By George Conger in Kanuga

External rebukes, internal stresses and contradictory testimony marked the second plenary session of the Lambeth Commission on Communion (LCC).

Gathered at the Kanuga Conference Centre in Western North Carolina from June 13-18, the LCC received widely differing verbal reports and written submissions on the ecclesiological issues facing the Anglican Communion.  Bishop Tom Wright of Durham noted the session had been “very frank, very friendly, very cordial and hard-working.”

The plenary opened in an atmosphere of conviviality but opposing opinions and underlying tensions quickly tested the bonds of pan-Anglican bonhomie.

Commissioner, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, read a paper questioning the validity of Bishop Robinson’s orders, arguing that a “defect of intention” made his consecration invalid. The delegates reviewed several dozen other submissions including a counter statement by Archbishop Njonkonkulu Ndungane of Southern Africa urging respect for Provincial autonomy.

Reports from the meeting indicate that several non-Western members were perturbed that the steering committee had privileged a European worldview that elevated canon law above doctrine. Disagreements also arose over semantics, with some Commissioners believing ‘discipline’ to be too harsh a word to use to describe potential recommendations for dealing with the American Episcopal Church.

Canon Cameron’s May 29 address to the Canadian General Synod surprised the LCC. He had offered a stark choice to Synod: “If you say ‘no’ to the motions before you, [authorising same-sex blessings] then you will be in danger of letting down the thousands of gay people in your midst, who are part of your Canadian family.”

“But if you say ‘yes’, the work of the Lambeth Commission becomes horribly complicated, because we will be told that the Anglican Church of Canada refuses to hear the voice, or to heed the concerns of your fellow Anglicans in the growing Provinces of the Global South, who are your international family.”

Some were disconcerted by the curt tone of the speech while others were annoyed for not having been informed ahead of time that Canon Cameron would speak on their behalf.

Archbishop Eames’ press officer, the Rev Brian Parker, said reports of tensions between the staff and members were overstated. “Canon Cameron was authorised to speak to the Canadian General Synod by the chair and steering committee,” Mr Parker said. “The words were his own but the broad outline was discussed at the steering committee.”

A public expression of discord surfaced on May 7 when Commission member, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, chided Archbishop Eames. “There is no small feeling amongst conservative members of the Communion that they are being asked to show restraint whilst the liberal agenda moves ahead” he wrote.

Favouritism would “create a situation” Archbishop Gomez wrote, “where the playing field is perceived as skewed”.  Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire agreed that the playing field was skewed; but skewed in favor of traditionalists.  The “Commission has claimed to be talking to anyone who wants to talk, but our attempts to get a hearing before that Commission have been rebuffed” he stated, accusing the LCC of talking about, but not with, gays and lesbian Anglicans.

“If the Commission’s work is not about me, the diocese or homosexuality” Bishop Robinson asked, “why was Archbishop Gomez allowed to give 6-8 pages of testimony focused almost solely on those realities and how ECUSA ought to be punished for it?”

On June 15 the LCC took testimony from the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes.  Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, the Rev. Canon Martyn Minns of Truro Parish, Fairfax, Virginia, Prof. Michael Howell of the University of South Florida, Mrs. Diane Knippers of the Institute for Religion and Democracy and the Network’s legal advisor, A. Hugo Blankingship, spoke to the discord within the Episcopal Church.

Canon Minns told his congregation on June 18 “the Commission really listened to our talks and afterwards asked tough and penetrating questions.” “It also seemed evident” he added, that the Commission “supported our contention that this is not business as usual and that some kind of discipline and structural relief is necessary.”

After lunch the LCC met with a delegation from the Episcopal Church Center in New York that included Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, Dean George Werner, President of the House of Deputies, Bishop Arthur Williams, acting director of the Ethnic Congregational Development office, Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana, and national Church chancellor David Beers.

The delegation from the Episcopal Church Center offered a less structured presentation than the Network with the Presiding Bishop addressing the Commission without a prepared text.  “We sought to make clear” Bishop Griswold wrote on his return to New York, “that the overwhelming reality of the Episcopal Church is the diverse center in which differing views are held in tension because of our common desire to live together in the communion of the Holy Spirit, and to manifest Christ’s reconciling love to our divided and broken world.”

Bishop Duncan wrote he also “left encouraged and thankful” but noted that “Archbishop Eames made it clear to us that the principal issue the Commission was assigned to address was how the Anglican Communion could re-shape its life in light of a Province (ECUSA) that has rejected the clear counsel and stated teaching of the Communion.”

The Commission will meet hold one more plenary session before submitting its report to Archbishop Rowan Williams in early October.  The report will receive its first public airing on Oct 16 at the meeting of the Primates Standing Committee at Lambeth Palace.