LIVE FROM NEW YORK ....

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... IT'S THE PRESIDING BISHOP!

We were here at 6:30 a.m. AST [All Saints Time] ... between 30 and 40 folks in the Forum sleepily sipping coffee and grateful for the muffins that had materialized while we waited for the music from Trinity Wall Street to end and the webcast to begin.

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You can still watch the telecast here yourself -- thanks to the marvels of modern technology and Trinity Wall Street. And ENS has a transcript of her opening remarks here -- the rest of the broadcast was answering questions from emails, call-ins and the studio audience.

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And here are some of the "reviews" coming in:

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Here's AP's Rachel Zoll's take: Appearing on a live webcast, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop began the painful task Wednesday of persuading members to roll back their support for gays — at least for now — so the denomination can keep its place in the world Anglican fellowship. The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who personally supports ordaining partnered gays, told a studio audience, callers and those who submitted questions by e-mail that they should make concessions that Anglican leaders are seeking to buy time for reconciliation.

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Reuter's Michael Colon had different perspective: Anglican church leaders and others demanding the U.S. Episcopal Church harden its stand on gay issues may be yielding to unwarranted impatience instead of waiting for divine guidance, the head of the U.S. church said on Wednesday... "We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and outside this church who hunger for clarity," she said in a conference broadcast over the Internet from New York to church members worldwide, who were allowed to pose questions. "That hunger for clarity at all costs is an anxious response to discomfort in the face of change," she added. "The impatience we are now experiencing is an idol, a false hope that is unwilling to wait on God for clarity, an idol that fails to ... expect that the spirit will lead us."

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An ENS article offers "views and reviews" including Maori Anglican theologian Dr. Jenny Plane Te Paa, the "ahorangi" or dean of Te Rau Kahikatea (College of St. John the Evangelist) in Auckland, New Zealand. Te Paa said afterward that she was impressed with the "grace and dignity and clarity" she thought Jefferts Schori showed during the webcast.
She said she was glad that the Presiding Bishop had also brought those qualities to the Primates' Meeting. Speaking as a member of another province of the Anglican Communion, Te Paa said Jefferts Schori "is a gift to us all," in part because of her urgency in calling Episcopalians and all Anglicans to God's mission.

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And then there are the blogs:

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Daily Episcopalian has two comments: One Disputing the Diagnosis and the other In Defense of Anxiety. And for all that I'm supposed to be giving up the bread of anxiety for Lent, I appreciated Jim's analysis: It is not helpful when people who have power tell people who do not have power to dial down their anxieties, move beyond their fears, etc. Expressing our anxieties is often the only way we have of communicating with leaders who otherwise might not hear us, and might be willing to sacrifice our continued membership in the Church in order to achieve their own aims.) And Stand Firm had kind of a "live blogging while the PB talked" thread going (read comments at your own risk)

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And What did I think? Hmmm ... I thought she did a brilliant job of fielding questions and staying on her message. I thought she came across as fiercely bright and gracefully faithful. I thought that "fasting for a season" sounds a lot like "justice delayed" which equals "justice denied." And I thought that her job as Presiding Bishop is to try to represent the whole church and my job as President of Integrity is to try to represent the LGBT faithful and I thought I am REALLY GLAD that I have my job instead of her job!

On "not trifling with the Communion"

Colleague Jim Naughton over at Daily Episcopalian has ventured into a most interesting dialogue with Kendall Harmon of titusonenine fame. You can read Jim's "My Response to Kendall Harmon" here and Kendall's original post here. In a nutshell, the dialogue was engaged over the issue of interpretation. Not the interpretation of Holy Scripture -- that's a different blog -- but the interpretation of the Tanzanian Communique.

It's an interesting dialogue and I commend it to you but what I want to comment on here these concluding words from Kendall's post: "I want to plead with you to consider that the Anglican Communion is not something to be trifled with as if it were some kind of a game, as if it all came down to what the meaning of the word is is."

And I couldn't agree with him more.

You read that right. Agree. With Kendall Harmon. Couldn't agree with him more.

The Anglican Communion is not something to be trifled with. The noble experiment of holding together the tensions of catholicity and protestantism incarnated in a world wide communion of churches sharing bonds of mutual affection that transcend national, cultural and thelogical differences is the precious inheritance we claim as Anglicans. And it is an inheritance that is in danger of being squandered as surely as the Prodigal Son squandered his by those who doggedly insist not only that their criteria for being in communion is being agreed with but that their criteria trumps centuries of Anglican comprehensiveness.

If we succumb to the pressure from a percentage of petulant primates to abandon those bonds of affection that have traditionally bound us as a communion in favor of a new confessionalism requiring conformity of belief as a critera for communion we will be abandoning historic Anglicanism and reducing its spirit of comprehensiveness to a footnote in the history of the Church of God. I believe with all my heart that the marginalization of the gay and lesbian faithful grieves that heart of God and that anything less than the full inclusion of ALL the baptized falls short of God's will for God's church.

AND the issue on the table is much greater than any gay bishop or lesbian wedding. The issue is what will we do with this inheritance of ours. The quesion is what kind of church will we be. And, as Kendall Harmon says so wisely, this is not something to be trifled with. It is NOT some kind of game -- although it is being played like one. And it is being played to win.

Last year I had the privilege of standing on Capitol Hill and speaking against the Federal Marriage Amendment -- a transparently manipulative effort by the secular conservative fringe to introduce (yet again) the "wedge issue" of gay marriage in order to polarize the electorate and energize their base. The effort failed -- both on Capitol Hill and in the voting booth.

But what failed on Capitol Hill is succeeding in Canterbury and the Episcopal Church ignores the parallel to its peril. The at-least-a-decade-old-strategy of exploiting differences over human sexuality into divisions that can be used to split apart this church they could not create in their own image by the conservative fringe within the Episcopal Church is close to succeeding.

Reducing the lives, vocations and relationships of the gay and lesbian faithful to bargaining chips in the game of global Anglican politics threatens not just the gay and lesbian families on the firing line but the very essense of who we are as Anglican Christians.

And like Kendall Harmon said: This is not something to be trifled with.

Prayer Shawl Sunday at All Saints Church

Sunday was an amazing day of worship and celebration at All Saints Church. Ed Bacon preached (to standing ovations at both principle services) an amazing sermon entitled "Choosing Life-Giving Power Over Destructive Power" which you can read here ... and which we expect to be available here in video by Wednesday. Here's a quote:

Whenever oppression is going on, whenever abuse is going on, it is an act of choosing destructive power over life-giving power to be in either the role of abuser or to be in the role of the abused. That is the perverse nature of the temptation to abuse. You can choose destructive power in the active role or in the passive role. It is an act of complicity in a situation of abuse and oppression to participate in the abusive power by agreeing with it and complying with it and to internalize the abuse. Internalized oppression is just as real as external oppression and it takes place when you comply with abuse by being silent and by ceasing and desisting even for a season. Justice has no season; justice is for every season. You cannot, you should not, you must not fast from justice for Lent.

Nor are we to try forcing others to see the world as we see it. But relational, redemptive power rather than dominating power says what we at All Saints will continue to say and to do. We will say to everyone in the Anglican communion, "We love you. We love Jesus. We love Scripture as we use it critically, discriminatingly, and non-abusively. We love the Anglican communion. And we will continue to bless same-sex unions."

And then we -- everybody at all five services -- blessed a prayer shawl crafted by the All Saints Knitting Ministry [photo above of the 11:15 congregation courtesy Keith Holeman] -- and have sent it off to Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori with a letter from the Rector "co-signed" by over 800 parish members.

Thanks to Hugo Schwyzer for his moving blog commentary on the blessing of the Prayer Shawl at our 5:00 Saturday service, which included this affirmation of the Spirit of the Living God present in the life and worship at All Saints Church:

"... what I love about All Saints is that under the leadership of an exciting and dynamic team of professional and volunteer youth ministers, an ever more explicitly evangelical message is being lived out with our children and teenagers. Our commitment to full inclusion for gays and lesbians, our sense that God’s view of sexuality is richer than we had once imagined, in no way vitiates the intensity of our faith in Christ. We can have Jesus and justice."

More from +Gene: A Response to "A Season of Fasting"

A Response to:
"A Season of Fasting: Reflections on the Primates Meeting, the Presiding Bishop’s message to the Church"

FROM: The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire

I have the utmost regard and respect for our new Presiding Bishop. Her leadership in these difficult times, not to mention her sheer courage, continues to inspire me. As I vowed at her investiture as Presiding Bishop, I will do everything I can to support her in this ministry.

That includes disagreeing with her views when I think it would build up the Body. What follows are my responses to those portions of her communication to the American Church dealing with the demands/threats made to The Episcopal Church related to those members of Christ’s Body who happen to be gay. Allow me to offer a different reading/critique of our Presiding Bishop’s words, and then propose a different way forward.

"What is being asked of both parties is a season of fasting – from authorizing rites for blessing same-sex unions and consecrating bishops in such unions on the one hand, and from transgressing traditional diocesan boundaries on the other."

I am reminded of the joke about the chicken and the pig, each asked to contribute to breakfast – the chicken’s eggs require a significantly smaller sacrifice than the pig’s bacon! Let us be clear: what is being asked of both parties is "a season of fasting from" accepting the Church’s gay and lesbian people as full members of the Body of Christ, a season of fasting from "respecting the dignity of every human being." If The Episcopal Church decides to do that, let’s call it what it is: a sacrifice borne most sacrificially by its gay and lesbian members.

[In citing the early church’s debate over dietary laws] "The needs of the weaker members, and the real possibility that their faith may be injured, are an important consideration in making the dietary decision."

If there ARE "needs of the weaker members, and the real possibility that their faith may be injured," they belong to the faithful members of the Church – in The Episcopal Church AND around the Anglican Communion – who are being denied full membership in the Body of Christ because of their same gender love. Is there even a single instance in which Jesus was willing to forego ministry, love and inclusion of the marginalized in order to protect the "sensitivities" of the Pharisees and Sadducees?! What would Jesus’ reaction have been to those same Pharisees and Sadducees if THEY had claimed to be the victims of Jesus’ insensitivity?

"The current controversy brings a desire for justice on the one hand into apparent conflict with a desire for fidelity to a strict understanding of the biblical tradition and to the main stream of the ethical tradition. Either party may be understood to be the meat-eaters, and each is reminded that their single-minded desire may be an idol. Either party might constructively also be understood by the other as the weaker member, whose sensibilities need to be considered and respected."

There are MORE than TWO parties here. I would maintain that NEITHER the Episcopal Church NOR the vast majority of the Churches represented by the Primates are the "weaker members." Rather I would say that the "weaker members" are those gay and lesbian members of the Church of Nigeria, whose Church is supporting the criminalization of all association between them in their country. The "weaker members" are the gay and lesbian members of the Episcopal Church, who have to go looking – sometimes in vain – for a congregation who will accept them as full members of the Body of Christ. The stronger/weaker dichotomy is NOT between The Episcopal Church and the rest of the Anglican Communion, but between the Anglican Communion in all its manifestations and the gay and lesbian Christians around the world trying to find a place within it.

For the first time in its history, and at the hands of the larger Communion, The Episcopal Church may be experiencing a little taste of the irrational discrimination and exclusion that is an everyday experience of its gay and lesbian members.

"Each party in this conflict is asked to consider the good faith of the other, to consider that the weakness or sensitivity of the other is of significant import, and therefore to fast, or ‘refrain from eating meat,’ for a season. Each is asked to discipline itself for the sake of the greater whole, and the mission that is only possible when the community maintains its integrity."
I certainly believe Paul when he says that no part of the Body can say to another, "I don’t need you." On the other hand, I don’t ever recall Jesus saying that the "greater whole" is the be all and end all.

Doesn’t Jesus challenge the greater whole to sacrifice itself for those on the margins? Preaching good news to the poor, binding up the broken hearted, releasing the prisoners and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor involves SACRIFICE on the part of the greater whole. That’s part of what angered his own hometown synagogue when he preached these powerful words from Isaiah. Touching the leper required SACRIFICE of ancient and firmly held beliefs. Eating with sinners was a SACRIFICE of the greater whole’s sensitivities. I would humbly submit that such sacrifice is the only way that our "community maintains its integrity."

"Justice, (steadfast) love, and mercy always go together in our biblical tradition. None is complete without the others. While those who seek full inclusion for gay and lesbian Christians, and the equal valuing of their gifts for ministry, do so out of an undeniable passion for justice, others seek a fidelity to the tradition that cannot understand or countenance the violation of what that tradition says about sexual ethics. Each is being asked to forbear for a season."
Where is the "justice, (steadfast) love, and mercy" for the Church’s gay and lesbian people in this threat from the primates? While the vast majority of the Anglican Communion AND the vast majority of Episcopalians may be willing to "forbear for a season," the world’s gay and lesbian Anglicans long to hear the words spoken to Jesus at his baptism: "You are my beloved. In you I am well pleased." Who will speak those words to them, while the rest of the Church forbears for a season? How will we explain this "forbearance" to all those gay and lesbian Christians who have come to The Episcopal Church because, for the first time ever, they have believed that there is a place for them AT God’s table, not simply BENEATH it, hoping for fallen scraps? Are THEIR souls not worthy of salvation too? Does anyone relish the notion of trying to explain all this "forbearance" to GOD?

Allow me to offer an additional reading of scriptural references to "fasting." In addition to St. Paul's "pastoral" fasting, should we not also consider Isaiah’s notion of "prophetic" fasting?

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
(Isaiah 58: 4, 6-7, NRSV)

Fasting that focuses only on the self is not, in Isaiah’s mind, the most pleasing to God. For the past many months, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion has spent far too much time and money and focus on this debate. I believe that the majority of us – certainly in The Episcopal Church, and possibly in the Anglican Communion as well – want to set this aside and get on with the work of the Gospel. What would it be like if we fasted in the way that God, through Isaiah, suggests: to fast from our internal squabbling for a season, and turn our focus to the world’s homeless, hungry and poor, in this and every land? What if we focused on what we say is our top priority – ministry to a world in pain through the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals – and simply fasted from this self-focus?

The changes in our polity proposed by the Primates can only properly and canonically be responded to by the laity, clergy and bishops gathered in General Convention in 2009. The Primates’ demands can be seriously, prayerfully and thoughtfully considered at that time. What if we stated, simply and calmly, that the Primates’ September deadline is impossible under our polity, and pledge ourselves to feeding, housing, and clothing the poor and binding up the physical and spiritual wounds of the world’s neediest for this season, until 2009? What if we gave up our internal squabbling for a season, took no precipitous action, and turned our focus to the world that Jesus Christ gave his life for?

This way forward may not be acceptable to many in the Communion who want this settled now, once and for all. So be it. Nothing we do will settle this once and for all. Does anyone believe that our full compliance with the Primates’ demands, our complete denunciation of our gay and lesbian members, or my removal as bishop would make all this go away?! We cannot determine what the response to our actions will be. We can only decide what our faithful response will be to the demands made of us.

If the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury to our prophetic fasting should result in our not being invited to the Lambeth Conference, then let us offer that denial as part of our fasting. Let us dedicate the diocesan and personal resources that would have been spent on Lambeth to projects involved in furthering the Millennium Development Goals.

During the debate over the consent to my election, I am told that the Bishop of Wyoming noted that not since the civil rights movement of the 60’s had he seen the Church risk its life for something. Indeed, I think he is right. This is such a time. A brief quotation hangs on the wall of my office: "Courage is fear that has said its prayers." Now is the time for courage, not fear.

I pray that in the days ahead, as the Executive Council meets in Portland, the House of Bishops meets in Texas, and the General Convention (the ONLY body which has the authority to respond to the demanded changes in our polity) meets in 2009, that we contemplate our call to "proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor" to those who have been denied it for so long and commit ourselves to the kind of fast that is pleasing to the Lord.

