(Times) - ....The proposals are a sign of how the Anglican Communion is centralising its authority in an attempt to prevent further schismatic events such as the consecration of a gay bishop.THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: This is a very fascinating development, and perhaps a potentially positive one. The proposals include the creation of an office called the "Anglican Faith and Order Commission," which bears striking resemblance to the Vatican's "Congregation for Doctrine and Faith," and an "Anglican Covenant," which member churches would sign to agree on premises of unity and the emerging power structure in Canterbury.
Although he will resist describing himself as such, the effect of all these measures, if they are successfully implemented, will be to turn the Archbishop of Canterbury into a de facto Anglican Pope....
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Liberals will oppose it outright, because it threatens their heterodox agenda. Evangelicals within the Communion will probably oppose it as well, because it bears too much resemblance to papal authority. Moderate Conservatives and Traditionalists will probably embrace it to some degree, because it effectively models the idea of an "Anglican Patriarchate" similar to what exists among the Eastern Orthodox churches.
From this Roman Catholic observers can glean a powerful lesson that the ideals of Protestantism within the Anglican Communion have failed. Historically, the Church of England (and the worldwide Communion) have dabbled in Protestantism. Now that dabbling has come back to bite them. What began in the Oxford Movement as a return to Catholic tradition, is culminating at this Lambeth Conference as a call for Catholic hierarchy - or at least something closer to that. It may be the Anglican Communion's last chance at survival, and if accepted, it may be a sign that Anglicanism is choosing to return to Catholicism, rather than continue down the Protestant road that has brought this crisis upon them.
If the proposals are accepted, and that is a big "if," than it remains to be seen how they will be implemented. If this plan is going to work, then the "Anglican Faith and Order Commission" is going to need some teeth. What will be done with the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA), which has gone so far down the road of heterodoxy? Will such a "Commission" have the authority to clean up the American branch of Anglicanism? Or will the ECUSA have to be officially placed in a state of limbo for the foreseeable long term? This is quite a tangled up mess the Anglican Communion has gotten itself into, and if such a "Commission" is actually created, it's going to have it's work cut out for it. As for the Archbishop of Canterbury, there is no question he's going to have to seize the reigns of control, and begin exercising some real authority, or else what's left of the Anglican Communion will disintegrate.
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