Dave Hartline of The Catholic Report scored interviews with two prominent "progressives" and two prominent "traditionals" at the end of the Episcopal Church’s General Conference. He very nearly managed to get an interview from the Archbishop of York, too, who was Canterbury’s delegate to the convention.
The interviews are very, very telling.
Reverend Canon Ken Harmon: "There are forces at work in the Catholic Church trying to make this happen but it will never happen in the Catholic Church because you have “Clear Doctrine,” something we haven’t had in a long time."
Reverend Susan Russell: "I find it odd that the people in the Episcopal Church would talk about scripture as if they were some fringe element fundamentalist. One of the reasons our church broke with Rome was because of issues like the Magesterium. Now they want one?"
Bishop V. Gene Robinson: "To be honest, I have spent more time at this convention talking with conservative people than liberals. I know there are many who don’t accept me as a bishop. I have no trouble sitting with them. That’s what the word Communion, as in Anglican Communion, is all about. You know, I was denied Communion in a conservative diocese. Now that I thought was beyond the pale."
Greg Griffith: "I will say this; evil hides whereas the truth comes out in clarity and honesty. We are upholding the traditions of our church."
Read the whole thing. Ken Harmon sounds by now like a good candidate for swimming the Tiber. He’s not the only one, according to Al Kimel (former Episcopal minister) of Pontifications:
Within an hour after the announcement of Jefferts Schori’s election as the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, I received an email from a young Episcopal priest declaring that he now knew that he must become Catholic. What do I now do, he asked?
Going into the General Convention, orthodox Episcopalians said that they wanted clarity regarding the direction of the Episcopal Church. That clarity has now been given. The pending resolutions about the Windsor Report no longer really matter. Clarity has been given.
This convention was bigger than it looked from the outside.
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