+Gene Robinson: A Word of Hope

A Word of Hope to my lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered brothers and sisters in Christ:

From: +Gene Robinson

In light of the recent Primates Meeting and our Presiding Bishop’s communication to the Church, I received the following plea from a dear and trusted sister:

“Gene, I don't know how you are this night, or if you can summon a word of hope, but the eyes of many LGBT people and our faithful allies are looking to you, tuning the ears of our hearts to hear where you see the hand of God in what feels like deep, deep betrayal.”

After a good number of sleepless nights and prayerful days, let me tell you where this gay man and Bishop of the Church stands, with respect to our beloved Church and our trustworthy and faithful God:

Let’s remember that, for now, nothing has changed. The Episcopal Church has been bold in its inclusion of us, “risking its life” for us in dramatic ways over these last few years. Not perfect, but bold. Just because The Episcopal Church has been invited to subvert its own polity and become a Church ruled by bishops-only, a Church that is willing to sacrifice the lives and ministries and dignity of its gay and lesbian members on the altar of unity, does not mean that we are going to choose to do it. That is yet to be determined. Let’s not abandon hope simply because that is possible. The Primates have the right to make requests of us (nevermind the threatening tone of those requests). We do not have to accede to those requests in exactly the terms in which they are made.

Nothing is surprising in this development. None of us thought this issue was settled, did we? None of us expected our detractors to stop their efforts – whether their goals be genuinely about the authority of scripture and its playing out in our lives as Christians, or whether those goals have more to do with power and money and influence. (BOTH are represented in the actions taken.) We are fighting a larger battle here. As you have heard me say before, we are engaged in the beginning of the end of patriarchy. Did any of us believe that such a battle would be won without resistance? Did any of us believe there would be no more bumps in the road? Did any of us foresee smooth sailing into the future?

We still have countless allies. We are not engaged in this struggle alone. There are countless heterosexual members of this Church who now “get it.” They have heard our stories, felt our pain and taken up our cause as their own. There are countless heterosexual families who have joined The Episcopal Church (they are numerous in my own diocese) because they want to raise their children in such an inclusive Church. There are countless lgbt people who have come to our churches for the comfort and solace and grounding in Christ that we offer – and we dare not lose hope or momentum for them as well as ourselves.

Most importantly, God is still with us. And by “us,” I don’t just mean gay and lesbian people. God is still with God’s Church – frail, cowardly and misguided as it can sometimes be, human nature being what it is. The Church is not ours to save or lose – the Church belongs to GOD, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. I believe that we are meant to use the institution of the Church – yes, even boldy risk its existence – to further NOT our own agenda, but the agenda of God. I do not equate the two. Our vision of the Church is only partial; our grasp of what God wants is as susceptible to our self-focused distortion as anyone else’s. But we are called to witness to OUR vision of God’s will and combine it with all the other imperfect visions of God’s will (yes, even those of our detractors), and come up with as perfected a vision as we can muster. The Church has been wrangling over those different visions since its inception – and that will never change. The question for US, however, is: Will we continue to put forward faithfully and respectfully and tenaciously OUR vision into that mix, or will we be intimidated into doubting our own vision of God’s will for the Church – or worse still, leave?

God will continue to show forth God’s glory and God’s goodness in our lives. The reason that we have made progress with our brothers and sisters in the Church is that GOD has shown forth God’s glory and goodness in our lives so strongly, that God cannot be denied at work in us. Many of the faithful have changed their views on homosexuality because they see GOD showing up in our lives, our ministries, our relationships and our families. That is the witness we can and must continue to make to the Church – not pointing to ourselves, but to the God we know in our lives. As I have said before, and will continue to say: JESUS is our agenda – the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, and the sins of the whole world, so that we might know God’s love and goodness in our lives. In the end, God will reign, and all will be well. I believe that with my whole heart.

Lastly, I give thanks every day to God for the fellowship we share. Part of what gives me relentless hope is my fellowship with YOU. What an honor and privilege it is to hold you in my heart as brothers and sisters in the faith, colleagues in ministry and faithful members of the Church. Can you imagine a more wonderful, fun and courageous group of “companions along the way?” Let our joy, our humor, our devotion to the Lord and to His Church be signs of the abundant life given to us in Christ. Let gay and lesbian people everywhere witness our joy, let them wonder how we can be so hopeful in the face of such overwhelming odds against us, that they want what we’ve got – a relationship with the living God that brings deep joy and abiding peace. Let us be ready to tell them the story of our own salvation at the hands of a loving God. And let us welcome them into our blessed fellowship, the Church.


I don’t know if this is the “word of hope” my friend asked for. It has little to do with events in Tanzania or even the Episcopal Church, and everything to do with God. But it is the hope that keeps me going. My faith is not in myself or in our “cause.” My faith is not in the House of Bishops or the General Convention to get it “right” anytime soon. It is, rather, the faith that people of countless generations and innumerable circumstances have found in our loving and trustworthy God. It is the faith Jesus said it was “blessed” to be persecuted for. It is the faith that Christians have always found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – and God’s desire, willingness and power to bring an Easter out of ANY Good Friday. It is the faith that in and through the Holy Spirit, God continues to fulfill God’s promise “to lead us into all truth.”

I may utterly fail; I will undoubtedly disappoint God in my inability to be the person God created me to be; I will predictably confuse my own will with God’s will. But whatever the next weeks, months and years may bring, whether the Episcopal Church “comes through” for us or not, GOD will not fail, GOD will never disappoint, and GOD will never cease to pursue God’s will for my life – and yours – and for the world.

A Cloud of Witnesses

Words of hope, challenge and inspiration from a variety of sources today leave me giving thanks for the veritable "cloud of witnesses" that have surrounded me today!

From an email today from the Bishop of New Hampshire:

As I have said before, and will continue to say: JESUS is our agenda – the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, and the sins of the whole world, so that we might know God’s love and goodness in our lives. In the end, God will reign, and all will be well. I believe that with my whole heart.

From a new blog recommended by Jim Naughton over at Daily Episcopalian:

To be talked ABOUT instead of talked TO is an abomination that I just can't stomach. If Bps. Duncan, Epting and McPherson went to Dar Es Salaam along with Bp. Jefferts-Schori, then why on earth couldn't Bp. Robinson have gone too? Are we homosexuals just that scary? How can you give witness to what's happening with God's gay and lesbian children if NOT ONE OF THEM GETS TO SPEAK?

And from the psalm appointed for Lent 2/Year C -- Psalm 27 -- which we prayed together at our Noon Eucharist here at All Saints Church today:

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear? *
the Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh, *
it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who
stumbled and fell.

3 Though an army should encamp against me, *
yet my heart shall not be afraid;

4 And though war should rise up against me, *
yet will I put my trust in him.

5 One thing have I asked of the Lord;
one thing I seek; *
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord *
and to seek him in his temple.
7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe
in his shelter; *
he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling
and set me high upon a rock.

8 Even now he lifts up my head *
above my enemies round about me.

9 Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation
with sounds of great gladness; *
I will sing and make music to the Lord.

10 Hearken to my voice, O Lord, when I call; *
have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.” *
Your face, Lord, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me, *
nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper;
cast me not away; *
do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

14 Though my father and my mother forsake me, *
the Lord will sustain me.

15 Show me your way, O Lord; *
lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

16 Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries, *
for false witnesses have risen up against me,
and also those who speak malice.

17 What if I had not believed
that I should see the goodness of the Lord *
in the land of the living!

18 O tarry and await the Lord's pleasure;
be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *
wait patiently for the Lord

Michael Hopkins offers "Further Thoughts ... "

Do "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" Michael Hopkins' just-posted-to-his blog "Further Thoughts ..." piece (posted below) and give thanks with me for his ever faithful witness and ongoing commitment to the work of the Gospel.

Further thoughts on the Primates Commnique from Tanzania
The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins
Rector, the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene

Rochester, New York
Past President, Integrity

A week from the issuance of the Communiqué from the Primates of the Anglican Communion, a careful read and re-read of it, significant prayer and conversation, and listening to the audio of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori’s presentation to the staff at the church center in New York, leads me to the following places:

It is very painful to be in a place of considering whether it is right to remain in the Anglican Communion or not. Being a part of the worldwide fellowship—in all of its diversity—remains important to me. I care enough about Anglicanism as a way of being Christian that I do not want to leave the conversation on its continuing development. I too, like the Presiding Bishop, “hunger for a vision of a world where people of vastly different opinions can sit at the same table and worship at the same table.” This is a true hunger for true communion.

Having said that, a state of some separation may be necessary for a time. It may be that only in that state of separation can the real conversation happen. It too much feels like we keep trying to get the other to say things about themselves that are not true in order for us to stay together. The one thing we might be able to agree on is that in any counseling situation that is a very bad place to be in, and no way forward. Separation is risky. Ironically enough, lesbian and gay folk know much about this dynamic.

Many of us either are separated from our families of origin or spent a significant amount of time separated from them. In my case it was the latter, and it was only in that period of separation that both the rest of my family and I were able to grasp our deep need of one another and able to clarify how we felt and thought (including being able to let go of constantly being in a reactive state). If we do have to let go of one another I hope it is in this sense and not in any kind of “I have no need of you.”

In any statements that the House of Bishops or the Executive Council or the General Convention makes in an attempt to state our desire to remain in Communion, I ask that the following three things be included as an honest statement of who we are (the inability to do this would signal that it was not actually a healing process that the primates had in mind, but an exercise in domination):

1 - A significant portion of our Church clearly does not receive the teaching of Lambeth 1.10 that “homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture” and we are unable to accept that it is “the standard of teaching” in the Anglican Communion even as we recognize that perhaps a majority of persons in the Communion hold it to be true.

2 - Baptized persons, including clergy, who are gay or lesbian, many of them living in same-sex relationships openly in our faith communities, are valued members of the Episcopal Church. That is a simple statement of who we are, even though we understand that a significant number of Anglicans worldwide do not understand how this can be so.

3 - The pastoral life of many of our parishes includes these persons and the fullness of their lives, something that we committed ourselves to in 1976 (a commitment that, in part, prompted the first call for dialogue on this issue by the Lambeth Conference of 1978). Conversation with this pastoral practice must be part of any Communion-wide listening process for it to have integrity for us. At the same time, we expect to have to be in dialogue with fellow Anglicans who absolutely disagree with us on this matter.

Right now I do not want to comment further on the structures being proposed for alternative oversight, although I remain deeply troubled by them. I have needed to focus on where the Communiqué most directly impacts my life and that of my local faith community.

Lastly, I continue to hear something that I first heard at our General Convention last summer, that there has to be some sacrifice on “this issue” if we are going to be able to continue to do mission with the truly suffering of the world. I would hope that this rhetoric would be taken off the table. It is degrading all around.

All of us want to do mission with the truly suffering of this world and all of us are doing it in varied ways. I trust that all of us will continue to do them even if for some reason we are cut off from official Anglican channels of doing so. My own suspicion (partly coming out of my own experiences in Africa) is that channels will remain open with Anglican partners even if official channels are closed.

Lent I: Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I'm heading as far away from Anglican politics as I can get ... to a Santa Monica party celebrating St. Oscar of Hollywood Day. But before I do, wanted to commend Elizabeth Kaeton's excellent words from this morning: The First Temptations of Christ ... found here on her blog "Telling Secrets."

We have, like Jesus, been tempted to worship the false god of Unity, rather than the God who created the wondrous paradox of the diversity of humanity.

And let the church step away from that temptation. And let the church say "Amen."

WHAT NEXT?

Quickly glancing at the blogosphere this morning (we're in the middle of our annual "Lent Event" weekend at All Saints Church with featured speaker Sister Helen Prejean so it's a been bizzy-bizzy-bizzyplace!) I found these couple of suggestions for "Next Steps" worth noting:

The Episcopal Majority has a "Call to Action" that includes:

There are a number of reasons to encourage our bishops to refuse to accept the September 30 deadline and to ultimately say “no” to demands of the Communique itself. These are of deep concern to us; I’m sure you will identify additional ones.

1 - The demand does not take into account our Constitution and Canons.
2 - The bishops should refuse to deal with the demands of the Communiqué until a Covenant is in place defining the limits of foreign intervention – especially the kind of intervention proposed by creation of the Pastoral Council.
3 - The bishops should make it clear that to accept the Communiqué at this time would usurp the process of the Covenant Design Group.
4 - The bishops should say “no” to any moratoriums on legal consecrations or clerical blessings carried out in this Church.

And Ann Fontaine (as quoted on Daily Episcopalian) suggests a "Fast From Lambeth" that makes all kinds of sense to me:

She writes, "I think we can say to the Primates –

1. We do not have official rites for same sex blessings

2. Consents are made according to our Constitution and Canons

3. We know our stance on the role of gays and lesbians (and women for most provinces) offends you, but we do not ask you to take our stance for your own.

4. We deeply appreciate your willingness to engage in the listening process and to take all this time about TEC in an era of global disaster.

5. We want to work with you to address the pressing needs of poverty, global warming, HIV/AIDS, malaria (more people dying every day than died in the tsunami btw)
6. If you do not want us at Lambeth 2008 - we accept that and will use all the funds we would have spent on that meeting for the relief of suffering around the world (including all that the dioceses will spend to send our bishops and our contribution to the ACC for this, as well as encouraging Compass Rose to donate their funds to relief and development too). This will be our communal fast.

7. If you decide that we are no longer a part of the Anglican Communion we will continue to work with churches around the world who wish to be companions on the Way with us. The bonds of our affection are rooted in Baptism and gathering at the Eucharist. We are brothers and sisters in Christ not through our own doing but because Christ has made it so."

NEWS FROM THE AAC FRONT

It's been a busy day over at Schism Central AKA The Anglican American Council. First, David ("I like a good fight") Anderson (note that I'm giving up the "Canon" for Lent) called for Bishop Gene Robinson's "removal" in his response to the Primates Communique on the Anglican Mainstream website:

“It makes it so clear that Gene Robinson is unacceptable in his capacity as Bishop that he is going to have to go. He could either go gracefully and resign or he’s going to have to be removed. Otherwise, TEC cannot meet the demands of the communique.

“It is very difficult to say if he will go gracefully. He has been the poster boy for the gay and lesbian community. He might actually be at some risk from his own community if he steps down voluntarily. It might be better for him to be forced out than to step down voluntarily.“

"A case could be brought against him in an ecclesiastical court, based on his personal moral conduct. If the court was hand-picked, as many courts are, to find the verdict that was desired, he could be found guilty. Once a complaint was filed in the ecclesiastical system, Bishop Jefferts Schori would call an ecclesiastical court of bishops for a trial. That is how proceedings would be instigated. A complaint could be put in by a group of bishops, presbyters or laity.”

"Risk from his own community???????" I thought then that David had finally gone over the looney-ledge but then a Press Release hit from his AAC office which included this "breaking news":

In a related development, the AAC also announced this week its formation of a Communiqué Compliance Office, which will monitor TEC’s acts of compliance and non-compliance with respect to the primates’ requirements throughout the period leading up to the Sept. 30 deadline.

“As a non-ecclesial body, the AAC is in a unique position to function as a watchdog on TEC’s compliance with the demands of the Dar es Salaam communiqué,” Canon Anderson explained. “Over the coming months, the newly created office will continuously gather information from around the United States and provide monthly accountings to the primates so that there is no doubt where TEC stands when the clock runs out.”

The AAC asks that anyone with pertinent information on TEC compliance to the communiqué’s demands send that information to the AAC by email or U.S. Postal mail (visit www.americananglican.org for contact information).

COMMUNIQUE COMPLIANCE OFFICE??????

I'm left with only one unanswered question: Will the Compliance Officers be issued Brown Shirts or Black and when can I expect the knock on my door in the night?

