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ANGLICAN MAINSTREAM APPLAUDS PANEL OF REFERENCE
June 8, 2005
We welcome the fact that membership of the Panel of Reference has at last been announced. Given the urgency of the pastoral situations which have to be addressed the panel will have to get to work very speedily. We assure them that we shall be praying for their work.
The prime task for the Panel is the protection of those currently being harassed because they do not accept the false teaching and practice of ECUSA and the Church of Canada until this matter has been sorted out by Lambeth 2008.
The Panel is not there to redesign the Anglican Communion or change its doctrine and discipline. The acid test for the Panel will be whether the protection it offers proves adequate for those who are being harassed, oppressed, and forced to leave their jobs and their churches. Only time will tell whether the Panel is able to pass this test.
The recommendations of the panel will, we are sure, be a great help to the Archbishop of Canterbury in giving leadership to the Communion in repairing the tear in its fabric which led the Primates to call for these extraordinary measures.
It will be very important to know from those Primates who drew up the Dromantine communiqué which called for the panel, whether the composition and mandate of the panel fulfils what they twice promised in order to ensure adequate Episcopal oversight for faithful Anglicans.
Dr Philip Giddings Convenor +44 (0) 118 931 8207 /+44 (0) 118 954 3892 Canon Dr Chris Sugden +44 (0) 1865 883388
