God's Grace Given Sacramentally

Episcopal Life Online has posted video coverage of the Friday press conference online. There was one interchange that – as far as I can tell – nobody else has discussed or highlighted. It occurs about ¾ of the way through "Part 2" of the conference.

Some dissidents have left the Episcopal Church, aligning with other Anglican provinces. Truro and The Falls Church in Virginia got a great deal of attention when they aligned with the Church of Nigeria (Anglican). A member of Truro Church, Mary Ailes (who blogs at Baby Blue), was present at the press conference. I was struck by her question and the response from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here is my transcription of the online version.

[Remember this typography is mine alone. I've transcribed the words – word by word – but it's difficult to know where all the commas and periods and quotation marks belong. It's difficult to translate spoken English into written English.]

Q (Mary Ailes): My name is Mary Ailes. I'm with Good News magazine. And I'm a member of Truro Church in Fairfax. My question has to do with one of the things that we have heard often from the Episcopal leadership is that we are free to go but we have to leave the buildings behind and how that often comes across to someone like me is "We have no need of you, but we have need of your building." What would you say, your Grace, to those of us who are wanting to remain Anglican but cannot at this time – in good conscience – remain Episcopalian? What would you say?

A (Archbishop Williams): Two things. First, I would say, "Start by looking for arrangements and situations within what's there," because the grace of God is given even through very, very imperfect organizations, and even if you think the Episcopal Church is a hopelessly imperfect organization – like many others – the question I would want to ask is, "But isn't God's grace still given sacramentally there? Isn't that presence active?" So I'd be rather slower than I think some of your friends have been to look for solutions elsewhere.

Here are the things that strike me about this interchange.

Isn't the Archbishop challenging the conservatives to consider that they may be committing the Donatist heresy? When he raises the question of the validity of the sacraments, that is what I hear.

Isn't the Archbishop telling Americans that he cannot support their flights to other provinces of the Anglican Communion? That is what I hear, in his encouragement to "start by looking for arrangements and situations within what's there."

It seems that Mary Ailes was asking the Archbishop to give approval to those who "want to remain Anglican but cannot … remain Episcopalian." And it sounds to me like the Archbishop gave no quarter on that point.

How do the rest of you "read" that part of the press conference interchange?