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UPDATE: And because I COULDN'T make this stuff up if I tried here's even MORE evidence that David formerly-of-Newport-Beach-now-of-Nigeria has gone off the Deep End ...

Press Release: AAC Lifts Inhibitions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 23, 2007

The American Anglican Council (AAC) announced today that the 21 recent Virginia inhibitions are null and void and declared them lifted. When the clergy from two of the three Episcopal dioceses in the state of Virginia were declared inhibited in January by the current bishop of middle and northern Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, the clergy he acted against had already transferred to other Anglican jurisdictions.

Subsequently, Bishop Lee has defaulted on his agreed Protocol that he and other Diocese of Virginia representatives worked out with representatives of the churches investigating departure. With the filing of litigation against 11 churches by the bishop and Diocese of Virginia, the Protocol seems to have been unilaterally dishonored and abrogated, raising many questions about all agreements between the congregations and the diocese. In addition, Bishop Lee's failure to discontinue the litigation following the Anglican primates' specific request to do so in their recent Dar Es Salaam communiqué demonstrates even further a lack of respect for not only Anglicans within his own state but also for the Anglican Communion and its leaders world-wide.

AAC President Canon David C. Anderson announced today that, after a careful examination of the facts, the inhibitions imposed on the 21 Virginia clergy associated with the departing congregations were baseless and without jurisdiction, and therefore have been lifted.
Asked by what authority the AAC could lift the inhibitions, Canon Anderson replied: “By what authority did Bishop Lee attempt to impose the inhibitions on clergy belonging to Uganda and Nigeria? Those faithful clergy are now declared Uninhibited for Christ!”

But wait ... there's more ...

Think the Petulant Primates had reached the height of hubris with their Comminque demands that the American Church abandon its polity, its canons AND its gay and lesbian baptized? Think again ... now it's CANTERBURY who has been given a September 30th "deadline."

HELLO HOUSE OF BISHOPS!!!!!!!! When is Enough Enough???
==============

Kenya: Anglican Bishops Warn of Split
The Nation (Nairobi)
February 23, 2007

[Nairobi] African Anglican bishops yesterday warned of a split among faithful unless the mother church stopped embracing homosexuality by September 30.

Led by Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola and Kenya's Benjamin Nzimbi, the bishops said if Canterbury "does not come back to us by September 30, we will decide whether they will continue being with us or not."

"Let us know if they will have stopped celebrating same sex marriages and ordaining homosexuals," Bishop Akinola who is the chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa ...

Read it all here ... and forward it to anybody who thinks this "fasting for a season" is anybody's idea of a good idea!

Hail to the Chief!

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson has issued her statement on the Primates Communique from Tanzania. Posted on the ENS website I recommend you read the text posted below while humming "Hail to the Chief."


As I read the Communiqué from the Primates' Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I am deeply troubled by its implications for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

I continue to offer the Primates my affection, prayer and companionship along the way of the Cross and I respect their leadership of our Communion. Their Communiqué, however, raises profound and serious issues regarding their authority to require any member Church to take the types of specific actions the Communiqué contemplates and whether they have authority to enforce consequences or penalties against any member Church that does not act in a way they desire. The type of authority for the Primates implicit in the Communiqué would change not only the Episcopal Church but the essence of the Anglican Communion.

The polity of the Episcopal Church is one of shared decision making among the laity, priests and deacons and bishops. The House of Bishops does not make binding, final decisions about the governance of the Church. Decisions like those requested by the Primates must be carefully considered and ultimately decided by the whole Church, all orders of ministry, together.
Some are asking whether the Primates can ask our House of Bishops to take certain actions and put a deadline on their request. Yes, they can ask. There are larger questions that need to be addressed, including: Is it a good idea for our House of Bishops to do what they have asked? Is the House of Bishops the right body within the Episcopal Church to respond to the Primates' requests?

Our baptismal promise to seek and serve Christ in all people must be very carefully considered when we are being asked as Episcopalians to exclude some of our members from answering the Holy Spirit's call to use their God-given gifts to lead faithful lives of ministry. Our promise to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of all people binds us together. The Episcopal Church has declared repeatedly that our understanding of the Baptismal Covenant requires that we treat all persons equally regardless of their race, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, disabilities, age, color, ethnic origin, or national origin.

To honor all of the Primates' requests would change the way the Episcopal Church understands its role in the Communion and the way Episcopalians make decisions about our common life. Our church makes policy and interprets its resolutions and Canons through the General Convention and, to a lesser extent, the Executive Council.

As president of the 800-plus member House of Deputies, it is my duty to ensure that the voice of the clergy and the laity of our Church will be heard as the Church discusses and debates the Primates' requests and that that process will not be pre-empted by the House of Bishops or any other group. I have already begun to work toward that end.

All Anglicans must remember that the second Lambeth Conference in 1878 recommended that "the duly certified action of every national or particular Church, and of each ecclesiastical province (or diocese not included in a province), in the exercise of its own discipline, should be respected by all the other Churches, and by their individual members."

This has been the tradition of the Anglican Communion. To demand strict uniformity of practice diminishes our Anglican traditions.

Our tradition of autonomous churches in the Anglican Communion, that come together because of our love of Christ and our common heritage, has allowed us to focus on mission and evangelism to our broken world which is in desperate need of the Good News of God in Christ. In recent times, however, we have spent too much of our time, talent and treasure debating if we ought to deny some people a place at the table to which Jesus calls us all. Instead, we must listen to each other – really listen and not just read reports – so that we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit moving through all of us and calling us to be more faithful.

And he told them a parable ...

THE PARABLE OF THE METER READER
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When I was younger I was a meter reader for the electric utility company, often requiring entering customers' back yards to read the meter. Naturally there were many encounters with unfriendly dogs. When a dog came running out of the house or from a hidden corner of the yard, barking and snarling, it was nearly always the best tactic to stand my ground and say "No" with confidence and self-assurance.

In most cases the dog would just stand there, unhappy, but would let me read the meter and leave (although I was careful not to turn my full back to them -- always kept one eye on them). I might also add that the worst were the yappy little Poodles and Dachshunds -- they love to nip at your ankles. Perhaps surprisingly, I'm still a dog lover.

===========

Thanks to Jim White, Diocese of Los Angeles, for this!

And The Award Goes To ...

THE "YOU GO GIRLS" AWARD goes to two clergy colleagues here in the Diocese of Los Angeles who made their annual Valentine's Day pilgrimage to the County Registrar's Office to be denied a marriage license. Here's the profile article from last week's Ventura County Reporter.

THE "QUOTE OF THE DAY" AWARD goes to Ann Fontaine for this AP article: "We made our 'yes' to gays and lesbians," wrote the Rev. Ann Fontaine of the Diocese of Wyoming, in an examination of the Anglican demands. "Let it stand."

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THE "PRESS RELEASE OF THE DAY" AWARD goes to Ed Bacon at All Saints Church for his "Response to the Anglican Primates": "As rector, I will reject all Episcopal invitations to "fast" from doing the justice work of embodying God's inclusive love. The fast to which Lent calls us is to foreswear acts of interpersonal and institutional bigotry and discrimination with which this communiqué is dripping."

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THE "NEW BLOG TO WATCH" AWARD goes to "Walking With Integrity" which is featuring a round-up of reactions from bishops from round and about the Episcopal Church.

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Which brings me to ...

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THE "CROCODILE TEARS" AWARD goes to Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona for his "Special Message" dated February 21st: "I know that many who have worked so hard for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the church will see this as another step backward. It is, and my heart breaks because of it."
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I expected better from Kirk, a former clergy colleague here in Los Angeles and a long-time "straight ally" in the struggle for the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ -- which is what called me to send the following:

===============

Dear Kirk,

Just a quick note to say how deeply disappointed I was to read your Pastoral Letter in response to the Primates Communiqué from Tanzania. While we are all grieved by the current state of affairs in the worldwide communion and pray for a vision of a way forward together, to allow ourselves as a church to be blackmailed by demands that we institutionalize what amounts to sacramental apartheid as the price for our inclusion at the Anglican Communion table is not the answer.

While I appreciate your heartbreak at sacrificing the vocations and relationships of the gay and lesbian baptized on the altar of global Anglican politics there is an even greater victim here: the spirit of Anglican comprehensiveness that is in danger of becoming a footnote in the history of the Church of God. This is indeed the season to remember who is the focus of our faith. It is NOT we ourselves -- but the One who didn't say one word about protecting the unity of the church but said many about liberating captives, freeing the oppressed and proclaiming good news to the poor.

Please know that you and your brother and sister bishops will be daily in our prayers as you prepare to gather at Camp Allen next month.

Blessings,
Susan

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

An Open Letter from Bishop Steven Charleston

(written to the community of the Episcopal Divinity School)

You'll want to read it all here ... but to get you started:

To everything there is a season. This is our season to make a witness to justice. I hope all of you will stand with me in doing this with integrity, honesty and dedication. Millions of our GLBT brothers and sisters around the world, both those who can speak openly of their lives and those who must hide for fear of their lives, deserve our visible and unequivocal support.

Enough is enough. It is time to make our intentions clear, come what may. I pray that you will help EDS carry that message to every corner of the Church, in humility and with an open mind, but carry it with a resolve that will not bend under pressure or falter under threats. This church is either truly open to all, or it is closed to the Spirit. We either stand for what we know is just and embrace our GLBT members, or we stand aside as justice is denied. There is no easy way out of this choice. There is only a gospel way forward. This school intends to walk forward and we are prepared for the fact that many may not want to walk with us. If the Anglican Communion must separate over this fundamental issue of human rights, then so be it. To everything there is a season. Perhaps this is the season for the growth of the gospel in truth and in love in ways that we could never have imagined.

An Acceptable Time, An Acceptable Fast

An Acceptable Time, An Acceptable Fast
Ash Wednesday, 2007

It is Ash Wednesday – the gateway for yet another 40-day Lenten journey toward Easter. We hear again the words as familiar as their outward-and-visible signs etched on our foreheads: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” On this Ash Wednesday, as the liturgical season shifts from Epiphany to Lent, we are called to make a shift, too. During these weeks since Christmas our lessons have focused on the “epiphanies” of those who encountered Jesus along the way and knew somehow, at some point, in some perhaps indescribable way, that they had experienced the holy

And now our focus shifts, as it does every year at this time, from stories about those outward manifestations of God's presence among us to a more interior place as we journey with Jesus on the road we know leads to Golgotha – to the cross – and ultimately, to the resurrection. And so, on this Ash Wednesday, here is my annual advice for the journey ahead: Let us not give up epiphanies for Lent.

Let us not become so inwardly focused that we forget to notice – to give thanks for – to respond to – those encounters we can and will have with the holy in the next 40 days. Let us not become so focused on our own “journey with Jesus” that we forget that as long as there are still strangers at the gate, walking humbly with our God is not enough: let us not forget that we are also called to do justice. Let us do an even bolder and more prophetic job of claiming “justice doing” as essential to our identity as Christian people – as Lenten pilgrims. Let us, by all means, pray silently to our Father who is in secret, but let us at the same time proclaim loudly to those who would dismiss our activism as “agenda driven” that our agenda is a GOSPEL agenda: that our call to act with compassion, to reach out with pastoral care, do justice is rooted deep in the roots of our history as a people of God – in these words of the prophet Isaiah:

Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say,
Here I am.

“Here I am,” our God promises – ready to lead us through whatever wilderness we face: to accompany us wherever the journey goes. On this Ash Wednesday 2007, I wonder if part of the wilderness we are being called into is labeled “post-Katrina stress syndrome” as we see on this Day-After-Mardi Gras a city still laid waste by the twin disasters of a hurricane that ripped it apart and the racism that continues to tear it apart long after the waters have receded.

And I wonder if part of the wilderness we are being called into is labeled “The Iraqi Surge” as an administration prepares to sacrifice yet more Iraqi and American lives in its quest for a military solution to an increasingly un-winnable war.

And I wonder if part of the wilderness we are being called into is labeled “Anglican Politics” as the Right Wing of the Episcopal Church comes every closer to achieving the schism they have been working to pull off here in the American Church while the Anglican Primates issue a Communiqué that paints the American Episcopal Church into a corner where it is faced with the “Sophie’s Choice” of choosing the inclusive Gospel over inclusion in the Anglican Communion.

These are the wildernesses that make up the landscape of our Lent. If we are to choose the fast Isaiah offers us this Lent, we must continue to undo the thongs of the yoke of racism that holds this country and this church in its grasp. If we are to be a people who have bread to share with the hungry we must challenge those who would spend all our resources on arms for an immoral war that continues to kill Iraqi citizens and take American lives. If we are to serve the God whose fast is “to let the oppressed go free” we must speak out when gay and lesbian families are in danger of becoming sacrificial lambs on the altar of church politics.

Now IS the acceptable time. May the God who calls each of us into this wilderness be with us and bless us on our individual Lenten journeys. May the Risen Lord inspire His church to follow in His footsteps and resist the temptations before it: to resist compromising our call to compassion, pastoral care and justice for the whole human family. And may the Holy Spirit give us the grace to recognize the difference between a fast acceptable to the Primates and a fast acceptable to God.

From the Mouths of Bishops

Here's a little "round up" of which miter is saying what:
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The Right Reverend J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta

The Right Reverend Andrew Smith, Bishop of Connnecticut
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The Right Reverend Marc Andrus, Bishop of California
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The Right Reverend Mark Sisk, Bishop of New York
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The Right Reverend Jack Leo Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth
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The Right Reverend James L. Jelinek, Bishop of Minnesota

Today's "Breaking News"

Click here for today's NewsHour Interview
with Kendall Harmon and Susan Russell
.
And click here for the Presiding Bishop's ENS interview

.

Here for her disappointing "Reflections on the Primates Meeting"

.

And click here for a more encouraging statement from

Bishop Marc Andrus, California

The inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the full life of the Church is a matter of justice: as we are all part of the world, and the kindom of God is like a net laid over that same world. All on the earth are connected by this net, whether perceived or not. Actions of justice and injustice reverberate throughout the whole, promoting either integrity, remembering, and shalom, or diabolic isolation.

.

Click here for the Washington Post article du jour:

"Yes, I would accept schism," said Bishop Steven Charleston, president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "I would be willing to accept being told I'm not in communion with places like Nigeria if it meant I could continue to be in a position of justice and morality. If the price I pay is that I'm not considered to be part of a flawed communion, then so be it."

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Here for the New York Times:

“Being part of the Anglican Communion is very important to me,” said Bishop Mark S. Sisk of New York. “But if the price of that is I have to turn my back on the gay and lesbian people who are part of this church and part of me, I won’t do that.”.

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More commentary later ... off to Shrove Tuesday Pancake Land!

Primates Choose Bigotry Over Baptized

Just issued Integrity Press Release:

"The primates of the Anglican Communion have utterly failed to recognize the faith, relationships, and vocations of the gay and lesbian baptized," said Integrity President Susan Russell, responding to the communiqué released today from Dar Es Salaam.

"Let us pray it doesn't take another hundred years for yet-unborn primates to gather for a service of repentance for what the church has done to its gay and lesbian members today, as they repented in Zanzibar yesterday forwhat it did to those the church failed to embrace as full members of theBody of Christ."

The Rev. Michael Hopkins, immediate past President of Integrity had thisreaction: "Jesus weeps, and so do I. If the House of Bishops (or any other body with actual authority in this church) capitulates to these demands and sacrifices gay and lesbian people to the idol of the Instruments of Unity, it will have become the purveyor of an "anti-Gospel" that will (and should) repel many."

Integrity encourages its membership and allies to directly contact their bishops --urging them to reject the demands of the primates. Our leadership will seek an immediate meeting with the Presiding Bishop to express our deep concerns and encourage the Executive Council to insist on the inclusion ofall orders of ministry in the ongoing process of discernment on Anglican Communion issues.

