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Crossing The Windsor Line: the Truth about Consequences
Stand Firm ^ | 2/17/2007 | Matt Kennedy

Posted on 02/17/2007 6:26:46 PM PST by sionnsar

If the primates let the sub-group report stand; if they "overaccept" it, it will not constitute a wise grand and glorious step for Anglican catholicity nor will it, as some have argued, represent a velvet covered iron fist.


Someone reminded me recently of that old Robin Williams routine on Qadaffi's Line of Death. "You cross this line, you die!" (pause, steps across the line) "okay. Now, you cross this line, you die" and so on...you get the point.

If the primates let the sub-group report stand; if they "overaccept" it, it will not constitute a wise grand and glorious step for Anglican catholicity nor will it, as some have argued, represent a velvet covered iron fist.

Those arguments assume that by accepting the actions of the 75th General Convention as full-bodied commitments to the recommendations of the Windsor Report, the Communion will somehow lock the Episcopal Church into a system within which she might be held accountable. Of course, the only reason to establish this second system of accountability is because the Episcopal Church has, as these authors readily acknowledge, utterly failed to abide by the first, which, plainly, was also a system of accountability. In other words, its just another line.

And when the Episcopal Church crosses this second line, and she will, the orthodox intelligencia will furrow brows and call for yet another meeting to draw up yet another line and so on.

No.

It must stop here.

If there is no discipline here, then there never will be. People on the ground understand that. In North America there will, as there ought to be, yet another massive exodus among the orthodox. Windsor dioceses and even Network diocese will begin to come apart as the strongest voices realize, reasonably, that nothing will ever be done and leave. Think of the diocese of Dallas. The Diocese of Dallas was spared a massive exodus because the parishes that had been planning to leave were graciously asked to wait for Tanzania.

And, graciously, they did.

Now what? Wait for Lambeth? Why? Does anyone seriously believe that the Episcopal Church, having learned that lines may be crossed with impuity, will fret for one moment the consequences of "prophetically" crossing yet another?

The bible is an eminently practical book. It is replete with disastrous examples of what happens when errant children are coddled and defiant rebels are "overaccepted". Jacob, Samson's parents, Eli, David, all learned painfully that willful disobedience, even in someone you love, cannot be tolerated for the sake of the one loved and for the sake of the body itself.

Without walls there is no house. Without a fence there is no pasture. Without discipline there is no Church.

Canterbury based Anglicanism depends on the decisions made in the next three days.


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant
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1 posted on 02/17/2007 6:26:47 PM PST by sionnsar
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To: ahadams2; Way4Him; Peach; Zippo44; piperpilot; ex-Texan; ableLight; rogue yam; neodad; Tribemike; ..
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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

2 posted on 02/17/2007 6:27:30 PM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: MMkennedy

ping


3 posted on 02/17/2007 6:28:02 PM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: sionnsar

He's right. I think it just may be the case that the conservative primates from the rest of the world are more naive than Americans are. We've all seen, and struggled with this sort of behavior from liberals far more often, and in far more venues than they have. It never ends unless the conservatives end it with finality.

The arrogant and errant child, so convinced of the rightness of his cause, simply has to learn through slow painful experience of the world. But it is no help to that process to even pretend that their views and arguments have any plausibility. That pretense is exactly what the "listening" process amounts to. The adults are pretending that they might, after enough "listening", decide that sin really isn't sin, and that the bible doesn't really say what it does say.

I don't know what the eventual future of the Episcopal church and the Anglican communion are, but I do know for certain that our only hope for the future is to hold fast to the gospel, to the faith we received down through the ages. The world is wrong-- but, as I think about what I know of history-- the world has ALWAYS been wrong. The job of the Church is to hold fast to the TRUTH, no matter the changing fashions of this, or any other age.


4 posted on 02/17/2007 7:00:07 PM PST by walden
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To: sionnsar
No.

It must stop here.

This line stepping routine is the history of TEC and Anglicanism in general. No amount of wishful thinking can change this history. It should be named "The Church of Default Concensus".

5 posted on 02/18/2007 7:15:06 AM PST by x_plus_one (As long as we pretend to not be fighting Iran in Iraq, we can't pretend to win the war.)
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To: x_plus_one

While people still draw breath there is time for repentance (unless you know something I don't about the timing of Jesus Christ's Second Coming). Those who stand or sit in judgement ought to hold their peace as they will be judged by Christ Himself in the same manner they have judged others. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let him who thinketh he standteh, take heed lest he fall.


6 posted on 02/18/2007 3:00:10 PM PST by LibreOuMort (Give me liberty, or give me death! (Patrick Henry))
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