversial Section IV is still in play", only to supersede that post six hours later with one entitled: "Confusion reigns as ACC delays Covenant release." Similar confusion was evident all over the blogosphere, mixed in with sentiments of betrayal, resentment, and outrage at being deceived, or relief, indifference, exuberance, and even assurance that nothing is wrong, depending on the camp from which one hailed. In this post, I will try to piece together an accurate account of what actually happened, and then will try to assess its significance at the end.

I have written before about the character of the Most Reverend Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a "peace negotiator"--- one who, in the words of the Rev. Dr. Giles Fraser,

pursues a theology that refuses to accept that a disagreement can ever reach a point where there is no benefit to be gained from further conversation. . . .. . . Put a different way, it is a refusal to accept that two seemingly irreconcilable positions are indeed irreconcilable. The mediator is the supreme pragmatist, employing all the philosophical strategies up his or her sleeve to keep opponents round the table, to keep them talking.

Last Friday, as the Anglican Consultative Council met in Jamaica to take up the proposed Anglican Covenant, Dr. Williams ran out of strategies. In an effort to keep the 800-pound gorilla at the table, he managed to confound the delegates from the Global South to the point that they will probably never again return to the table---at least, not all of them.

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