PRESS CONTACTS
The Rev. Susan Russell, President
president@integrityusa.org
714-356-5718 (mobile)
626-583-2741 (office)

Mr. John Gibson,
Director of Communications
jhngb@aol.com
917-518-1120 (mobile)

Primates' Communique Finally Released ...

Just posted to ACNS: The Communiqué Of the Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam

While I commend the whole document to you -- and I have only scanned it so far myself -- these three items toward the end strike me as where some rubber meets some road:
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31. Three urgent needs exist. First, those of us who have lost trust in The Episcopal Church need to be re-assured that there is a genuine readiness in The Episcopal Church to embrace fully the recommendations of the Windsor Report.
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32. Second, those of us who have intervened in other jurisdictions believe that we cannot abandon those who have appealed to us for pastoral care in situations in which they find themselves at odds with the normal jurisdiction. For interventions to cease, what is required in their view is a robust scheme of pastoral oversight to provide individuals and congregations alienated from The Episcopal Church with adequate space to flourish within the life of that church in the period leading up to the conclusion of the Covenant Process.
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33. Third, the Presiding Bishop has reminded us that in The Episcopal Church there are those who have lost trust in the Primates and bishops of certain of our Provinces because they fear that they are all too ready to undermine or subvert the polity of The Episcopal Church. In their view, there is an urgent need to embrace the recommendations of the Windsor Report and to bring an end to all interventions.
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Postscript:

1 - We were told that ENS would have a statement with quotes from +KJS out at 1:40am Tanzanina time but that was over an hour ago ...

2 - Jim Naughton has a nice compilation of "early reactions" over at Daily Episcopalian.

3 - Kendall Harmon "has his hat off" to all who worked so hard ... which is, frankly, never good news for those invested in the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ.

4 - My email inbox is full of messages that start, "How could she ..." and "What does this mean ..." and "Why would I stay in a church that ..."

And at the moment, I don't have a single answer for a single one of them.

Tick Tock

(An "update from the front" from the Telegraph's Jonathan Petre

on the hold up in releasing a communique from Tanzania.)

Anglican crisis talks 'to last into the night'

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, in Dar Es Salaam

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The worldwide Anglican Church was struggling to reach a consensus tonight about how to resolve its bitter dispute over homosexuality.

.

The Church's primates, who are meeting in Tanzania, were deadlocked over key areas of their final communiqué, which is supposed to reflect the views of the whole gathering. Embarrassed officials had to postpone a press conference at which they had intended to unveil the communiqué, explaining that talks were expected to go on into the night.

One said that if the primates failed to resolve their differences tonight, they may not release a communiqué at all, a development that would be regarded as signalling a profound split.

It was believed that the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, is leading a rearguard action by a rump of hardline conservatives. They were deeply unhappy with early drafts of the communiqué because it fails to rebuke the liberal American Episcopal Church for bringing Anglicanism to the brink of schism by consecrating its first openly gay bishop in 2003. They are also concerned that it does not provide sufficient protection for American conservatives who have rejected the leadership of their liberal Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Archbishop Akinola demonstrated his growing distance from many of his colleagues by failing to make the trip to the island of Zanzibar on Sunday for a service in the Anglican cathedral at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, preached.

Although he told officials that he was suffering from a bad back, he has since been seen walking around, apparently in no discomfort. It is believed, however, that he used the time to plan his strategy and draw up a dissenting minority statement for the conservative group which they may issue if the impasse cannot be broken.

=========

My response? "Bad back" my foot. When is the rest of the Communion going to step up and "call bullshit" (as my kids would say) on this continuing saga of holding the whole work of the church hostage to the bigotry of a handful of petulant primates? Enough, already!

The ABofC's Sermon from Zanzibar

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams preached

at Christ Church Cathedral in Zanzibar with help from a Swahili interpreter.

[photo credit: Scott Gunn]

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There's a link to the text of the Archbishop's sermon here -- and here's some commentary from yesterday's NYTimes:

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Facing a possible church fracture over the issue of homosexuality, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion reminded bishops of the need for humility as church leaders gathered Sunday for services on the island of Zanzibar.

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“There was a great saint who said God was evident when bishops are silent,” the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, told hundreds who packed a 173-year-old stone cathedral. “There is one thing a bishop should say to another bishop; that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.”

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Nearly three dozen leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans have gathered in Tanzania in an attempt to resolve the long-simmering conflict over homosexuality. The most conservative archbishops, led by Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria, are demanding that the group take firm action against the Episcopal Church of the United States, which consecrated a gay bishop in 2003 and has not banned blessings of same-sex unions.

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On Friday, Archbishop Akinola and six other archbishops refused to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of 2.3 million members of the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion. To celebrate communion with Bishop Jefferts Schori, who supports gay clergy and church blessings of same-sex unions, “would be a violation of Scriptural teaching and the traditional Anglican understanding,” said a statement on the Nigerian church Web site.

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Some observers interpreted Archbishop Williams’s sermon as an implicit rebuke of those archbishops. If so, though, Archbishop Akinola was not there to hear it. [Read the rest here]

Report from the Anglican Covenant Design Group

The Report from the Anglican Covenant Design Committee was released today. You can read it here ... (I have so far only skimmed it) ... and below are some what-I-found-to-be interesting commentary from around the blogosphere.

And in case you need to refresh your memory about "where 'we' stand" on the whole Covenant issue here's a link to A166 -- the resolution we passed in Columbus regarding the Anglican Covenant. Do note the language "... support the process of the development of an Anglican Covenant that underscores our unity in faith, order, and common life in the service of God’s mission." While I remain unconvinced that this "covenant" process is an authentic expression of our traditional Anglican ethos it is of interest to me that this long expected report is falling so short of the hopes of our neo-Puritan brothers and sisters and going too far for the rest of us.

Here are some other opinions:

The Stand Firm folks stand firmly convinced that the report is more "Anglican Fudge;"

Jim Naughton offers an overview including this helpful contextual comment: [I] think that this formulation gives too much power to the wrong group of people. I expect others inside and outside of our Church will raise similar concerns. Also, as a resident of our nation's capital, I can't help pointing out that the smaller the group that wields power, the fewer people special interest groups have to impress with their generosity in order to get their way.

Dan Martins has this to say on his blog Confessions of a Carioca:

I have not yet read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested it. But I have given it a couple of looks, as well as monitored some of the initial reactions. The chorus at Stand Firm is, as one might imagine, overwhelmingly gloomy in its assessment. To some extent, I think it's because they were expecting a dog and what they got is a cat, and now they're upset because the cat won't bark ... A "dog" would have been a doctrinal covenant that clearly addresses the currently present issue: sex. I won't get too deeply into the quagmire of whether Anglicanism is a "confessional" movement. I have always been under the impression that it's not, but my ecclesiological formation has always been on the Catholic end of the Anglican spectrum. In any case, what we have to consider now is a relational covenant--a set of ground rules for how the autonomous provinces are accountable to one another interdependently.

John Kirkley asks some great questions about what that "relational covenant" looks like on the ground: (see also: What About the Other Three Orders of Ministry????)
If we are going to have a global Anglican Church, rather than a Communion of Anglican Churches, then why not have the ACC be the final arbiter, as it is the only representative body within the Communion that includes laity, clergy, and bishops? If, as Archbishop Williams noted in a recent sermon that "God is present when bishops are silent," perhaps this is so as to allow other voices to be heard. I'm sure that other voices will be heard at General Convention in 2009, as well as in other synodical meetings around the Anglican Communion. The Covenant process has only just begun.

And Fr. Jake sums it up thusly:
The Primates officially get the authority they've been attempting to grab over the last few years. The buck will stop with them. There's some other parts that cause me to hesitate (the 39 Articles and the 1662 BCP?), but all in all, nothing terribly draconian in this, it seems to me.

And finally, the ever erudite Mark Harris concludes: This set of ground rules seems relational, but it is relations as determined by "the instruments of unity", which he calls the 4IU. What that gives us, friends, is not a relational covenant, but a power determined covenant. Lost in all this is the power of the voices of the widow and her mite, the poor or oppressed, the unloved and the wounded, the left out and the outcasts. This is relational between the haves only.

All Tanzania All The Time: Monday, February 19th

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Yes, we had a wonderful weekend away. Thanks to all who sent good wishes. And now. back to our regularly scheduled programing: "As the Anglican World Turns."

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When last we left our passel of primates the efforts of the schismatics to spin "Seven Petulant Primates Skip Church" into "Schism Splits Anglican Communion" came to naught as bloggers and press quickly noted fourteen of 'em ditched in Dromantine so actually progress is being made!

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The much predicted Booting of our Presiding Bishop failed to materialize. Many reports of "intense listening" behind closed doors as the primates met over the weekend. Rumor is they actually talked about something OTHER than the Windsor Report ... and what a good thing THAT is. A field trip to Zanzibar is reported to have been moving experience with only Akinola AWOL from this one. (And let me just note how several of the primates in attendance declining to receive communion strikes me as SOOOOOOOOO familiar as many of us in the Episcopal Church spent years with a handful of holdouts against women's ordination who refused to receive if a woman was involved. And life went on. And the church didn't split. And eventually most of them came around.)

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And now for today's news:

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The first piece I read this morning was Ruth Gledhill's Schori triumphs in Dar as new Anglican queen with this rather astonishing lead:

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So far from being excluded from the Primates' Meeting in Dar es Salaam, I can break the news that TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has been elected onto the all-important policy-making Standing Committee. 'Next thing you know, Benedict will be reversing Apostolicae Curae,' said one observer. There will be much speculation about how this came about. (Schori's election that is.) ... In fact the SC contains a good balance from both wings of the Church. It looks like schism might have been postponed for now. As Jim Naughton points out, not too much should perhaps be read into this because Bishop Jefferts Schori was elected by the Americas. But still, given all the calls for her not to be admitted in the first place, to outsiders it looks like a pretty dramatic turn-around.

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For once I agree with Sister Ruth, although I'm a little flummoxed by her choice of an ending for her piece: "particularly recommending" study of the last two verses of Rudyard Kipling's "The Female of the Species" ...

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So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice — which no woman understands.
And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern — shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her species is more deadly than the Male.

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No internalized misogyny in evidence here. Nope. Not a trace. No idea what you're talking about.

BLOGGING HIATUS ALERT!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

[February 18, 2006]

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Whereas, my beloved partner Louise and I will celebrate one year of wedded bliss on Sunday, February 18th; and

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Whereas, I have the weekend off; and

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Whereas, it is a BEAUTIFUL Southern California weekend;

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Therefore; We are hereby leaving the Anglican Communion in the capable hands of:

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Daily Episcopalian

epiScope

Fr. Jake

Mark Harris

Carol Hall

et al (see right nav bar for more links)

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And will be back blogging on Monday. Have a great weekend, everybody!

All Tanzania All the Time: Thursday, February 16th

I've aready commented on on the announcement from Tanzania that seven Primates have declined to participate in eucharistic fellowship with their sister in Christ +Katharine Jefferets Schori. I particularly appreciated this comment from an email: "... thought the words they quote from the BCP were an invitation to examining one's own conscience, not an opportunity to judge other people. Silly me." Indeed!

Meanwhile, epiScope has a digest of media commentary on our Anglican Family Feud, including an editorial from today's L.A. Times which concludes with this contextual question: What many people in the West (churchgoing or not) see as progress — tolerance for gays, equality for women, separation of church and state — is seen by many in the Islamic world as blasphemous and threatening. The question, and not just for Anglican bishops, is whether the West will maintain the courage of its convictions.

And Daily Episcopalian is pointing to The Admiral of Morality's commentary on the progress so far in Tanzania that bears referencing: With one stroke the Archbishop of Canterbury has reduced the realignment to rubble. Actions based on statements that Canterbury or the Communion countenance schism or isolation of the Episcopal Church can now clearly be viewed as nonsense. Which is exactly why the Petulant Primates' Press Release on the Eucharistic Boycott came out today -- yet-another desperate effort to "reframe" the coverage and take back the story to the one they want to be telling rather than the one that's actually unfolding.

Been there, done that

"Be known to us in the breaking of the bread"

So the "breaking news" from Tanzania is that seven (that would be seven out of thirty-eight for those without a scorecard) petulant primates have declined to break Eucharistic bread with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. (Their press release is here.)

Stop me if you've heard that one before.

And I AM stopping ... because we HAVE heard that one before. In Dromantine. Where, according to The Most Reverend Andrew S. Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

" ... some 14 of the bishops did not attend the daily Eucharist, even after the specific invitation of Archbishop Williams, and instead caucused together as we celebrated."

Hmm. Math isn't my strong suit but it's looking to me as if we're actually making PROGRESS on this communion stuff if we've managed to reduce in half the number of primates who exclude themselves from the table because we're present.

On the tyranny of legalistic posturing

Could not resist giving the following comment on David Anderson's (AAC) response to the Communion Sub-Group Report over at titusonenine wider readership. You'll find it as comment #5 on this thread and the writer only identifies him/herself as CB ...

===============

Without any apparent sense of irony, Rev. Canon Anderson writes, of the report, the following:

From paragraph 3:“Its examination of the text of General Convention resolutions’ language is literal and gives TEC the benefit of a doubt when the resolution language is vague.”

And then, from paragraph 4:“[the report] quite simply fails to reflect the reality of life in the Episcopal Church”

He has, with these words, given a thrillingly forceful indictment of his own method of reading and applying scripture.

A biblical literalist who rejects liberal entreaties to consider lived/experiential reality when interpreting scripture is now bellyaching about a literalist interpretation of a report which fails to account for his own miserable, painful, oppressed experience!

This is too good to be true. THAT IS THE POINT EXACTLY. Legalistic readings that strain to meet the letter of the law while abusing the spirit of the law — a sinful human tendency Jesus clearly taught against — will inevitably lead to outrage, injustice, and untold pain and humiliation.

There’s an old joke that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged; well, maybe a reappraiser is simply a reasserter who’s been discriminated against.

How the Rev. Canon can so beautifully articulate the tyranny of legalistic posturing when it personally affects him, without extending similar pleas for merciful interpretation when it affects others, defies rational explanation. Self deception, pride, the impulse toward self-love do not discriminate between reappraisers and reassenters, liberals and conservatives, Southerners or Westerners.

Surely, if we would allow ourselves to look oustide our own selfish agendas and immediate power plays, to look beyond the agenda items and best laid plans we’ve crafted for months in anticipation of THE BIG DAY when justice/righteousness would be swiftly enacted by our own hands, rather than the Lord’s … we could find fellowship, increased understanding, common ground for moving together in love and mutual respect?

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Of course we could. But -- IMHO -- David gave up on that years ago when he couldn't get his own way here in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Hasn't kept him from continuing to use the "Canon" moniker he received as an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral Center of the (in his book apostate/heretic) Diocese of Los Angeles. Figure THAT one out!

All Tanzania All The Time: Thursday February 15th

The Report of the Communion Sub-Group has been posted on ACNS. A quick read indicates it concludes that overall The Episcopal Church has responded to the Windsor Report ... our friends over at Stand Firm are NOT amused ...

[sample comment]: After their tortured efforts of portraying GC06’s raised middle finger as really being a thumbs up, this report goes on to say “We have to express our concern that other recommendations of the Windsor Report, addressed to other parts of the Communion, appear to have been ignored so far.” Poor, poor TEC. Of course, the rest of the Communion is to be held literally to the Windsor Report, but because the TEC said “awwww, we really do like the Anglican Communion” before ignoring the WR, they get a pass. I mean, this trash could have been written by Father Jake or Susan Russell.

and Daily Episcopalian offers some thoughtful review of the document and this personally-drawn conclusion:
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I think this ... will be argued over pretty vehemently. As I read it, it forbids the authorization of a rite of same sex blessings, but doesn’t require a bishop to forbid his or her clergy from performing such blessings. We will see what others have to say.
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And the just posted AAC (American Anglican Council) response found the report: highly inadequate in its assessment of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s response to requests made of the church by the Anglican Communion primates.
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And I must admit to be VASTLY amused by the AAC's expressed dismay that [The report's] examination of the text of General Convention resolutions’ language is literal ... AND being tempted to think of a response that includes the words "hoisted by one's own petard when it comes to literalism."

