The Bishop of Texas Announces Windsor Bishop Consultation

Bishop Don Wimberly has announced a consultation of Windsor bishops in hopes of finding “a way forward that both prevents some in our Church from ‘walking apart’, and others from seeking irregular means of preserving their Anglican identity.” The meeting will be September 19-22 in Texas.

Two key CofE bishops will also be there with the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury: +N. T. Wright and +Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester.

Now I know what you’re thinking: anyone can slap a “Windsor Bishop” label on and attend. Not so. Attendees are expected to agree that Lambeth 1.10 is the teaching of the Anglican Communion, to agree with Windsor/Dromantine, and to agree that the General Convention’s response to Windsor/Dromantine was inadequate.

There are five designated points of discussion for the meeting:
1. Solidifying Communion links to Canterbury and the Meeting of Primates;
2. Development of a leadership council for links with Canterbury and the Meeting of Primates;
3. Commitment to common action;
4. Thresholds for an Anglican Covenant;
5. Care of clergy and parishes not represented by “Windsor Bishops.”

Notable is that the Bishop of West Texas, +Gary Lillibridge, among others, is assisting with this effort.

Now many in the orthodox Anglican blogdom have been a bit hard on +Don Wimberly, and understandably so. And I’ve been quite hard on Bishop Lillibridge. Fairly or unfairly, both have been perceived to be fence sitters. However, bringing about this consultation appears to be real leadership on their part.

I will be watching this meeting with great interest. And if it is fruitful, then I’ll be the first to say “Thanks be to God” . . . and “Mea culpa.”