Schori Election and the Anglican Communion

I’m having second thoughts about my commenting yesterday that the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori wouldn’t have much effect on the rest of the Anglican Communion. Frankly, I forgot just how uberliberal she is. And she’s already proving to be an inexperienced loose cannon, in a press conference confusing the UN Millennium Goals with the reign of God (Note this is a rough transcription.):

Integrity: Can you tell me about the reign of God?

Schori: I think of the scripture from Isaiah read by Jesus in the synagogue -- the blind see, the lame are healed…. Our vision is one of social justice like the vision enshrined in the millennium goals. The millennium goals are our vision of the reign of God.

And it appears even Lambeth is troubled:

[Living Church reporter George] Congar said he was on the phone with Lambeth palace just after it happened -- the Archbishop of Canterbury was in evening prayer and had no statement as of yet. He called back 30 min. later and was told the prepared statement (ready for the insertion of the name of whoever won) had been torn up, and the Archbishop himself would write the official statement (which he rarely does). Congar predicted the Queen would be incensed: she never appoints women priests to the chaplaincies she controls, and the Queen Mother (God rest her soul) refused to receive communion from women priests. Congar and I discussed the ramifications of this election for the Communion. Several provinces, of course, still do not believe women to be validly ordained. This means they can't be assured of the validity of any Eucharists, ordinations, or consecrations of bishops that Schori presides over . . .

I’m still unsure of the effect of her election except for one important aspect – it makes the success of an attempted fudge on resolutions in response to Windsor less likely. I suspect most of the Primates will interpret a fudge in the light of the election of a flaming liberal woman who is all for gay bishops, same-sex blessings, Spongs, etc. and reject it.