Bishop to archbishop 1. Check...

    The Anglican blogosphere and media are all focused on the large meeting of orthodox theologians, clerics and laity in Jerusalem this week, wondering if GAFCON, as the gathering is called, will mark the beginning of a formal split of the Anglican communion.  These reporters and commentators note that the meeting, coming just before the once a decade Lambeth Conference held by the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be attended by bishops who represent more of the world's Anglicans than will those attending Lambeth.  Yet, while GAFCON is an attractive story, it is not the big story in the dismantling of present day Anglicanism.
    The news that has received quite little attention is that Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England, has let it be known that he and several other of his fellow diocesan CofE bishops will also be absent from Lambeth.  This is like the governor of Illinois or New York stating that he is refusing to come to the Democratic National Convention on ideological grounds. 
    Nazir-Ali, a leading evangelical in the Church, has long opposed the Episcopal Church's disregard of the rest of the Communion's prohibitions against gay marriage and consecrations but the breaking point is probably deeper than that.  His fierce attack on ++Rowan's speech on Sharia law earlier this year demonstrates that the Pakistani born cleric believes that the present CofE leadership is ill equip to deal with the problems presented by an aggressive Islam.  Nazir-Ali's decision seems to be that time is of the essence and that ++Rowan must be humiliated and forced to resign for the good of the Church.
    Without Nazir-Ali, Lambeth can no longer claim to be an inclusive meeting of Church hierarchs but rather will be merely a gathering of ideological bed-fellows and those who see Lambeth only as the the highlight of their life's social calender. There is no way for ++Rowan to save face.  He has failed to heal the breaches...indeed, he has exacerbated them.  Nazir-Ali's actions will just force this issue to the foreground.