Observation on the Rome/TAC Affair

Diogenes found this incisive comment:

[The move] represents a sense that only an external action will have any benefit to Anglicanism going forward. Let us not kid ourselves. Rome put a lot into ecumencial conversations with Anglicans because they believed that more internal mechanisms and persuasions were possible. Now, in their judgment, they are not. They don't see a future of greater Anglican unity they see one of greater Anglican splintering. At this level, it represents a shout which one wonders if any Anglicans will hear. --Canon K. Harmon

There's little question that the "professional ecumenists" were simply--and in the end, totally--ineffective. A good part of that had to do with the disintegration of faith-practice by the Anglicans, particularly in the US, unchecked by Rowan Williams and his predecessor.

When licit and serious representatives of 400,000 people beg, it impels a shepherd to respond.