Finally (on the sub-group report) I wish I thought Ruth Gledhill had her tongue in her cheek when she wrote the following but given the hell-bent-for-schism focus of her predictably non-objective commentary one concludes not: "Worryingly for a contemporary religion correspondent, I find myself in the journalistically ambivalent position of having to report that peace has broken out among Archbishops of the Anglican Church." That's what I wrote at 4.30pm. Reassuringly, half an hour later, battle has recommenced. I can now report that the unity of the Anglican Communion is once more 'hanging by a thread.' Schism looms again. Phew, what a relief. Not to mess with Ruth's relief but I'm tempted to refer her to the piece I wrote a few years back: What If They Gave A Schism and Nobody Came?
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Nice quote from 815 Communication Director Bob Williams in today's AP article by Elizabeth Kennedy: "The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here and there will be a middle way forward,” said Jefferts Schori’s aide, Robert Williams. But he said she “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ."
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Scott Gunn offers some post-press briefing reflections in the Inclusive Church blog, including: "Generally speaking, I was astonished at the overall positive tone of the report, which is available here in full text. Of course, this is somewhat expected given the moderate make-up of the group who wrote the report. More on all this later. So, for now at least, it seems that schism might be avoided, at least based on this one public indicator. I should hasten to emphasize that this was just a report, and the primates could do anything they want with it.Other news: Katharine was seated all day, and so was John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. The place of both had been questioned in some quarters, but they were in the meeting all day." Scott also has photos from Tanzania posted here.
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And Caro Hall, Integrity Board member a member of the Tanzania press corps continues to file daily reports posted online at IntegrityUSA ... from today's report: "It was a quiet hot humid day around the pool, with bored journalists interviewing the conservatives and our small 'inclusive' contingent on andoff the record. In the absence of walkouts or other action from thePrimates, Davis Mac-Iyalla of Changing Attitude Nigeria has been the star of the media. our presence here is a reminder that we are not just a problem that will go away but real baptized Christians who have as much right to be included in all the sacraments and orders of the Church as our conservative brethren."

WAY too good not to share!

MAJOR "hat tip" to Jim Naughton over at Daily Episcoplian -- a gentleman, a scholar AND a baseball fan -- who offers this little contextual quote on the authority of Scripture definitely not from one of the "usual suspects" in the current debate:

"In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it."

Yes, it's that radical revisionist himself: Augustine of Hippo!

All Tanzania All The Time: Wednesday February 14th

The tensions mount, the sabers rattle and the cry goes up, "How long, O Lord?" Meanwhile, the press reports and blog commentary continues unabated:

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Tanzanian Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo offered a voice of sanity in this Reuters interview:

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"We have no qualms about it in my diocese," Mhogolo told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a critical Anglican meeting which is set to determine the future of a church struggling with a deep split between developing world conservatives and liberals mainly in the rich West.

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"(If) a gay person has felt: 'I want to help an HIV orphan to go to school', and you say: 'No, I'm not going to receive that money', you are rejecting the person and you are rejecting an answer for the HIV person," Mhogolo said.

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Mad Priest offers a cartoon illustration of the Communion du jour.

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Stephen Bates offers yet-another-profile of Archibshop Akinola, which includes this interesting contextual commentary:

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Akinola seems much more obsessed with what gay white men get up to than with some of the abuses in Africa. He has uttered not a word of condemnation of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga of Harare, a crony of the Mugabe regime, who has been accused by his own black parishioners of seizing white property, evicting black farm workers, and calling for the assassination of his church opponents. Indeed, Akinola invited Kunonga to address a plenary session of the All African Conference of Bishops ...

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"Let there be no illusions," he says to his fellow churchmen. "The Communion is broken and fragmented. The Communion will break." He and his acolytes are content to bring it on, to inaugurate the reign of the righteous. We're a long way from the Vicar of Dibley here.

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And a DIFFERENT Nigerian voice -- Davis Mac-Iyalla of Changing Attitude Nigeria -- has issued an "urgent appeal" to the Primates to speak out against the draconian anti-gay legislation pending in the Nigerian House of Representatives:

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If this bill is not stopped now it will make most lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people illegal in their own country. With their families and friends and anyone they associate with, they will be immediately criminalized. Those arrested under the provision of the law will face a jail sentence of between 5 and 14 years. Some will be forced into exile by this repressive legislation. Any bishop or priest who befriends, baptises, confirms or welcomes an LGBT person into their church will also be guilty of a criminal offence.

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The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Archbishop Peter Akinola is at the moment in Tanzania meeting with the other Primates. He is a strong supporter of this bill which threatens the lives and security of tens of thousands of LGBT people in Nigeria.

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We are appealing to the Primates in the name of God to add your voices to others who have been calling on the Nigerian Government to stop progress on this bill and withdraw it immediately. The bill will make it impossible for the Anglican Communion to engage in the listening process in Nigeria to which you, the Primates, have committed yourselves in Lambeth resolution 1.10 and the Windsor report. It discriminates against LGBT people. It criminalizes a group which the church claims to love and should in Christian charity be determined to protect from abuse and persecution.

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Meanwhile, The Living Church is reporting schedule changes in the Dar es-Salaam meeting:

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The extra-curricular session with three bishops from The Episcopal Church has been changed from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning, according to the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the Anglican Communion Network. The change of date for the special session during the Anglican primates’ meeting was announced last week, but was not widely publicized. No further information was available at press time.

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And a blog to watch is Scott Gunn blogging for inclusivechurch.org from Tanzania:

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The evening press briefing was fairly uneventful. Basically, what we learned (again) is that the primates will set their own agenda, behind closed doors, and we'll find out what they did when it's done. Maybe.OK, we found out a few more things, but that was the gist of it. Tomorrow (Thursday) is when the fireworks will happen. After a Bible study first thing in the morning, the primates will begin their deliberations. The Anglican Communion staffers are saying confidently that the question of +Katharine and +John Sentamu being seated is settled. Rumblings around the pool are different. We'll hear what happens, I guess.

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Either way, there's a story tomorrow. Either +Katharine is accepted by all the primates, or she's sent off. Details as they come tomorrow.As one senior person put it to me today, speaking about the conservative block, "If they don't like it, they can take their hats and go home." Indeed. He was saying that +Rowan and +Katharine are here to stay, and like it or leave it. Amen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Take time to snuggle with somebody you love!

All Tanzania All The Time: Tuesday, February 13th

Happy Absalom Jones Day!

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Ruth Gledhill is, of course, gleefully reporting that the sky is about to fall in her daily blog report over at Times Online while Jonathan Petre offered perhaps the most amusing of today's reflections (including fashion commentary) with Primates in their unnatural habitat over at the Telegraph.

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On a more serious note, The Living Church is reporting: The dismissal of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop of York John Sentamu will be among the first items under discussion in an alternate agenda proposed by the Global South coalition for the primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (Click here for George Conger's full report)

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For a good overview, The Independent has a great "Anglican Schism 101" piece particularly well suited to any Rip Van Winkle types who just woke up and are wondering what all the fuss is about: [thanks to Jim Naughton for the link!]
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[excerpt] Can the sides be reconciled? -- Most observers would say not. Not on the fundamental questions of right and wrong. The opposing positions are too rigid and are, if anything, hardening. The traditionalists are insisting on a full apology and retraction by the North American churches. The Episcopal Church is adamant in its refusal to back down. The best hope that Dr Williams can have is that he can just keep the various sides talking through the conference on the basis that anything that steps back from the brink is better than lurching into a full fracture of the worldwide communion - even if this means accepting that some parts of the Church will refuse to speak to other parts. It also leaves him some time for further efforts at conciliation before the Lambeth conference next year.
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Another George Conger TLC piece gives us an update on the "who" of the who/what/where/when of the Dar-es-Salaam Meeting in: Large Class of New Primates in Tanzania

And The Christian Science Monitor headlines "Anglican leaders under pressure to prevent schism" in its Tanzania article du jour:
[excerpt] It's a meeting where church leaders are supposed to discuss affairs, not decide them. And yet as the 38 leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion gather in Tanzania for a meeting that kicks off Wednesday, they find themselves grappling with one of the severest challenges in its history: Can it avoid a schism between traditionalist and liberal factions?
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Stand Firm is offering video updates ... (Do take your requisite grain of salt along with you if you venture there!)
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"Confusion Ahead of Anglican Primates Meeting" is the headline of this Ekklesia piece subtitled, "Moderate evangelicals are also upset at the vituperation of the current arguments in the church." Or not. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode of "All Tanzania All the Time"
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[excerpt] Amid confusion about who will play a role at the global Anglican Primates meeting in Tanzania this week – with reports that even the evangelical Dr John Sentamu is unacceptable to hardliners gathered around Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola – a UK-based broad church organization has declared “Enough is Enough."
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Or not. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode of "All Tanzania All the Time"

Not Ready to Make Nice

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I'm a little behind on the pop culture reflections what with "All Tanzania All the Time" running overtime, but wanted to note the SWEEP of the Grammys by my favorite bunch of singing women -- the Dixie Chicks.

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WOO HOO!!! (And yes, for the record, I was crazy about them before they "went political.")

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Here's a link to their award winning Not Ready to Make Nice . If indeed it's "too late to make it right" with those in the Anglican Communion who insist we must sell out our vision for the Kingdom in order to be at the table with them then maybe it's time to crank up the music and sing along: [link to lyrics here]

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I'm not ready to make nice

I'm not ready to back down ...

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Because the Kingdom calls -- and we truly do not have time to continue to go round and round and round.

"Changing Attitude" Report from Tanzania

Report from Dar Es Salaam 01
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
by Colin Coward

The Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England, Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria and the Revd Caro Denton Hall from Integrity USA arrived at the White Sands Hotel, Jangani Beach, Tanzania on Monday, not with difficulty and minor drama. The three of us arrived and met together at the immigration desks in the airport at 2.30pm Monday: Davis had been advised that he could apply for a visa on arrival. The authorities decided that they were not able to grant him a visa on the evidence available, despite the fact that Caro and I vouched for him and did have visas and evidence that we were here for the Anglican Primates meeting. After waiting three hours, Caro and I took the hotel limo to White Sands and I returned to the airport with a letter of authorisation from the hotel. Meanwhile Davis had met an immigration official from Nigeria. When I arrived at 9.30pm with the letter, a visa was issued within 10 minutes. Davis remained calm and confident that he would be allowed in. I wasn’t so sure!

The conservatives are already here, and as reported elsewhere, have set up headquarters at an adjacent hotel where they have been planning their strategy for the coming week with Archbishop Peter Akinola and Bishop Martyn Minns (CANA). Canon David Anderson (American Anglican Council) and Chris Sugden (Anglican Mainstream) are here too and Davis has been introduced to them. I detect a certain reticence on their part to meet and acknowledge Davis‘s presence. Why is this? Why are the conservatives so discomfited by meeting a gay Anglican from Nigeria? This is a basic failure of Christian respect and hospitality, and is contrary to the spirit of the Windsor report and the listening process.

Read it all here -- and do keep all in Tanzania in your prayers!

Grassroots Oppose Division of Episcopal Church

For Immediate Release: February 12, 2007
Grassroots Oppose Division of Episcopal Church

In response to the request from seven dioceses of the Episcopal Church for alternative leadership to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, 913 lay and ordained Episcopalians from all corners of the church have signed a letter opposing the action, calling it “a grave danger to the Anglican Communion.”

The letter also calls upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to widen the conversation about the request by including clergy other than the primates of the provinces of the Communion, as well as lay leaders.

Citing the Anglican Communion’s long history of living with diversity, the letter strongly opposes the division of the Church saying, “it is our fervent prayer that we continue to grow more deeply into the unity and the truth that are Christ’s gift.”

The letter was delivered to the Archbishop of Canterbury in advance of next week’s meeting of the Primates (the leaders of the provinces of the Anglican Communion) in Tanzania. The letter was coordinated by The Consultation, a coalition of justice and peace organizations of The Episcopal Church.

The full wording of the text is available at www.canterburyletter.org


Contacts:
Marge Christie, Episcopal Women’s Caucus, 201-891-3514, mrg713@optonline.net
Robert Brooks, Associated Parishes for Liturgy & Mission, 860-429-5013 canbrooks@hotmail.com
Diane Pollard, Episcopal Urban Caucus, 212-932-0941, dbpsd4u@aol.com

Madame President

The Reverend Elizabeth Kaeton

Rector of the Parish of St. Paul's, Chatham NJ

and

President of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Newark

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At its meeting last week, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Newark unanimously elected Elizabeth Kaeton+ as its president.

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Quoth Madame President: I do think it's yet another schizophrenic message to the church that a lesbian can be the "ecclesiastical authority in the absence of the bishop" but the church has to "exercise restraint" in the election of LGBT people to the episcopacy.

A very interesting profile of Nigeria's Archbishop in TIME Magazine this week. Entitled "The Blunt Bishop" I found what it had to say about Anglicanism as interesting as what it had to say about Akinola:

Anglicanism's great achievement--and one of the reasons people outside the communion may care about its fate--is that since its 16th century origins as a kind of Roman Catholic and Protestant amalgam, it has often seemed like a mini-experiment in what a global Christian church might look like: one that managed to span the distance between incense-saturated Catholic-style rite and tongues-talking low-church Protestantism, that eschewed hyperdetailed doctrinal tests to maintain a looser Christian understanding, adjusted at regular meetings under the low-voltage, first- among-equals leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

One of the reasons Akinola is both controversial and potentially important is that as the gay issue stretches this understanding past the pain threshold, he is a man unafraid to cut the cord--an uncompromising evangelizer of a sort, more familiar to Americans than to many Anglicans, who is willing to abandon communal solidarity unless it supports a "right" reading of Scripture.

Interesting that Time has a better handle on classical Anglicanism than Titusonenine does!

All Tanzania All The Time: Monday, February 12th

From Fr. Jake -- Some Points to Ponder About the Primates' Meeting

Don't pay too much attention to the early news reports coming out of Tanzania. Make sure you read Jonathan Petre's report to get an idea how tight security is at this meeting. Note that an "alternative" headquarters has already been established by the extreme conservatives. So, when the reporters are turned away at the door of the actual meeting, there's little doubt where they will go for some tidbit of news. And there is also little doubt that the extremists have already written their press releases. Early reports will be quite biased. Take them with a grain of salt. Wait until at least next Monday for any real news.

From the Daily Episcopalian:

Word comes from Tanzania that Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA, Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream and Father David Anderson of the American Anglican Council are already in Dar es Salaam. I wonder if they are aware that their presence in Tanzania, like their presence in Northern Ireland, convey to the rest of the world that they don't trust Peter Akinola, Bernard Malango, Gregory Venables et. al. to manage on thier own?

From Stephen Bates -- Blathering Bishops:

Bishop Scott-Joynt - who bears an unfortunate resemblance in some lights to Lurch, the Addams Family's gloomy butler - thus joins his fellow bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester who last year also said that the Americans were not really Christians and Tom Wright of Durham who also takes it upon himself to lecture the Americans on what they ought to do. Tom does not go quite as far as the other two: a couple of weeks back he told me "some of my best friends are liberal Episcopalians" but he too can't resist lecturing them de haut en bas.

They should know by now that there is nothing that gets Americans' backs up more than being told what to do in lofty tones by a Brit: it brings out all the spikiest memories of the Boston Tea Party, King George III and British dentistry and is therefore entirely counter-productive. Even in Christian circles.

