Confessing Evangelical

OK. Here's what I reckon you need to know about the Windsor Report of the Lambeth Commission set up to report on how the Anglican Communion should react to the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and proposals to allow same-sex blessings:

1. +Robbie gets to keep his pointy hat (as Chris Johnson might put it), but if individual churches don't want to recognise him, that's fine (para 133).
   


2. ECUSA should say sorry about the way it went about appointing him (but not, note, about the appointment itself) (para 134).
   


3. The bishops who consecrated +Robbie should think really hard about whether they want to turn up to Anglican Communion events, but on the other hand if they still want to, that's cool (para 134).
   


4. ECUSA should solemnly promise Not To Do It Again (para 134), because next time it acts in flagrant disregard for Scripture, tradition and the stated will of almost the entire Anglican Communion, there really will be trouble, do I make myself clear?
   


5. ECUSA's convoluted and temporary Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight programme for disaffected orthodox congregations is perfectly sufficient, can't see what people are complaining about (para 152).
   


6. Bishops and primates outside the USA should butt out, apologise for daring to get involved, and leave the orthodox Anglican congregations to sink or swim (para 155).
   

I paraphrase, but that's the gist of it. Very, very disappointing indeed. My heart goes out to those orthodox parishes, dioceses and individual Christians who, when it comes to actual concrete action to help them (rather than statements of concern and sympathy), appear, on an initial reading, to have been badly let down.

Update: David Virtue has some early analysis of the report. Basically, he's unimpressed, and suggests that it may prompt the Global South to walk away from Canterbury in disgust. Well, let's wait and see. But it's hard to see how the likes of Peter Akinola or Greg Venables could be satisfied by a mere "apology" and vague promises of better behaviour in future.

Further update: The Scotsman reports that the Church Society has attacked the Windsor Report as "toothless", while the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement has praised it as "a document we can work with, ... a Church we want to continue to be a part of". That suggests the Report fails the basic legal principle that a good settlement is one that leaves both sides feeling unhappy.

For further updates, see the CaNN website, Titus 1:9 and Virtuosity. And I'm sure that the Midwest Conservative Journal will have some words to say on the subject, once Chris Johnson has picked himself up off the floor.