Primates leave to keep Lent

During the night news finally came from Tanzania about what the Primates had agreed before departing to return to keeping Lent in their own parts of the church around the world:

Anglican Church leaders give liberals ultimatum
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, in Dar Es Salaam
Last Updated: 7:41pm GMT 20/02/2007

The liberal American branch of Anglicanism was last night given seven months to prove that it has fully reversed its pro-gay agenda or face expulsion.

Dr Rowan Williams confers with the Tanzanian Archbishop Donald Mtetemela
In a strongly-worded, unanimous communiqué, only agreed at the eleventh hour, the Anglican primates called on the Episcopal Church to state unequivocally that it will not consecrate more gay bishops or authorise same-sex blessings.
After a five-day meeting in Tanzania, the primates said that the Episcopal Church’s bishops had until the end of September to make their response. If they failed to meet these demands it would have "consequences" for their "full participation" in the Anglican Communion.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said at a press conference later that these could include not inviting the American bishops to next year’s Lambeth Conference, a clear sign of schism.
Conservative primates, who were responsible for strengthening the language of the final statement, were predicting last night that the Episcopal Church would struggle to accept the conditions as it would face fierce opposition from gay rights activists within its ranks.
The conservative Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, held out until the last minute, but was finally persuaded to sign it.
The communiqué also set up a new structure for conservative Americans who have rejected their liberal Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.
A pastoral council, whose members will include both conservatives and liberals, will be established to oversee the new enclave, which will be widely seen as a form of "parallel" Church.
It will be able to choose a “primatial vicar” from within its ranks, with the consent of Bishop Schori, who will act like a Presiding Bishop for the conservatives and who will be directly responsible to the council.
The communiqué also called for the cessation of property disputes between the Episcopal Church’s liberal leadership and conservative parishes and for an end to African primates intervening in the American Church.
It will be welcomed by liberals who had feared that the meeting would expel or discipline the American Church, even though it may only postpone the moment when that occurs.
Conservatives may regard it as too lenient on the Episcopal Church, but the primates believe that the problem is now firmly back in the liberal American court.
Dr Williams has bought some more valuable time and avoided a schism, but whether the gap between the warring factions can ever be fully bridged remains very much in doubt.
A group of conservative primates had prepared a minority statement that they threatened to issue if they failed to win significant concessions in the communiqué, mainly in the strength of the language.
One of the leading conservatives, the Primate of the Southern Cone in South America, Archbishop Gregory Venables, said after the meeting: "We came very close to separation over this.
"But Biblical doctrine and behaviour have been affirmed as the norms in the Church."

Perhaps we can now get on with ordinary Christian living , at least until the next crisis!