The recent election of Katharine Jefferts Schori to the Primates’ Standing Committee is a matter of considerable shock and disappointment. For some, it is a matter of outrage, and not unfairly so. Her election is perhaps the most destructive decision that could have been made by the Primates who recently gathered in Dublin. Schori has repeatedly refused to lead the American Episcopal Church in observance of the moratoria called for by the Windsor Report, and she has done nothing to ameliorate the difficult conditions faced by many faithful Anglicans within the American province. Indeed, these already difficult conditions have acutely worsened under her primacy, and membership decline in the Episcopal Church has only continued unabated. How then can she be elected in good faith?

We do well to consider that this is not a question that must be answered by the Archbishop of Canterbury alone. Rather, it is a question that must be answered by the Primates as a whole – and not just those who assembled in Dublin, but those who were absent for any reason at all. Many forget this; too many are quick to assume that everything that happens in the Anglican Communion rests solely on the shoulders of the See of Canterbury, and too many are also quick to assume that non-attendance is somehow a badge of virtue. Both assumptions are wrong. The Primates’ Standing Committee is the responsibility of the Primates as a single Instrument of Unity and its composition is the product of what the Primates, as a whole, decide. Thus it is the corporate body of Primates who must explain their decision.

This recognition, however, is not intended to detract from the pastoral primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Anglican Communion vests sovereignty in no single individual, but because Canterbury is at the center of the Anglican Communion, it has a pastoral weight that no other See carries. It is said that the Archbishop is soon going to travel to some of the provinces of the Global South. Perhaps he might consider coming to North America first? He, more than any other Anglican Primate, needs to understand life on the ground among Anglicans in the United States of America. It is acrimonious and painful, and its divisiveness seems to know no limit. More than any other Primate, the Archbishop needs to know the epic level of hurt and betrayal felt by so many, and the ways that the recent decision has only exacerbated this situation. (I myself am something of a fan of the Archbishop – an increasingly rare thing among North American Anglicans – and I would be happy to help arrange his travel itinerary should he visit.)

The spiritual and pastoral strain in North America is beginning to crush people – and not just any people, but faithful people. I see it, I hear it, I read it, and each of these to an increasing degree. Faithful Anglicans who have broken faith with no facet of Creed, Scripture, or Tradition are beleaguered in North America. They cannot trust the Global South/GAFCON, for its bishops will shamelessly split orthodox dioceses from within. Yet faithful Anglicans cannot trust the leadership of the American Episcopal Church, either. As events of recent years suggest, adhering to Communion norms is a minority position in the American Episcopal Church which brings very, very few tangible rewards. Indeed, it only brings long-suffering. Dioceses have broken, parishes are withering, and yet some strive to remain faithful. Do the Primates not know this? If so, why do they not praise it, and why have they elected a Primate whose own leadership has proactively made things worse?

I write these things as a young American and faithful Anglican. Because of this I cannot help but wonder: will I soon come to find that I have no Anglican parish in which to marry, and no such parish in which to baptize and raise my children? Truly, we live in an evil day when are forced to ask such questions! I do not offer this protest in a spirit of petulant demand; I am no child of the sixties. I simply ask – no, I plead – that a word be spoken which indicates that the Primates of the Anglican Communion understand the urgency of their pastoral role, particularly to those Anglicans who struggle and are indeed breaking under conditions for which there is no alleviation in sight. The Primates – all of them – need to reverse and revoke the appointment of the American Presiding Bishop to the Primates’ Standing Committee. Anything else is the height of pastoral irresponsibility.