The Via Media debacle has now gotten national attention from the Washington Post. The only point the post misses is that these minutes reflect aims that are entirely different from those which the group has typically espoused, but for the ENS story which I posted recently.

But, what does all this really mean? Greg Griffith, whose story we linked to at Southern Anglican, would seem to suggest that Via Media has a leak and also that perhaps that some folks are running scared.

On the HOBD listserv, many folks seem to be in denial about what the Windsor Report asks of us. Put simply, it asks for the following:

1.) Recongize Lambeth 1.10 as the Anglican Consensus on sexuality.

2.) Recognize that our actions at GC2003 were inconsistent with this consensus, and that we have proceeded since the Primates met immediately after GC2003 inconsistently with that consensus. We should “repent” of our decision to proceed without a communion consensus, particularly in light of requests we received not to proceed, much like many liberals complain that George Bush proceeded with the Iraq war without consensus. You guys know, consensus – that model of church governance TEC preached at EYE when I was in high school. Yeah, that is still in my craw to this day.

3.) Express a desire to conform to Anglican teaching. This is not to say that the teaching is correct, and, in some ways, would be a grudging attempt to say many of us think this is wrong, but we want to conform for the sake of the unity of the Anglican Communion. We don’t have to say we aren’t going to try to get the communion to change this teaching. But, we do have to say that we will conform with Lambeth 1.10 until the Communion changes that teaching.

To do these things is not to sacrifice gays and lesbians on some idolotrous altar of unity. As I’ve heard it said, the Windsor Report is telling ECUSA and the ACC to back up, start over, and let us work through these issues together.

But, I sense there is no desire to do these things. Instead of talking about how to comply with Lambeth 1.10 and the report, the talk at the HOBD listserv and elsewhere seems to downplay the significance of both. Oh, Lambeth 1.10 was not binding, and the Windsor Report has been supplanted by subsequent statements, hasn’t been accepted by all provinces, and who is to judge our response anyway. It is like a child trying to negotiate out of having to do homework.

I guess I just wish at this point for the Episcopal Church to simply say to the rest of the Anglican Communion that TEC won’t be in communion with the rest of the body on any terms other than our own. I suspect GC2006 will do just that. I think Via Media knows this, and thus the contingency plan.