The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana, has expressed disappointment with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in a letter to his diocese. Bishop MacPherson also said he will attend the Global Anglican Fellowship conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem this June.
Bishop MacPherson recently wrote his diocese with some reflections on Archbishop Williams’ Advent letter to the primates. In his highly anticipated letter, Archbishop Williams declined to sanction The Episcopal Church for failing to provide the unequivocal assurances sought by the primates’ in their February 2007 communiqué. Archbishop Willaims' letter also offered no substantive alternative means of resolving the conflict within the Anglican Communion over innovations to church teaching on sexuality, a particular point of contention for Bishop McPherson.
“What hasn’t been said is when the continued extension of conversations and meetings will come to an end and a definitive decision made,” Bishop MacPherson wrote. “What also has gone unstated is when is The Episcopal Church going to be called to a place of accountability by the wider Anglican Communion, Lambeth 2008?
“Throughout all of this I have stated that we needed to follow the process that would prayerfully lead to resolution. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel before us? I can’t answer this specifically, but do know and have shared that in order to remain informed of all that is taking place, and the options that may well come before us, we must remain a part of the conversations.”
Bishop MacPherson said he would be attending both GAFCON and Lambeth this summer.
“It is my prayer that through the meeting in June and the Lambeth Conference that we will emerge with a clear sense of what God is calling us to be about in the Diocese of Western Louisiana,” he said. “As to the future, I have said before and repeat here, the diocesan convention of October 2008 will need to provide this direction.”
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1 Comment
Bishop MacPherson, a tough-minded Nova Scotian and uncompromising Christain, like many of his flock, can't quite come to grips with the fact that our Archbishop of Canterbury, while faulting the Episcopal House of Bishops for abdicating its ecclesial authority to make or enforce decisions for the American Church, then turns around and dodges his responsibility as "leader" of the Communion. He is like a doctor who can diagnose with great accurately the maladies of his patient, but claims he has no competence to prescribe medicine or recommend surgical procedures to effect a cure. If the Englich Church cannot produce a proper leader for the Communion, perhaps it is time for a "popular election" of the ABC.