From the PB to the HoB: Grisobabble Anyone?

Apostolicity ^ | 4/01/2005 | Fr. Christopher Cantrell SSC

[sionnsar]

I thought about offering a set of inserted comments, and have now mostly thought better of it. I cannot believe this guy truly thinks he is communicating. He is certainly broadcasting, but is anyone receiving? Really? It is a mish-mash of code, cliche, jargon and gobbledy-gook. Someone please tell me what he really meant by this - "Our ability to move through our meeting and adjust to the various moments of invitation as they presented themselves without a great deal of unsettlement spoke well of the life we share and an increasing level of trust among us." Was that what was going on when he started talking about the evil Dromantine Six? A moment of invitation indeed.




March 31, 2005
For all bishops
Dear brothers and sisters:

As we begin our journey through the Great Fifty Days with its message of hope and new life, I find myself reflecting upon our time at Camp Allen. I am profoundly aware that whatever is called for from the House of Bishops at this time is already deeply present among us. Gifts of wisdom and imagination present within the community itself were given articulation in our conversations and then in our Covenant Statement and Word to the Church.

I have long spoken of the "diverse center" as persons of different and often passionately held points of view whose over-arching desire has been to walk together as integral members of Christ's risen body in the service of mission to our broken world. The diverse center was able to speak with force and conviction in a way that has given hope and confidence to many and opened the way toward strengthening our relationships with other parts of the Anglican Communion.

Though some of us are more comfortable when things are carefully spelled out, I think the fluid structure of the meeting provided opportunity for the leading of the Spirit to be honored in ways that might have been constrained if the agenda had been more defined in advance.

Our ability to move through our meeting and adjust to the various moments of invitation as they presented themselves without a great deal of unsettlement spoke well of the life we share and an increasing level of trust among us. I believe we will be able to build further trust as we continue to live trustfully rooted and grounded in Christ's love and open to the movements of the Spirit.

Some of you expressed the sense that we are ready to release ourselves from our past history as a House and our preoccupation with what has been. I share this view. While self-examination is always an appropriate discipline for persons and communities of faith, it can become an invitation to inversion. Being overly focused on our internal life can obscure our call to be engaged in God's work beyond ourselves. Looking to the past is only helpful if it liberates us and orients us toward our future in God.

In sum, it is an immense gift and encouragement to me to share the ministry of episcope´ with such a thoughtful and wise community of fellow ministers of reconciliation.

Yours ever in Christ,
Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate

[sionnsar]

[I kept waiting for Christopher Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal to address this one, but it looks like he's not going to. --sionnsar]

[sionnsar]

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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[BelegStrongbow]

Well, what would one say that hasn't already been said over and over?

Even speculation about why one would issue such a statement seems imprudent.

Anybody else?

[PAR35]

I'll give a stab at interpreting part of it.

Some of you expressed the sense that we are ready to release ourselves from our past history as a House and our preoccupation with what has been. I share this view.

'We are going to take our ball and go home if the rest of the communion tries to make us play by the rules.'

[N. Theknow]

Q. What is the difference between Frank Griswold and God?

A. God doesn't wake up every morning and think he is Frank Griswold.

[JockoManning]

A. God doesn't wake up every morning and think he is Frank Griswold.


LOL, thanks NTK, good one!
JM

[SuzyQue]

What total twaddle! Poor man is probably worn out by the obfuscation, avoidance, rationalization and other forms of mental gymnastics necessary to perpetrate this kind of dishonest &^*%&*!!

[Kolokotronis]

"I have long spoken of the "diverse center" as persons of different and often passionately held points of view whose over-arching desire has been to walk together as integral members of Christ's risen body in the service of mission to our broken world."

Is there something in the Bible or the Holy Tradition or the writings of the Fathers about the "diverse center" that I missed somewhere along the line? I am, after all, a sinful and simple fellow and quite easily could have overlooked it.

"Some of you expressed the sense that we are ready to release ourselves from our past history as a House and our preoccupation with what has been. I share this view. While self-examination is always an appropriate discipline for persons and communities of faith, it can become an invitation to inversion. Being overly focused on our internal life can obscure our call to be engaged in God's work beyond ourselves. Looking to the past is only helpful if it liberates us and orients us toward our future in God."

To me as an Orthodox Christian this is a most astonishing statement. Yesterday my formerly Congregational wife commented during a conversation with her sister that for her one of the most magnificent and comforting reasons for being Orthodox is that we believe and proclaim the exact same Faith and worship in virtually the exact same manner and with the exact same words as Orthodox Christians have for about 1700 years, but that from that secure history she has learned that in clinging to the Faith once revealed and worshipping the ineffable God, time is quite meaningless.

Past, future and now have no meaning in the Faith, though it may to each of us mortals individually.

Sadly, Griswold and his fellow travelers are simply heretics. These men have developed a new religion, which of course they are free to do. The Church teaches that we are to have nothing to do with them save to pray for them.

[BelegStrongbow]

Thank you for saying that, Koloko. I was beginning to fear that my own outrage at what I continue to read from my erstwhile brothers was overwhelming what little Christian charity I muster as a general rule.

But, to people to whom even God is no bar to their imagination and presumption, it is clear that no mere human rebuke is ever going to have salutory effect.

So I pray that Blessed John Paul intercede for these misguided shepherds to pour the Holy Ghost on them in truth and to illuminate their errors. It's all I can do, under the circumstances.

May God have mercy on them,
Deacon Paul+

[kaehurowing]

His thoughts come from a deeper place beyond knowing and unknowing in the
great cosmic kairos moment that is the diverse center of our being.

[newheart]

"diverse center'

Chewy almond nougat, or whipped marshmallow?

[Kolokotronis]

"His thoughts come from a deeper place beyond knowing and unknowing in the
great cosmic kairos moment that is the diverse center of our being"

Oh...thanks.

[torqemada]

"diverse center'

>>Chewy almond nougat, or whipped marshmallow?<<

It's both these PLUS nutty Anglican fudge. Hence the term "diverse."