The ACNS Report -- World-wide Anglican leaders gather in Tanzania

A media advisory with helpful "who, what and when" information.

Jonathan Petre's "on religion" blog at Telegraph.co.uk:

The burgeoning bunker mentality can, perhaps, be explained by the palpable anxiety of the organizers that the meeting could be derailed before it has even started by the powerful conservative group of Global South primates, who are determined to seize control of events.
They have set up their own headquarters a hundred yards up the road in the Beachcomber hotel, where they are holding strategy meetings before moving en masse to the White Sands for the official five-day meeting beginning on Thursday, where a bloody showdown is looming.

When I mentioned to one of the conservative primates that there was consternation among Anglican Communion staff about what is effectively an alternative headquarters, he replied: "This isn't the alternative headquarters. It is THE headquarters." With that sort of attitude to contend with, Dr Williams will have his work cut out.

And then there's Ruth Gledhill's Tension Builds blog ...

There are mutterings of conspiracies by the ACO which is being charged behind the scenes with leaving it so late in the day to discuss the really important issues that it will be impossible to resolve anything. This will mean the real debate has to be delayed until Lambeth 2008. Thus, schism will be narrowly averted for another 15 months or so. Or not. The CAPA Road to Lambeth document makes it quite clear that the African Primates will not be at Lambeth if TEC is not disciplined properly, and it is difficult to see where this will happen if not in Dar es 'not so' Salaam.

Timely Tutorial

So I was originally just going to post a few quotes from this epiScope tutorial on reading the UK press in preparation for the busy Anglican News week ahead but decided it was ALL too helpful and so -- rather than cutting and pasting -- have posted it in its entirety below.

Kudos to the 815 Communication Office ... keep 'em coming

How to read the UK press

... one in a continuing series of hard-won lessons in media comprehension. Here's the URL for the full story so you can follow with me. Cursors ready, class? Let's fisk along, shall we?

Last bid to stop Anglican split

This is what is known as a cliché, class. It has been used so many times that there are now macros in some word processing programs for headline writers which will insert this phrase, so they don't have to waste valuable leisure time actually typing it out.

Archbishop Williams enters 'pivotal' battle to find a compromise in homosexuality row
Jamie Doward
Sunday February 11, 2007
Observer

The Archbishop of Canterbury will this week launch what could be his final attempt to save the Anglican Communion from an irreparable split triggered by the increasingly bitter row over homosexuality and the church.

Failure to keep the world's 70-million -strong Communion together would be a watershed in the history of the church and a personal disaster for Rowan Williams, who will use a gathering of bishops in Tanzania starting on Wednesday to try to calm the row dividing liberal and conservative wings of the church. But he faces an uphill task.

First, notice the use of "could be" and "would be." This is known as "speculative journalism," or sometimes "making things up to make your editor happy." It's especially useful if you haven't talked to many sources for your story, as we'll see, and is related to the use of clichés (above) and what are known in the trade as "penetrating glimpses of the obvious" or PGOs.

Theologians describe the conference as 'pivotal'

Now, class, which theologians are we talking about? And, since the word is plural, how many? Please note that our reporter doesn't say here, but later in the story we will find that in fact we are talking about not many, but one theologian:

... Dr Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the diocese of South Carolina. 'My sense is that he's going to conclude TEC's response has been inadequate. This is a pivotal moment ...

Now of course no such story would be complete without the obligatory Philip Jenkins "Next Christendom" trope:

Although congregations are declining in the West, the church is enjoying a surge in popularity in African countries...

... and of course the "all Episcopalians believe the same way" meme, not to mention the "oh, those crazy Americans!" motif, which ignores the fact that citizens of 16 independent, sovereign nations are part of The Episcopal Church:

At the centre of the row is The Episcopal Church (TEC), the liberal body representing Anglicans in the US

Now we also see a little trouble in checking basic facts. But hey, it's Sunday.

Following the row over homosexuality, which erupted in 2004 when Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in an active relationship, was elected bishop of New Hampshire...

That would be 2003, actually. (Not to mention that this argument has been going on for more than thirty years, but what's a few decades, plus or minus?)

Experts believe Williams will conclude that TEC has not taken sufficient steps to conform to the Windsor Report...

How many experts, and who are they? See above: why, it's the good Canon Harmon again! Overseas phone calls are expensive, but there are other expert theologians in the Communion, some of whom even answer their own email.

At the conference, Williams will be briefed by the 'gang of four', a group of advisers he hand-picked to help him draw up his response. Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa, Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales and two lay members, Philippa Amable and Elizabeth Paver, are expected to criticise the US liberals.

Again, what's the actual source for this assertion?

Also at the conference will be the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. Some observers have read much into his attendance.

"Some observers"... like the expert theologian from South Carolina? We sure haven't heard from anyone else. But let's read on! Warning: cliché alert!

... the arch conservatives, Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh, and Bruce Macpherson, bishop of Western Louisiana.

Finally, another county heard from--and it's...aww, it's the only other guy our reporter has in the office Rolodex:

Martin Reynolds, spokesman for the LGCM, said the bishops were to blame ... 'There are more than 100 gay bishops in the Anglican Communion. If they all stood up, this argument would not happen.'

Well. All we can say is that at least it wouldn't happen in quite the same way. But to wrap things up, off we go into the wild blue yonder of pure truthiness:

A second lieutenant in the US Air Force, Jefferts Schori is the first woman Primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

... conflating Bishop Jefferts Schori and her daughter Katharine Johanna Harris, who actually is a second lieutenant in the US Air Force. (I think that was your GPWS alarm going off there, Jamie...ouch. Thanks for playing, though.)

Folks, join us next time for another exciting episode of: How to read the UK press! Have a blessed Sunday!

=========

PS -- Canon Harmon has -- not surprisingly -- taken umbrage.

"Life is too short to get too flustered"

One more and then I'm going to bed. Really. But my email inbox just went "ping" and there was this NYTimes article -- and it was too good to pass up posting.

New Episcopal Leader Braces for Gay-Rights Test
by Laurie Goodstein

At a book party last week at the New York headquarters of the Episcopal Church, a line of more than 100 fans waited to have the church’s new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, sign copies of her new book of sermons, “A Wing and a Prayer.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori, the first woman presiding bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion, appeared a bit surprised at the celebrity treatment but clearly enjoyed the sentiment.

She is about to head off to a hostile reception.

This week, Bishop Jefferts Schori will represent the Episcopal Church at a meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with the presiding bishops of the 37 other provinces in the global Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest church body. Some of those bishops, known as primates, have broken their ties with the American church after it ordained an openly gay bishop and permitted the blessing of same-sex unions.

Some primates have said they will not sit at the same table with Bishop Jefferts Schori. Some have threatened to walk out of the meeting.

In an interview in her office last week, Bishop Jefferts Schori said the conflict was more about “biblical interpretation” than about homosexuality.

“We have had gay bishops and gay clergy for millennia,” she said. “The willingness to be open about that is more recent.”

She said that what she wanted to convey to her fellow primates was that despite the highly-publicized departure of some congregations (a spokesman said 45 of 7,400 have left and affiliated with provinces overseas), the Episcopal Church has the support of most members, who are engaged in worship and mission work, and not fixated on this controversy.

“A number of the primates have perhaps inaccurate ideas about the context of this church. They hear from the voices quite loudly that this church is going to hell in a handbasket,” she said. “The folks who are unhappy represent a small percentage of the whole, but they are quite loud.”

In the global picture, however, those unhappy with the Americans are a significant bloc, and some are ready to cut off the American branch of the Anglican Communion. Conservatives were emboldened recently when an influential bishop, N. T. Wright of Durham, England, said in an interview, “Even if it means a bit of pruning, the plant will be healthier for it.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori said the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, had accommodated the conservatives because he also presides over the Church of England, where the conservatives are a more substantial presence than in the United States, and are increasingly assertive.

Bishop Jefferts Schori, who is 52, exudes a cool presence, sitting erect in a crimson shirt and white clerical collar. She uses few words to make her points. In her previous career, she was an oceanographer, specializing in squid and octopuses.

Ordained a priest only 13 years ago, she is the former bishop of Nevada, where she permitted blessings for gay couples and voted to confirm the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. She was elected presiding bishop last June, a nine-year assignment.

She said opposition came primarily from a “handful of primates,” led by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, with support from those in Uganda and Rwanda. She said they had made it appear as if the bulk of the Anglican Communion was arrayed against the Americans, when that was not the case.

“It’s abundantly clear that there’s a diversity of opinion in the provinces of the Communion” she said. Asked why they are not more vocal, she said, “I think that has to be tenderly nurtured. You don’t want to put people in a precarious situation” by encouraging them to speak out against their own primates.

One African bishop recently did so. After the House of Bishops in Tanzania voted in December to cut ties to the Episcopal Church and stop accepting its donations, Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo, who leads the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, wrote a letter saying, “The issue of homosexuality is not fundamental to the Christian faith.”

At the meeting in Tanzania, Bishop Jefferts Schori is to sit down with the primates of 13 provinces that do not ordain women as priests, not to mention as bishops. But she said her sex was not the reason some primates were preparing to shun her. The problem is that some bishops say the Episcopal Church has failed to repent or to declare a moratorium on gay blessings, steps required by a committee of officials commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2004.

She is likely to be face to face with Archbishop Akinola, who has created a rival network of conservative churches in the United States.

Bishop Jefferts Schori said that if she is rebuked at the meeting, it will not be anything new; she experienced that before as an oceanographer: “The first time I was chief scientist on a cruise, the captain wouldn’t speak to me because I was a woman.”

Asked how she would respond if primates walked out on her, she said, “Life is too short to get too flustered.”

The IRD Reports on Raleigh

Thanks to IRD (that would be the "Institute on Religion and Democracy") reporter Ralph Webb who had better notes than I did on the Q&A session with +Katharine at the Episcopal Urban Caucus. His article -- "Clarity Forthcoming" -- can be found on the IRD website ... here's a bit to get you started:

During a question-and-answer session following an address at the 2007 Episcopal Urban Caucus Assembly, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said that she saw the Episcopal Church's stand affirming gays and lesbians becoming clearer between now and the next General Convention.

Her response followed a statement and question by the Rev. Michael Hopkins, past president of Integrity, an Episcopal gay and lesbian advocacy group. Hopkins described himself as feeling "hampered," "scapegoat[ed]," "held hostage," and "marginalized" by the passage of resolution B033 at the 75th General Convention last summer. Resolution B033 asked bishops and diocesan standing committees to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion." (The particular "manner of life" that currently "presents a challenge" is understood to be homosexual relations.)

Hopkins then asked Bishop Jefferts Schori how the church can move beyond B033. She responded initially on a personal level: "I empathize. I continue to be as troubled by [B033] as many others are. We live in a fallen world."

Apparently foreseeing greater "inclusion" of gays and lesbians in the church, she continued, "The blessings of the political process are that it never speaks forever…. I think this church is much closer to where we are than even [at last summer's General Convention] …. When we come to the next General Convention, we will be even clearer." This statement brought applause from the audience in the plenary session.

Indeed it did!

True Freedom

Absalom Jones

1746-1818

Don't miss True Freedom -- Michael Hopkins' grand Absalom Jones Day sermon over at From Glory Into Glory

Here's a quote: I dream of a day not when the world has become “colorblind.” That would be an affront to the diversity that God has created. It is not a goal worthy of God’s creation. I dream of a world, as Jesus did, where we are all friends, the kind who lay down their lives for one another, knowing and embracing their differences, celebrating their goodness, acknowledging their fallen-ness in a common seeking of the truth that will set us all free. We will then truly have become the meek whom Jesus promises will one day inherit the earth.

Amen, Michael! Amen!

PS - If you want information about the film Michael refers to in the sermon you can find it here ... it's called "Traces of the Trade" and is well worth watching for its release -- coming soon, we hope!

All Tanzania All The Time: Prelude

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It may be "All Anna Nicole All the Time" on the national news but it's "All Tanzania All the Time" in blogland it seems. Here are some samples for today. I'm thinking a daily "All Tanzania All the Time" post during the week the Primates are meeting will be the way to go on keeping up with the info from Dar Es Salaam!

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Thanks to Fr. Jake for pointing us to Andrew Plus's Tanzanian Take: The Travelling Anglican Circus and Medicine Show:

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Over in the You-Can't-Win-By-Placating-Bullies-Department, the ABC himself is in a very uncomfortable spot. He has managed to make nearly everyone angry. While a certain, ahem, American said "enough!" to Archbishop Rowans' snubbing of the North American Churches while simultaneously giving bits of apparent approval to schismatics, the very people who foment that schism call Rowan too authoritarian. They said this with, I presume, a straight face.

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Meanwhile, Mark Harris has the latest from the Our-Way-Or-The-Highway Nigerians looking past Tanzania to Lambeth declaring:

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There is no point, in our view, in meeting and meeting and not resolving the fundamental crisis of Anglican identity. We will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution are also invited as participants or observers.

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Happily, there are voices of reason, faithfulness and sanity also speaking out and high on THAT list is Njongonkulu Ndungane, Primate of Southern Africa who has some great thoughts to share in today's NYTimes article "Inviting Africa's Anglicans to Gather Under a Bigger Tent."

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The prospect of such a boycott [against +Jefferts Schori] dismays Archbishop Ndungane, a short, blunt-spoken man with a scholarly bent. “It is absolute nonsense,” he said in his high-ceilinged study. “To be quite frank, they are behaving like schoolboys. She has been constitutionally elected. We should be embracing her. She is a super person.”

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He said he could not understand why a debate over homosexuality had sidetracked what he saw as the church’s true mission in Africa: confronting AIDS, poverty, war and famine.

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“I wonder if somebody could calculate how much money is being spent on these meetings, which deal with one issue and one issue only, when we have 48 million orphans?” he asked. “Whose agenda is this? Definitely in my view, this is not God’s agenda.” Nor is it the average Anglican’s agenda, he said. “I interact with people on the ground. They don’t care about the lifestyles of the people in America.”

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And then there's Kendall Harmon over at titusonenine who is unhappy to have been "misrepresented" by a Stand Firm Anglican Report

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If you take a scale and put “expect nothing” on the left and then put on the right “expect significant discipline and a complete backing for the new structure of a new province”, what I was trying to say, and all I was trying to say, is that the expectation on the right extreme is wrong in my view. All I said was what in my view would NOT happen which is what some reasserters seemed to think would happen, and that would be the second expectation listed above.

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OK. That was ... ummm ... clear.

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And so the Anglican World Turns ... stay tuned for the next episode of "All Tanzania All the Time" ... I'm signing off to head off to church to talk to the thirty-some three-to-five year olds who attend our Saturday evening "Family Eucharist" about The Beatitudes.

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Odds are Tanzania won't even come up -- and that will be a GOOD thing!

=========

PS -- As predicted ... lots of wiggly kids and we had some fun with "blessed are those who don't get so distracted by their Play Station 3 that they forget to listen for God." And not a word about Tanzania, Primates, Schism, etc.

But thanks to Ann who pointed us to one more entry in the "All Tanzania All the Time" derby ... Tobias Haller's les jeus sonts faits ... with a "revisionist" Compass Rose ... don't miss it!

Fun Facts to Know and Tell About The Anglican Communion

More from Jim Naughton's Daily Episcopalian: It takes a two-thirds vote of the Anglican Primates and the approval of the Anglican Consultative Council, which next meets in 2009, to alter the roster of members of the Anglican Communion.

Source: Constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council 3.a

Presiding Bishop, Primate and "Apostle to the Unchurched"

Jim Naughton over at Daily Episcopalian offered a new title to +Katharine Jefferts Schori's credentials "apostle to the unchurched" in his post earlier today Creating Her Own Good Press:

"One of the things I have admired about Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is her willingness to go out and meet people in public forums [like photo above at the reception following the EUC Eucharist] and to answer questions directly and clearly, even though the circumstances of the moment might suggest that she should withdraw from the public eye.

