Posted on 11/21/2005 11:41:18 AM PST by sionnsar
In his address to the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri's just-completed convention, Bishop George Wayne Smith comes out of nowhere to establish himself as a serious candidate for ECUSA Presiding Bishop next year:
I have studied our Diocese’s past. I have read and reread Charles Rehkopf’s history of it. I have thumbed through journals and old newspapers. I have sought out long-time members of our Diocese for their stories. I want to know what has gone before. And I want to minimize nothing of the hurts. But I have no intention of being a captive to the past. So I want to be able to say to our history: I see you. And you are not in control.
The past sucks. Excellent.
It is my firm intent to continue the work of identifying and ordaining priests who will serve the congregations from which they come, because there are terrific little congregations outside the Highway 270 corridor who make a difference in their communities. And we need to be in these places; because I am still convinced that there are people everywhere in Eastern Missouri who will not hear the good news of Jesus, unless we the Episcopal Church are there to tell it. Our first ordinations for such purposes will happen next year.
Après ECUSA le déluge. Very well-played.
I cannot ignore the occasions and challenges facing the whole Anglican Communion at this moment, and you deserve to hear my intent in responding to these challenges. My hope, my intent, my desire is that the Diocese of Missouri and the Episcopal Church will remain part of the Anglican Communion. My purpose, as I stated a year ago, goes to the unity of the Church. I said then what I will reiterate today, that the Windsor Report offers the best road-map for our life together in Communion. A year since its release, it has become clear that not every detail or idea in the Windsor Report is pertinent. So be it. Living documents are like that. I believe that Windsor offers a spacious way forward, which any unity encompassing diversity will have to be—spacious. So this detail or that one in the Report may not have caught anyone’s imagination. But the spirit of the Report does remain absolutely pertinent, as do the broad strokes of it. Herein lies hope for unity.
Ballgame. Give Smith the Big Miter right now. The Windsor Report is the best way for the Anglican Communion to stay together. Granted, the Windsor Report means whatever we want it to mean is a living document and parts of it aren't pertinent specifically those parts dealing with homosexual bishops and same sex marriages. But the "spirit" of the Windsor Report lets us do whatever we feel like doing while still calling ourselves Anglicans "offers a spacious way forward." I'm not at all sure that Frank Griswold could say something that sociopathic with a straight face. Mind you, G. Wayne wuvs Canterbury DIS MUCH!!
To calibrate the highest possible degree of unity, I have set my eyes on Canterbury, and you need to know that. My eyes thus are not on Nigeria. And my eyes are not on New Hampshire, either. These are not the calibration points. My eyes are necessarily on Canterbury. Understand that it is my heartfelt desire to remain in communion with both Nigeria and with New Hampshire, but it is through the historic, venerable see of Canterbury and its present incumbent that any consensus might emerge. The see and the incumbent continue to suffer disparagement, but hard words I read on the internet will not deter me. There is not better focus for unity, among Anglicans.
Which, of course, brings up the question of what Presiding Bishop George Wayne Smith would do if Dr. Williams opts for the loyalty most of the Anglican world and tells the US and Canada things that neither wants to hear. Smith currently heads one of the most liberal dioceses in the church and if he were to throw in with Canterbury in such a case, Episcopal life might get really interesting in the eastern half of this state. But G. Wayne is rhetorically playing both sides of the street here, another indication that he has excellent PrezBish instincts(and I appreciate the indirect mention, George).
Time will tell whether Smith has staying power(given the current Peter-Akinola-would-be-the-Antichrist-if-we-believed-in-such-a-stupid-and-outdated-concept mood among ECUSA's left, I think Nevada's Schori is pulling away from the field). But ECUSA really ought to consider George Wayne Smith.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. My money's on Vicki Gene Robinson for PB.
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