Posted on 09/22/2007 8:03:29 PM PDT by Huber
I believe very strongly that one of the many tragic aspects of this whole Episcopal Church debacle in the last five years is that not only was the decision in 2003 wrong (and the way it was made wrong) but that nearly every major decision made by the TEC leadership since then has made it worse. The hard part about this is that when you keep failing to offer a sufficiently radical solution to a problem, the next time you face it it requires an even more radical solution.
I certainly wish to salute what the Presiding Bishop said in New Orleans: none of us is without blame in this mess. I have been trying to insist on this since General Convention 2003 and then my first address at Plano one: ALL of us are under judgment.
Perhaps, like me, you are wondering about Archbishop Rowan Williams' calling for 'room to maneuver' and if there is any way forward now which is in the direction of a real, serious solution.
For myself, I will consider those in New Orleans serious when they consider offering the Anglican Communion something like this statement:
We realize we have caused huge damage to the whole Anglican Communion and therefore, we, as a body, voluntarily withdraw from coming to Lambeth 2008.
Now please note this means ALL the TEC Bishops. No exceptions. It would allow Dr. Williams to get nearly all (perhaps actually all?) the rest of the Communion to Lambeth, and it would show a sense of corporate responsibility for the wrong.
Yes, I know it is not perfect. I also know that it would only be PART of a solution and that there are many other questions which would have to be addressed. I also know it would only happen by divine intervention.
But only things LIKE THIS will really get us anywhere given the degree of damage, alienation, confusion and struggle.
I am praying for something along these lines because it will be a real tragedy if the third largest Christian family in the world falls into further disarray.
I see a lot of despair, anger, frustation and bewilderment out there. What I would like to see more of is constructive proposals for actually moving us forward. If you do not like my idea, then what is yours? Please make sure to propose something sufficiently radical which also might be achievable given the constraints. It is not easy, but it is important--KSH.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. His idea might have had merit a decade or so ago, but he just doesn't get it, does he.
then what is yours?
The only answer that has any integrity at this point is to tell (either as an individual, a parish, or a diocese) the ECUSA to take a hike.
“We realize we have caused huge damage to the whole Anglican Communion and therefore, we, as a body, voluntarily withdraw from coming to Lambeth 2008.”
I respect what Dr. Harmon has done but what does this accomplish? So what? It is what everyone fears, more “kicking the can down the road”.
For TEC/ECUSA NOT to attend Lambeth, would actually be for it to “take a hike.”
Kendell Harmon and other orthodox Episcopalians would then be free to join one of the Anglican groups in the USA still faithful to the essentials. This would GREATLY increase the leverage for all the congregations sued by TEC now—as no doubt TEC would be looking for ways to get back in the club...
For TEC/ECUSA NOT to attend Lambeth, would actually be for it to “take a hike.”
Kendell Harmon and other orthodox Episcopalians would then be free to join one of the Anglican groups in the USA still faithful to the essentials. This would GREATLY increase the leverage for all the congregations sued by TEC now—as no doubt TEC would be looking for ways to get back in the club...
“This would GREATLY increase the leverage for all the congregations sued by TEC now”
The only way for them to get leverage is for the Anglican community to say forcibly and clearly that TEC is no longer a member of the Anglican Community and therefore in violation of TEC’s Preamble. that has about as much chance of happening as TEC confessing its sin and repenting. In the end the Anglican Community will find a way to give TEC another chance. They should follow Paul’s command in 1 Cor. 5:5-7 and be done with it.
The ABC isn’t going to disinvite his buddies. Whatever murky language TEC comes up with will be fine with him. The orthodox leadership in the US need to come up with enough courage to actually do something. Even Schofield, for whom I held out some hope (along with Ilker) has postponed actually doing something.
The Episcopal Church is a non-Christian cult. I heard the Shepherd’s voice saying “get out of there” 10 years ago, pulled my family out and moved to another church, and I have never regretted it. It’s only once you leave and start attending a real Christian church you realize how unbelievably bad it’s gotten in ECUSA.
I still think there’s hope for Williams. The English and the Queen herself would have a lot easier time “letting” America “walk apart” with innovations, than having most of former colonies in Africa and other parts of the world too angrily leave, proclaiming “Ichabod!”
Williams is well known for being non-confrontational. I’m not surprised at all he went along as he did in N.O. In the next few months reality may finally hit him in the face. Despite his personal opinions, and his inability to confront, if/when he really believes the choice is America OR the Communion itself, I think he’ll be forced to choose the Communion.
They had their ulterior motives in saying so, because they wanted war. But also, to an extent, they were right: Liddel-Hart pointed out that once millions of men had been gathered, put in uniform, and armed, there was a kind of popular "nervous hysteria" that positively clamored for those forces to be used. The generals had no way of controlling this, even had they wanted to. To have done otherwise, would have been to lose their authority.
The result, of course, was unspeakably horrible -- millions of men were ground to paste by the pride of the generals; and their sons, in turn, were ground to paste for essentially the same reason. (As my grandfather put it, here he was in WWII, not 20 miles from where his twin brother had been killed in WWI, fighting the same people, over the same ground, for the same reasons.)
It seems to me that the Anglican Communion is in much the same position today: neither side is willing to demobilize for the sake of finding a solution that doesn't involve the chewing up of an entire church. IMO, it's not just the American or Canadian churches that are in trouble: it's the African churches, too. The Anglican Communion hangs in the balance.
Dark days ahead. It's no longer a matter of theological disagreement -- real though that is. The real force at work is human pride, getting in the way of doing God's work. As usual.
We ran screaming, too. Theological (non-)decisions by committe/ how can that serve True Christianity?
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posted on 08/05/2003 5:19 PM PDT by polemikos
There is something slimy and unholy about the way tec contorts language to fit their agenda of gaydom uber allis....
You give them too much credit. All they want is gaydom uber allis. That's all. They want Gaydom more than the body of christ and have said so themselves. Don't give credit where it isn't due.
I presume you understand that they are not the same thing?
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