The International Situation
The primates have asserted they are in charge. Unity was maintained, but truth had a temporary setback. The flat-earth world-view about sex still holds the primate's imagination. So be it.
The communique will make no one happy. It does continue to misunderstand the democratic and transparent priorities of the Episcopal church. It assumes that bishops have power to command the laity. If only that were the case.
It also seems to assume that Lambeth 1.10, where the council of bishops upheld the traditionalist view of sex, has any absolute, or enforceable, warrant. This presumption of authority is the kind of activity that made the American colonists angry in the first place. Personally, I've not felt so American in a long time. Americans did not like bishops in the 18th century. Perhaps bishops are the problem. And I like bishops.
It also means that we will now have institute a negative doctrine about sex when there was none before. Instead of merely affirming what is good, the primates diminish the view of the laity who may understand the world differently.
Do these primatial words mean much? Even though the institutional authorities might dictate one thing, individual Christians will continue to bless relationships. And as individuals become richer and freer from the constraints of institutions, they will call upon God apart from the irrelevancies of the tradition. In my own church, the women who have been members of this parish for 50 years have said very clearly that it is time for us to welcome all people.