Damian Thompson on the Anglican 'Pastoral Forum'

"The 650 bishops at the Lambeth Conference were today handed plans for a "Pastoral Forum" intended to save the Anglican Communion. It won't."

LONDON (Catholic Online) - Today, Damian Thompson who writes for the Telegraph and for the Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom responded to the action taken by the Bishops at Lambeth to attempt to bring unity to an increasingly divided community.

Thompson is the most reliable commentator on the ongoing saga playing out during these historic days as the Anglican Bishops gather in Lambeth.

His piece entitled "Can the 'Pastoral Forum' save the Anglican Communion? No" reported the following:

"The 650 bishops at the Lambeth Conference were today handed plans for a "Pastoral Forum" intended to save the Anglican Communion. It won't. Not a chance. Still, if you're interested in this sort of thing, then read on.

The document, produced by the "Windsor Continuation Group" - life is too short to explain precisely what this is, but it's vaguely official - reiterates the demand that Anglican provinces shouldn't ordain gay bishops, bless same-sex unions or set up shop in other provinces. Nothing fresh there.

The new bit is a proposal that the Anglican Communion might provide a temporary "safe haven" for conservative parishes opting out of gay-ordaining liberal provinces. That means they could carry on being Anglican even though they were disowned by their own archbishop, with their property possibly being held in trust for them until matters are resolved.

But - and this is what really makes a nonsense of the whole thing - the Pastoral Forum won't come into being unless the American Episcopal Church accepts the idea. Which it won't. So the Windsor Continuation Group has been (as the Bible says) wasting its sweetness on the desert air.

The point is that we're watching nothing more than mind-numbing theatre. The debates over covenants and forums and instruments and continuation groups are just play-acting because (a) nobody can vote on them and (b) even if they could, liberals and conservatives wouldn't pay a blind bit of notice to any bits of a plan that didn't fit their agenda.

How would the Pastoral Forum fit into Rowan's plan for a covenant? Anyone who tells you they know the answer is lying: nobody knows, including ++Cantuar. Indeed, anyone who even asks the question needs to get out more."

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