The College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion will meet in Lincoln, England, October 13-16. The last official meeting of the College of Bishops was held in Johannesburg, South Africa in February, 2012. At that time, Archbishop Samuel Prakash, by right of seniority, was named Acting Primate.The TAC web page has no mention of this meeting, if in fact it took place. The TAC Wikipedia entry still lists Samuel Prakash as acting primate. "Father" Smuts, at one time the de facto PR spox of the TAC, hasn't updated his blog since 2015. If a TAC primate is elected but no one is there to see it, did it happen? Remember that the 2007 Portsmouth Petition from the TAC, strange as it now seems, was the cause of much optimism and excitement for the Anglican ecumenism movement. .The agenda, which is still being developed. includes: a report on the ratification of the Concordat; the election of a new Primate; Inter-church relations; marriage licenses and clergy serving as agents of the state; TAC finance committee; IAF; goals for the TAC and education. Other items will likely be added to this agenda. We ask your prayers as the College of Bishops meets to transact the important business of the communion.
This is an indication, if any is needed, that the excitement has left the movement like the gas from last year's party balloon. The Anglo-Catholic bloggers have folded up and left. The reason, it seems to me is the overwhelming sense of disappointment and betrayal caused by the events of 2012: the purging of John Hepworth and David Moyer from the TAC, the dawning recognition that the OCSP was the exclusive agenda of an Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth clique, and the spectacular bungling of the St Mary of the Angels, St Aidan's Des Moines, and Our Lady of the Atonement cases.
If Bp Lopes has any prospect of saving the OCSP, a key task in front of him is to do whatever is needed to bring St Mary of the Angels into the OCSP with Fr Kelley. This would be a major move to reverse the overwhelming atmosphere of betrayal and disappointment that has surrounded the whole Anglicanorum coetibus project since 2012.
