not encouraging

In light of the Dar es Salaam Communique's request that all civil litigation between and among ECUSA entities be halted because it is fundamentally anti-Christian, the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor, David Booth Beers, has responded with clarity to attorneys asking whether ECUSA's suits against dissenting parishes in Virginia would, in fact, cease:

[Episcopal News Service] Lawyers for the Episcopal Church have told two attorneys representing some of the 11 Diocese of Virginia congregations involved in a legal dispute over possession of church property that "there is no basis at this time" to put that litigation on hold.

....

In their February 26 reply, David Booth Beers, chancellor to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and his colleague Heather H. Anderson, first reminded the two attorneys that the Anglican Communion is a federation and not a "juridical or legislative body."

Thus, they wrote, it "has no legal authority over the affairs of its members."

Indeed. I don't, however, think anyone was suggesting that the Communion does have any legal authrotiy over the affairs of its members. On the other hand, the Primates do have moral and doctrinal authority. Whether ECUSA recognizes that fact is another matter. The actual question being put to Schori, Beers, et al., was: Are you and your clients going to do what is right? Is your behavior in the civil arena going to be in accordance with God's law?

Clearly not. But thanks for being clear.

Read it all at Stand Firm.