++Rowan, Don’t Even Try to Indaba ++Venables

This past week, I expressed the prayerful hope that the Primates would just say “no” to ++Rowan Williams’ plans to indaba them. It appears that the Primate of the Southern Cone, Gregory Venables is of a mind to do just that. And he’s not alone.

Bishop Venables said he and several other primates’ council members have additional concerns about the format of the primates’ meeting as proposed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in his post-Lambeth pastoral letter to bishops. The proposal to include indaba small-group discussion was a particular concern, Bishop Venables added.

“I think it is up to the primates to decide how they are going to do things,” he said. “I don’t think we can be told ahead of time what type of meeting we are going to have, or how we are going to talk.”

Uh, Dr. Williams, if you thought you were going to turn the Primates’ Meeting into a big indaba, you might want to think again.