The most recent example of her openness comes via the media of the Research Triangle in North Carolina where she recently spoke at the meeting of the Episcopal Urban Caucus. Have a look at this story which ran in the Raleigh paper and one or two others. And then watch this television report abut Bishop Jefferts Schori honoring the first black woman priest in North Carolina.

It occurs to me that while many of us are wringing our hands about being unable to egt good news about the Episcopal Church into the press, Bishop Jefferts Schori is accomplishing that almost singlehandedly in just about every media market she visits. We have not had this effective an apostle to the unchurched in a long time."

Amen, Jim. And may others go and do likewise!

(Photo credit: Me)

Report From the Episcopal Urban Caucus in Raleigh, North Carolina

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church

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"I do not believe God has any patience with those who insist

we must choose between evangelism and social justice."

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Episcopal activists heard their Presiding Bishop call them to action on behalf of the gospel as they packed the Raleigh NC hotel ballroom to hear her address the 2007 Episcopal Urban Caucus Assembly. The theme of this year's Assembly -- "Making the Contacts: Locally and Globally" -- was reflected in the questions +Katharine answered following her formal presentation, which focused primarily on the minstry of the baptized to "reconcile the world to God and to each other."

She rejected out of hand the misapprehension that we have to choose between the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. "I do not believe God has any patience with those who insist we must choose between evangelism and social justice. One cannot love God and our neghbor without doing both," she said. "Scripture tells us that we cannot love God who we don't see if we don't love our neighbors who we do."

She once again offered the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) as an example of "a contemporary illustration of a means to bring the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven." Focusing specifically on the MDG emphasis on women and children, she said, "When women are educated and empowered the whole community benefits. When the least among us are served the whole community flourishes."

Noting that the 0.7% MDG giving rate was based on a 40-year old economic study, she reminded the Assembly that it will take governmental commitment to those goals in order to make a difference -- and our U.S. government is lagging sadly behind in that regard. "Giving by the church is a generous and prophetic act," she said. "But meeting the MDGs will require urging governmental compliance" and called on Assemly members to "lobby your Congressional Representative and Senator, to call Washington."

"Politics," she said, "is the art of living in human community. You and I are meant to build a community that reflects the Reign of God."

When questioned by one priest who had been advised in seminary and by some clergy mentors to "steer clear of politics" +Katharine didn't mince words in her response. "The task of the priest," she said, "is to equip the saints to take up their ministry. I think it is our duty to equip the people to live out their ministries IN the political arena." In a follow up comment, the Presiding Bishop noted that in Spanish there are actually two words for politics: one meaning the kind of "art in living in community" we were talking about and the other "dirty politics." She also noted the difference between political activism and partisan politics pointing to All Saints, Pasadena and our ongoing IRS issue as an example. "Systems of injustice do not change ONLY through silent prayer," she concluded. (Leading one colleague to lean over and whisper, "I can see the headlines now: "Presiding Bishop Doesn't Believe in Prayer.")

Speaking of the press, when asked what had been the greatest challenges she's faced so far as the first woman primate she noted wryly, "The press see me as fair game but I see them as an opportunity for evangelism" -- to much applause from the gathered Assembly. Equally well received was her response to a question about the Iraq war: "It is long past time to beat our swords into plows."

Asked about the upcoming meeting of the Primates in Tanzania and how we might pray for her and for them she noted the message to the church sent out yesterday through ENS and urged all gathered to pray that God "bless the best of the people we encounter" -- especially those with whom we disagree. In regard to the wider communion, she went on to say she believes there is "a much wider acceptance and diversity of opinion on this issue [human sexuality] than is represented by the primates" and shared her communication with African bishops committed to working beyond those differences. The energy she is taking with her to Tanzania was summed up for me when she said, "Our task is to focus on what our mission is and not on what divides us."

Another questioner took on the "life after B033" issue, noting that for many in this church -- including some in this very room -- life after General Convention 2006 was lived with the reality that their vocations were negotiable and that B033 gave them cause to question whether or not they were truly fully included in the church -- questions that were hampering both ministry and evangelism.

It got very quiet.

And +Katharine didn't flinch. She continued to look directly at the questioner and said in a low somber voice, "I continue to be troubled by that." She went on to say that B033 was the cause of much suffering in the church and that her hope was that out of that suffering would come clarity that would move the church forward. "I think when we come to the next General Convention," she said, "we will be clearer."

So there you have it -- my best efforts to take the scribbled notes on the back of my Assemly Agenda and Worship Descriptions and turn them into some kind of coherent Report from Raleigh. I should also report that we had an excellent report last night from House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson who is off from this meeting to the Diocese of San Joaquin and asked for our prayers for her and for those seeking to "Remain Episcopal" in the heartland of the Anglican Insurgency. This afternoon are site visits to Raleigh urban ministry sites and this evening a festival Eucharist with Bishop Michael Curry preaching and +Katharine presiding.

Onward and upward!

Don't Miss: The Camel's Nose and the Primate's Tent

Mark Harris is being brilliant as usual over at PRELUDIUM, reflecting on the upcoming meeting of the Primates in general and on the ongoing efforts of the Episcopal Insurgents to get their nose under the Anglican tent in specific.














You'll want to read it all here ... but here's a snippet to get you started: The object of the exercise is to get the nose in the tent, and then the whole body, and squeeze the Episcopal Church out.

And, just so the consistency is really clear: the cleanliness is next to Godliness crowd who won't sit with consecrators of Gene Robinson have extended their promise. They will not sit at Table with the Primate of the Episcopal Church.

This table thing has taken an odd turn. First it is refusal to sit with the unclean at the table of the Lord, i.e. at Eucharist. Now it is threatened as a refusal to sit with sinners at the Table of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. The first refusal seems odd, given Our Lord's willingness to eat that last meal with a whole gang of people who he knew perfectly well would abandon him. The second refusal seems perverse, since the invitation is in no way dependent on the relative sanitized character of those invited.

"For the People of the Episcopal Church" from the Presiding Bishop

For the People of the Episcopal Church

As the primates of the Anglican Communion prepare to gather next week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I ask your prayers for all of us, and for our time together. I especially ask you to remember the mission that is our reason for being as the Anglican Communion -- God's mission to heal this broken world. The primates gather for fellowship, study, and conversation at these meetings, begun less than thirty years ago. The ability to know each other and understand our various contexts is the foundation of shared mission. We cannot easily be partners with strangers. That meeting ends just as Lent begins, and as we approach this season, I would suggest three particularly appropriate attitudes.

Traditionally the season has been one in which candidates prepared for baptism through prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy.

This year, we might all constructively pray for greater awareness and understanding of the strangers around us, particularly those strangers whom we are not yet ready or able to call friends. That awareness can only come with our own greater investment in discovering the image of God in those strangers. It will require an attitude of humility, recognizing that we can not possibly know the fullness of God if we are unable to recognize his hand at work in unlikely persons or contexts.

We might constructively fast from a desire to make assumptions about the motives of those strangers not yet become friends.

And finally, we might constructively focus our passions on those in whom Christ is most evident -- the suffering, those on the margins, the forgotten, ignored, and overlooked of our world. And as we seek to serve that suffering servant made evident in our midst, we might reflect on what Jesus himself called us -- friends (John 15:15).

Celtic Rune of Hospitality

I saw a stranger yesterday;

I put food in the eating place,

drink in the drinking place,

music in the listening place;

and in the sacred name of the Triune God

he blessed myself and my house,

my cattle and my dear ones,

and the lark said in her song:

Oft, Oft, Oft,

goes Christ in the stranger's guise.

Shalom, Katharine

-- The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori is Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church. Click here to go to the PB's pages on the Episcopal Church website

Remember those gays and lesbians who there aren't any of in Africa?

Missed this when it was posted January 25th -- a report from the Nairobi World Social Forum posted on all.Africa.com -- but thought it was timely anyway, what with the focus increasingly on Tanzania and all.

Kenya: Gays And Lesbians Step Out to Demand Rights

[Nairobi] A new phenomenon is gaining currency in the country: Lesbians, gays and transsexuals are coming out openly to demand their rights.

The group stole the show at the World Social Forum which ended at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, yesterday with their stand being a crowd puller.

University of Nairobi law student Judith Ngunjiri who confessed to being a lesbian at the world Social Forum.

Lesbians, gays and transsexuals who have been going on with their lifestyles secretly joined colleagues from other parts of the world in publicly declaring they were not ashamed of their situation. In fact it was only at their stand, adjacent to Gate 7, where visitors were offered free tea and cookies before being invited for "lessons on lesbianism, gay relationships and transsexuals."

There were also "counselling" lessons, workshops and free pamphlets. Through their Gay and Lesbians Coalition, most of the members wore black T-shirts inscribed "We are here, we are queer and we are proud".

Read the rest here

Petition the Archbishop of Canterbury

Jeff Martinhauk has been busy over at "Leaning Toward Justice." I commend to you both his "Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury" and the petition to "End Gay Oppression" he offers.

Here's a snippet from the letter:

As the Focus of Unity for our Communion, I beg Your Grace not to appeal to irrelevant procedural issues which may or may not have been followed, nor to the red herring of possible communication difficulties in other parts of the church. Rather, I beg you, to consider those of us within your care as the Focus of Unity who are marginalized, who deserve God’s love, who are part of this great diverse Creation, and who need to hear what we have not heard directly yet: namely that God loves us, that God does not endorse violence against us, and that the way to prevent that violence is through Jesus Christ as our liberator and savior. Can the Anglican Communion be a place where all of the Body of Christ is welcome?

And here's a link to the petition.

Tony Clavier's Predictions re: The Primates

From Tony Clavier's blog ... "dedicated to encouraging a love for Anglicanism in all its bewildering breadth and depth and its glorious untidiness."

It looks very much to me that those who want to harshly discipline TEC and those who are unlikely to want to do much more than give us a slap on the wrist are evenly divided. That leaves about six Provinces whose primate may go one way or the other, but probably wouldn’t support the blustering of the Archbishop of Nigeria. Indeed it is not at all clear that the Global South leaders are as pleased with +Peter Nigeria as they once were. Those who have set up shop in the United States are equally liable to receive a purple hued boot in their archiepiscopal posteriors. Whats sauce for the goose…

Nor do I see any evidence that a proposed Covenant is going to be adopted unless it is able to pass muster in Provinces like Ireland or Australia let alone Canada and the US.

Read it all here ... and while I have a different opinion on the "Via Media" folks than Tony does I can't agree more that prayers for the primates ... indeed for this whole church are most certainly in order:

Gracious God, we pray for your holy catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

It's deja vu all over again!

Just when you think you really can't tell the schismatics without a scorecard you run find an article like this Orange County Register report on the remnants of schisms past. Here's a snippet from the interview in the piece entitled "Local Clergyman Takes Over Anglican Diocese":

The Rev. Daren K. Williams, the new rector at Fountain Valley's All Saints Anglican Church, was consecrated Saturday as a bishop, becoming head of the Anglican Church in America's Diocese of the West. The ceremony was held at St. Mary of the Angels Church in Los Angeles with more than 200 people present, including five bishops, Williams said.

Q: What are the differences between Anglicans and Episcopalians?
A: Our tradition has the same roots. Anglican means "of the English." Our roots come out of that tradition. The people who are in the Anglican Church in America were former Episcopalians who left the Episcopal Church over issues. What we concluded were contradictions in apostolic ministry, their decisions to look differently at the validity of Holy Scripture, interpretation of the Holy Scripture, and God's law and the ancient traditions of the church.

Q: What kind of contradictions?
A: It's the Episcopal Church that has taken this liberal view to rewrite scripture and do what they please, and ordain whomever they want, and it's just wreaking havoc all over the world.
Q: How so?
A: It was about 30 years ago that this change in the Episcopal Church occurred, causing so many conservative Anglicans to say, "This is not right, we can't tolerate this."

Note that this is a new bishop for The Anglican Church in America -- not to be confused with the Anglican MISSION in America. And then there's CANA, AAC and ... it does make the head spin.

But it also points out the been-there-done-that aspect of these current challenges to the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church. We've weathered 'em before and we'll weather them again. But what I'm wondering this morning is at what point is the cost of weathering it worth it? At what point do we say that the collateral damage is too great: to the Nigerian school children losing hope of an education that will lead them out of abject poverty, to the gay and lesbian baptized being scapegoated as the "issue" splitting the church and to the mission and ministry of a church so disracted by schism mongering that it can't get on with gospel proclaiming?

We have a Presiding Bishop who when asked the "what about going to heaven" question answered brilliantly and faithfully: "That’s not a question that concerns me day in and day out. I think I’m meant to use the gifts I have to transform the world in this life."

Maybe that's the answer we need to start thinking about giving in response to the "what about going to Lambeth" question as well.

Babies and Bathwater

This heartbreaking op-ed in today's Hartford Courant brings home the impact of what happens to the babies thrown out with the bathwater while posturing primates politic in yet-another episode of "As the Anglican World Turns."

No wonder Jesus wept.

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Church's Hard Line On Gays Hurts Kids
Ellen Painter Dollar

I am an Episcopalian who, until recently, felt I had little at stake in the debate about homosexuality that is dividing the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. I was mildly dismayed that all this energy devoted to sexual morality was distracting us from vital ministries to the poor, sick and excluded.

My detachment ended on Christmas Eve. As we ushered our children to the car after the pageant at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford, my husband shared disturbing news. The rector had received an e-mail from the bishop in Tanzania where Trinity's partner church, Mbugani Anglican Holy Trinity Church, is located.The bishop was terminating the partnership because Tanzanian bishops had voted to limit communion with American churches that hold liberal views on homosexuality.

Further, the Tanzanian bishops declared that "the Anglican Church of Tanzania shall not knowingly accept financial and material aid from dioceses, parishes, bishops, priests, individuals and institutions in the Episcopal Church that condone homosexual practice or bless same-sex unions."For our congregation - and our family - the partnership was more than a feel-good exercise. Twenty Tanzanian teenagers who expected to start school in January did not, because the scholarship money we sent for them was not accepted.

The partnership between Trinity and Mbugani began in the mid-1990s, but then languished. In 2000, my husband and another church member traveled to the Diocese of Tabora, where the church is located. Their visit breathed new life into the partnership.

The following year, Mbugani's pastor and a diocesan staff member visited Hartford. They told us that in Tanzania, even public schools require fees. Families often scrape together enough for primary school, but many cannot afford the higher secondary-school fees. Without a high school education, young men and women end up as subsistence farmers like their parents. Trinity congregants agreed to pay for secondary school for five new students each year, and to see the students through to graduation. We saw our partnership as more than just a wealthy American church bestowing charity on a poor African church. We prayed for them, and they prayed for us. The bishop of Tabora visited Hartford in 2005, and our rector and his wife visited Tanzania in 2006.

The differences between our communities are vast. We have so much; they have so little. We struggled with their understandable tendency to see us as a never-ending funding source. They raised concerns about the American church's more liberal views on sexuality. Our rector made it clear that Trinity welcomes all people, regardless of sexual orientation. Visits and correspondence were marked by respect, affection and renewed faith in God.

About $200 per student per year could change these kids' lives forever. In their letters, some scholarship students told us about living with elderly relatives after losing their parents to AIDS. Some wrote of being the youngest of many children, with no money for schooling.

In Tanzania last summer, one boy's father knelt in gratitude before our rector and his wife; his son's education made possible a better future for all the family. This past December, Trinity's outreach committee sold Christmas gifts to raise scholarship money. People often wrote checks for $20, $40, even $100 more than the price, because they didn't want to let the kids down.

Then came the bishop's e-mail.

The Mbugani parishioners who select scholarship recipients asked him what would happen to the students who depended on that money. He told them that God will care for God's children.

