The Dublin 'Meeting'

It has been reported that on two occasions Primates of the Global South advised the Archbishop of Canterbury that they would not attend the current Primates' Meeting if the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church were present. Of the fourteen Primates who made this representation, it appears that only one will be attending any part of the meeting. In this light, the defensive explanations of why Primates are not attending offered by the Secretary General and the Communion Office (e.g. visa problems, diary conflicts, etc.) must raise eyebrows. Why should we think that those who publicly stated two months ago why they were not planning to attend now really wanted to come, but forgot they had another appointment? A little candor by those in attendance would be nice: there is a problem, and it is a major problem. Are the Primates who have gathered in Dublin facing it, or are they still pretending that everybody has "moved beyond" the resolute disrespect of TEC and The Anglican Church of Canada towards their previous commitments and the commitments of the Communion at large? Despite claims that the Anglican Communion has around "80 million" members, one must take account of the fact that a stated membership of 25 million in the Church of England actually translates to only about 1 million in church on Sundays. Similarly with a number of other churches. Let's say the real Communion number is around 65 million. Of these, over 30 million are from the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda"”churches whose alienation from TEC and now the Communion cannot credibly be questioned. It is clearly the case that the Primates present in Dublin represent substantially fewer than half of the active members of the Communion. Those staying away due to the crisis in the Communion probably represent two-thirds or more of the active members of the Communion. Assuming a Communion membership of around 65 million, the following chart shows the proportion of Anglicans who are represented at the Primates' current meeting (about 21 million) and those whose Primates are absent (45 million). By and large, the breakdown goes along Anglo vs. Global South lines. It is beyond time for questioning why Primates are not present or whether they should attend. At issue is the health of the Communion and the restoration of trust. Those present, if they wish to proceed as if this was a representative meeting of the Communion, need to ask what has gone wrong and determine how can it be righted."