Anglicans 'chicken out' of expelling US Episcopalians

(Please see UPDATE at the end)

That's my take on what has happened in Tanzania, at least! Conservative Anglican Bishops had been campaigning for an expulsion to punish the American church for having ordained a gay bishop, but a report to church leaders at its meeting in Tanzania has concluded that the US church has 'largely met' demands for it to conform with orthodox teaching, despite the decidedly (and rightly so) half-hearted compliance shown by the church there. My cynical view is that this report has found as it has because saner counsels in the Anglican communion have realised that to expel the wealthiest part of the church, which provides massive aid in one form or another to the poorer parts (many of whom have been most vociferous in their calls for the expulsion), would be the purest madness. This whole affair would be hilarious were it not for the sad light it shines upon the distortions of the teachings of Jesus Christ which some 'conservatives' want to become the new orthodoxy so that their own prejudices and homophobia might prevail. Well, sucks to Bishop Akinola of Nigeria, amongst others!

UPDATE: (Saturday 17FEB07 09.45 RST) Not that everything is now 'hunky dory' in the Anglican Communion, no very far from it! It is reported that seven Bishops from the 'developing world' have declined to share Communion with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams over the presence in Dar es-Salaam of the leader of the US Episcopalian Church. As I have written before, the Anglican Communion was effectively broken some time ago; this simply takes it one stage further - I would suggest that all concerned now accept what has regrettably happened (because of the prejudices of the people represented by these seven Bishops and others) and that the Anglican Communion as previously understood no longer exists. Move on.