Though I believe that too, I also believe that God's hands on earth are our hands. I am grieving for these children, but also for myself and my congregation. We have not given up on our partnership. We still believe that our common faith is more powerful than our differences. We believe in a God of reconciliation who can heal our divisions. But we are still mourning. We are stunned that a relationship built with great care over many years can be so swiftly dismantled.

We wonder who will be God's hands for those 20 young students now that our hands have been tied.

Ellen Painter Dollar lives in West Hartford.

UPDATE: I loved Jim Naughton's response to this story over at Daily Episcopalian:

Let's leave aside for the moment that there are probably very few dollars circulating in the global economy that haven't been touched by either gay or Episcopal hands at some point--no large scale donation from any source that doesn't include "tainted" money. Leave aside also the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus makes it clear that we don't get to choose the instrument through which God works his merciful purposes. Let's just look at the example of Jesus, who suffered for others, and compare it to the example of this bishop, who has others suffer for him.

Bizzy, Bizzy, Bizzy

Yesterday was INDEED a "Super Sunday" ... a great day of worship and celebration at All Saints Church. I had more fun preaching than a preacher should have. We had amazing music by our youth and adult choirs. And then Part One of our Parish Annual Meeting included the election of a fabulous new vestry, a "best ever" Report on the State of the Parish from retiring Senior Warden Bob Long and a report from our Stewardship Chair that pledged income topped $4 million and is still coming in.

And then the Colts kicked butt in the Super Bowl.

And THEN, how thrilled was I when I got up at "o'dark thirty" to head for the airport to fly to Raleigh (for Consultation and Urban Caucus Meetings) to find this cover article in today's "USA TODAY":

Episcopal Church's new dawn

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You can (and should!) read it all at the link above, but here's a foretaste of the witness she offers on our behalf to a church moving forward in faith:

She sees two strands of faith: One is "most concerned with atonement, that Jesus died for our sins and our most important task is to repent." But the other is "the more gracious strand," says the bishop who dresses like a sunrise. It "is to talk about life, to claim the joy and the blessings for good that it offers, to look forward.

IN USA TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

It was enough to convince me to travel in my collar today so as I migrate through airports past travelers reading the ubiquitious USA TODAY I can invite question and get to say proudly, "Yep, that's MY church!"

JESUS SAVES

Jesus Saves
February 4, 2007 ~ Epiphany 5C ~ Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11
All Saints Church, Pasadena ~ Susan Russell

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love this prayer – this collect – that we prayed to begin our worship this morning. It’s called The “Collect of the Day” for a reason: it is meant to sum up or “collect” the themes of the lessons appointed for this fifth Sunday after Epiphany and I think it does a bang up job. In a few well-chosen words it sums up the stories we heard from our Scripture today about Isaiah and Simon Peter: two guys we’re most likely to think of in their starring roles as prophet and apostle. But today’s lessons give us the back-stories … the “before they made it big” stories … stories about how when they experienced an extraordinary “Oh my God, God is so totally right here in this moment!” moment they were both immobilized by fear: paralyzed by their sense of unworthiness and sinfulness. “Woe unto me,” cried Isaiah and “Go away from me; I am a sinful man” cried Peter.

And yet they were both set free – one through the touch of a seraph and the other by the words of a Savior. Set free from being paralyzed by the bondage of their sins in order to claim the liberty of the abundant life God would have for them. One set free to say “Here I am, send me.” One set free to leave everything and follow Jesus. And so as I mulled the texts for the sermon this morning I settled on the on what I thought was a pretty good one: Set Us Free. And then I checked my email.

“The problem with you people …” (and aren’t you just so open to what comes next when a sentence starts out like that?) “The problem with you people,” wrote one blog commenter creatively named "anonymous," “is that you don’t believe that Jesus Saves. What kind of Christians are you?” There are a lot of ways I could go to start to answer that question but let’s start with this: I guess I’m the kind of Christian who likes a challenge because I immediately changed the title of today’s sermon to: Jesus Saves.

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And for the record, I’m also the kind of Christian who believes it. I’m the kind of Christian grew up praying “now I lay me down to sleep” and singing “Jesus loves me this I know.” I’m the kind of Christian who hung my glow-in-the-dark Vacation Bible School cross next to my bed at night and memorized all four verses of “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” in 3rd grade – and having no idea what “supernal anthems” were didn’t slow me down a bit.

I’m the kind of Christian who admits to being a little taken aback in the 70’s when I went to college in Santa Barbara and encountered what we then called “Jesus Freaks”: folks who wandered up and down State Street asking people if they were “saved” in a tone of voice that indicated one should be worried about whether or not that was the case. Happily, I didn’t find their anxiety contagious – Jesus loved me, that I knew – and so I’d smile and say, “Yes, thank you.” I’m the kind of Christian who rested in the security of being “saved” long before I had much clarity about what that really meant to me.

It was clergy colleague and friend of All Saints Diana Akiyama who finally offered me the language I didn’t know I was looking for until I heard it – language that resonated deep in the core of my being – language that gave voice to my deepest convictions and lived experience of the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. In one of the Via Media teaching series videos Diana answered the question “Does Jesus save?” by saying: Jesus saves us from our fear. In penetrating the boundary between life and death Jesus assures us that the crossing over at the end of this earthly life is to something very real. With that assurance, Jesus saves us from the fear of death that is such an existential fear that it can paralyze us into trying to control the bits of life we can wrap our hands around rather than letting go to receive the abundance of life God would have us receive. His resurrection tells us that we need not live our life in fear of that crossing over and sets us free: like Isaiah and like Simon Peter. And free from that fear we ARE liberated to embrace the abundant life that God has made known to us in Jesus. Jesus saves us from worrying so much about getting to heaven that we’re too paralyzed to get busy helping to bring heaven to earth.

For the truth of the matter is Jesus spent a WHOLE lot less time talking about who was going to get to heaven than he did talking about bringing heaven to earth. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” Arguably among the most familiar words in all of Christian faith – historic words – ORTHODOX words – the words our Lord Jesus “taught us to pray.”

With those credentials it might be hard to imagine that anyone could argue with bringing heaven to earth as a core Christian Value but – as they say – “welcome to my world!” There seems to be an epidemic of selective amnesia about that essential aspect of the gospel imperative running rampant through the religious right. They dismiss the kind of Christians committed to bringing heaven to earth – that would be us – as politically correct social activists and insist instead that the criteria for being a Christian -- the criteria for being “saved” -- is answering “yes” to the question: Is Jesus the only way to God?

That’s their question. Here’s mine: When did the litmus test for going to heaven become correctly guessing who else God has on the invitation list? Last time I checked our most reliable source on the matter – that would be Jesus – he didn’t have a single word to say about guessing the guest list … or about doctrines or dogmas or creeds or councils – much less “Windsor Reports.” In fact the only criteria Jesus gives us directly is “did you do it unto the least of these?” Did you bring water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, clothing to the naked?” And yet “who gets to go to heaven” has become a source of much conversation – and great consternation – in many quarters of the church today.

My first encounter with the question came in the very earliest days of my ordained ministry as a new deacon and chaplain to a day school. I was buttoning up my Anglican cassock before hurling on my surplice to dash down to flag salute before morning chapel when the day school organist appeared in the vesting room.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“Sure,” I said … thinking it was something like, “How many verses of ‘All things bright and beautiful’ shall we sing this morning?”

Instead it was, “What’s the point of being a Christian if the Jews get in?”

“If the Jews get in?” I echoed back … hoping against hope I’d misheard him.

“Into heaven – if the Jews get into heaven. Why bother to be a Christian if you don’t have to be a Christian to get to heaven?”

And I wish I remembered what I eventually answered. I know I stalled for time by saying flag salute was about to start and let’s talk after chapel. And when we did talk I think I talked about leaving to God what is for God to decide and Jesus having sheep of other folds and the wideness of God’s mercy and I probably talked too MUCH (which is the universal curse of the newly ordained) and I know none of it made a lick of difference.

The leap was too great for him to make – or the cost of making it too high. Eventually he left the Episcopal Church and joined the Episcopal Insurgency and I occasionally see his comments posted on the conservative blogs questioning the Christianity of Christians like me. I hope he’s found answers to his question that I couldn’t give him. I hope he’s found joy in his ministry and lots of good reasons to be a Christian. And I hope he receives as a joyful surprise all the people he runs into in heaven that he’s clearly not expecting to see.

Because I’m the kind of Christian that believes if the point of getting to heaven is getting to heaven then we’ve missed the point of getting to heaven. And I’m thrilled to death to have a Presiding Bishop who not only gets it but is willing to talk about it. I’ll bet she gets her share of emails that start out “The problem with you people …” and I know she took a lot of flack in the conservative press and on the blogs over a recent CNN interview. Here’s little “window” from a follow-up interview in an Arkansas newspaper:

ADG: [In your] CNN interview … it seemed to some people that you were saying there isn’t an afterlife.
KJS: [What I said was that] I don’t think Jesus was focused [on the afterlife]. I think Jesus was focused on heaven in this life, primarily. [Our] tradition has always said yes, there … is life after death. But I think Jesus was not so worried about that. I think he’s worried about what we’re doing to treat our fellow human beings as children of God. He says the kingdom of heaven is among you, and within you, and around you.

[You've gotta love a dogged reporter]

ADG: So does that mean that in your view there is no afterlife?
KJS: That’s not what I said. I said what I think Jesus is more concerned about is heavenly existence, eternal life, in this life.

[One more time]

ADG: Do you think there’s any part of us that lives on somewhere after we die?
KJS: Absolutely. But that’s not a question that concerns me day in and day out. I think I’m meant to use the gifts I have to transform the world in this life.

“That’s not a question that concerns me day in and day out.” That, my brothers and sisters, is how Jesus Saves – by setting us set free to be the kind of Christians who claim the gift of abundant life God offers each and every one of us – not just for us but for the world we are called to restore to the fullness intended at creation. Jesus doesn’t just save us for ourselves. Jesus saves us – liberates us – to say like Isaiah said: “Here I am, send me.”

Jesus saves us to do what Simon Peter did – to follow Jesus even when that means we end up in deep water. Jesus saves us to offer as Bishop Schori has, “use my gifts to transform the world in this life.” Jesus saves us to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captive, liberty to the oppressed. Jesus saves us to send sin coats to South Central and witnesses to Washington and medicine to Malawi.

What kind of Christians are we? The kind Jesus saves to BE the Body of Christ in the world and calls to transform the world in this life by turning the human race into the human family. Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Amen.

A "Must See"

Absolutely do not miss "I'm Still Emily" ... a segment of the "In the Life" series broadcast on PBS and available online here.

Here's what Richard at "Caught by the Light" had to say:

"I am Emily" is a profound witness to what our children continue to have to face.Emily is a faithful Christian. Emily prayed for five years for God to make her no longer gay. Emily is 15.This is a powerful piece on what happened when she came out to her family, friends, school, community, and church in a rural town in Iowa.As a Christian priest and pastor, I ask you to watch the conversation she has with her minister. It's a study worthy of a thousand posts and a million comments ... I pray for Emily and every youth who struggles as she does with exile, even in her church that she wants to call home.

Pray without ceasing!

Letter to the L.A. Times

No lack of faith in Episcopal Church
February 2, 2007
Re "Episcopal unit may quit U.S. church," Jan. 28

Bishop John-David Schofield of the San Joaquin Diocese claims that the Episcopal Church no longer believes the Bible, and others who agree with him claim that the Episcopal Church has abandoned the traditional Christian faith. Schofield is wrong about this. Each Sunday, Episcopalians say together out loud, "Thanks be to God" when the Scripture is read and declared to be "the word of the Lord."

Each Sunday, Episcopalians recite the Nicene Creed of their own free will, and at the conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer, which recounts the history of salvation that climaxes in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Episcopalians say "Amen."

What Episcopalians do not do is say these things while crossing their fingers behind their backs. In the Episcopal Church, the Christian faith is alive and well.

FATHER ROBERT J. GAESTEL
Rector, Church of the Angels
Pasadena

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Good for you, Bob Gaestel. And check this out ... an L.A. Times "For the Record":
A story in Sunday's California section about San Joaquin Episcopal Diocese Bishop John-David Schofield quoted him as saying there are about 780,000 Episcopalians in the United States. Officials of the Episcopal Church in New York say the church has about 2.3 million members.

A New Blog in Town!

epiScope

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What a treat to find GOOD news for a change over in Stand Firm Land ... breaking news of the launch of "epiScope"... a new blog written (per the intro page on the blog launched February 1st:)

... by the reporters and editors of the Episcopal Church's Office of Communication.
Mostly we'll track references to the Episcopal Church in online media ... provide links to full documentation and source material ... do a little "rumor control" where it's needed ... provide a moderated forum for public discussion of substantive issues raised by stories and opinion pieces... and provide a way for the wider Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and the general online public to interact more directly with ENS and Episcopal Life writers and others at the Episcopal Church Center in New York and on the road.

Using a blog, rather than relying solely on ENS or Episcopal Life, permits us to work virtually in "real time" on breaking stories, instead of waiting for a full story to be written and edited and a page to publish on the main website. We'll always do a complete followup and link back to epiScope's pages once it's published.

Read the rest here ... and welcome to our reindeer games! (And don't take it personally ... the Stand Firmites don't like us very much either!)

Listen to the majority African voice of grace

“One of the things which most amaze me in this whole debate is the manner in which lobbying in America has been used to influence opinion, decision, and relationship."

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Listen to the majority African voice of grace
Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Revd Musonda Mwamba

[From Pat Ashworth's report in the CHURCH TIMES:]
LOUD voices from Africa, aided by the “almighty dollar” and internet lobbyists, are distorting the true picture of what Africa’s 37 million Anglicans really think about sexuality and the future of the Anglican Communion, says the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Revd Musonda Mwamba.

The Bishop, by background a lawyer and social anthropologist, was giving the keynote address to senior judges, lawyers, bishops, and clergy at the Ecclesiastical Law Society conference “The Anglican Communion: Crisis and Opportunity”, in Liverpool at the weekend. The minds of most African Anglicans were concentrated on life-and-death issues, and they were “frankly not bothered about the whole debate on sexuality”, he said.

In an incisive address, the Bishop concluded that the minority of Africans who had “the luxury to think about the issue” did not want to see the Communion disintegrate. They valued the bonds of affection, and would prefer to follow the process recommended by the Windsor report. He rebutted as “simplistic and a distortion of the truth” the belief that the African provinces were a monochrome body.

The voice many people heard was the Church of Nigeria’s, a conservative voice, which embodied various streams of influence, and echoed the cultural abhorrence of homosexuality. It was “a voice of protest, which advocates separation rather than reconciliation”. Perhaps unconsciously, it was also influenced by interfaith strife in the country.

Charting the history leading to Nigeria’s rejection of the primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop said that the influence of the Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, went beyond Africa to the United States, where, through the creation of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), he had encouraged like-minded Episcopalians to cut ties with the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Bishop Mwamba described this as “a voice prepared to exclude those whose voices or views are deemed incompatible with the Bible, a voice relatively quiet in speaking out on life-and-death issues of poverty, AIDS, and responsible governance. But, having said all that, we must keep in mind that there are many bishops, clergy, and laity who do not accept all that this voice represents, and who nevertheless find themselves silenced.”

Read it all here ... and give thanks for the witness of Bishop Mwamba!

Be known to us in the breaking of the bread ... not so much

I can't believe I missed this part in my first read of George Conger's report on the upcoming Primates' Meeting: In deference to the theological divisions within the Primates’ ranks, the Cathedral service will be a choir office. A daily Eucharist will be held at 12:15 during the week, but these have been designed as optional services, as the members of the Global South coalition stated in their September communiqué from Kigali they would not break bread with the American Presiding Bishop.
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And we're the ones "walking apart" because we're "abandoning traditional Anglicanism"?????

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Not so much.