Here We Goooooo.......

Yes, it's almost time for the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, this year to be held in Columbus, Ohio.

As those of you who keep up on these things are aware, the Episcopal Church is under a kind of probation at the moment within the Anglican Communion because of the election of Bishop Robinson, a practising homosexual, to the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. The more conservative members of the Communion - mostly churches in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, were livid that the Episcopal Church should take such a step without at least consulting the Communion first.

The Windsor Report issued in 2004 is an attempt to try and bring the Communion back together, working out some kind of all-encompassing understanding about how to treat this sort of thing. In the meantime, the Episcopal Church has been shut out of certain deliberative functions within the Communion for a period of years and is, as I say, on a kind of probation. One of the requirements of the Windsor Report is that, before the Episcopal Church be allowed out of the penalty box, it must acknowledge that it went too far in accepting Robinson's election.

Naturally, all eyes are on what will be decided at General Convention. Here is the current proposed draft of the apology:

Resolved, the House of _____ concurring, That the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church join the House of Bishops’ March 2005 “Covenant Statement� in expressing “our own deep regret for the pain that others have experienced with respect to our actions at the General Convention of 2003 and we offer our sincerest apology and repentance for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners before taking these actions.�

This text will be subject to debate and possible amendment. But the rest of the Communion is going to be watching very carefully for weasel words. What the conservative wing wants is not just a regret that anyone has "experienced pain" because of Robinson's election, but a flat-out admission that the Episcopal Church made a mistake in it. We'll see if that happens.

Meanwhile, a friend tells me that the Diocese of California is currently in the process of electing a new bishop and that at least three of the candidates are gay. More on this here. If one of these were to be elected and that election confirmed at this year's General Convention, I believe all hell would break loose, both within the Episcopal Church and also the greater Anglican Communion.

Going to be an interesting summer. LMC - is Rome still accepting applicants?

UPDATE: Sooper Sekret message to the Missus: Ah! Opus Dei! Boogie-boogie-boo!!