Friday, February 29, 2008

Another Quote of Note from the AAC

In both Canada and the United States, if you love Jesus and take his teachings and commands seriously, the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) or the Episcopal Church (TEC) will come after you with harmful intent.
David Anderson, President & CEO of the American Anglican Council
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I thought about giving up reading these weekly AAC Newsletters for Lent but decided that would be like my childhood effort to give up broccoli ... better, I figured, I should "take on" things that will build up the Kingdom rather than "give up" things I don't like anyway.
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So I keep reading ... keep noting, for the record, just how predictably the victimization-meter keeps getting turned up in David's weekly efforts to re-cast the architects of this schism as its victims.
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And I keep looking for where and when there are opportunities to challenge the "revisionism" and the spin.
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So ... toward that end (of noting for the record) let ME note "for the record" that both the ACC and TEC are FULL of people who "love Jesus and take his teachings and commands seriously" -- and who disagree with David Anderson about how we live that out as a people of God.
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And guess what? We're willing to continue to be in conversation and consultation with those, like David, who disagree. And guess what else? If he isn't -- willing to be in conversation and consultation -- then he'd be the one walking away ... not us.
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2 comments:

Jonathan said...

After Taize last night, we had a discussion about this week's gospel (John 9) about the blind man. My priest suggested we read James Alison's reflection on the story in his book "Faith Beyond Resentment."

It's fairly dense writing, but the gist of Alison's view is that the story is about why we tend to fall into the pattern of being righteous excluders. So, just two phrases here:

"...the word of God acts in our midst as an element which is continuously subversive of our notions of order, of goodness, of clear moral understanding..."

"...for those who feel themselves excluded, or treated as defective, by the reigning social and moral order, it is of incalculable importance to discover that this feeling of being excluded or defective has nothing to do with God."

I know that I fall into the sin of being a righteous excluder, so I must continually invite Christ into my life. At the same time, it really helps to know that God doesn't hate my "lifestyle."

-J

the Reverend boy said...

How people like David can get away with saying stuff like that is beyond me. But then, why am i not surprised? This is the same guy who, on Larry King, said "I like a good fight"