Reading over the news-I-didn't-get-to-yesterday over my morning coffee before I head off for the day, here are a few quotes that I thought worth passing on:I find it impossible to understand how a denial of women’s orders is anything other than sexism — even though I have heard the arguments many times. Perhaps the Synod did not vote for compromise because there was not really a compromise to be had.
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“Most of the people aren’t worried about sex, but about people dying, and women suffering atrocities of war.” Dr Jefferts Schori had met bishops from the Church of the Province of the Sudan in Salisbury, and found that “We can always get beyond sexuality if we’re talking about alleviating human suffering.”
She was confident about the future of the Anglican Communion, saying that it “has more and stronger relationships than it did ten years ago”. She regretted the absence of more than 200 bishops from the Conference. “We are all lessened when some stay away from the table. I know how painful it is to be excluded. . . We are diminished by their absence.”
She was confident about the future of the Anglican Communion, saying that it “has more and stronger relationships than it did ten years ago”. She regretted the absence of more than 200 bishops from the Conference. “We are all lessened when some stay away from the table. I know how painful it is to be excluded. . . We are diminished by their absence.”
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We are staged for that in the weeks to come by the different themes that will be presented, one of which is human sexuality, and again, I think we’re laying the foundation to engage those as colleagues as part of one Communion to work together and serve together. I think we’re on the right track.
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Finally, here's a quote from Kendall Harmon in the Washington Post which, if I'm not mistaken, is the same quote he uses every time there are more than two or three bishops gathered in any one place at any one time:
"They see this as the very last chance," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative leader from the Diocese of South Carolina. "If the [North American churches] aren't stopped, the breach won't be healed."
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OK, I'm heading "up the hill" now. More later!
3 comments:
Dear Rev. Russell:
Boiler plate responses are not isolated to those on the right. I hear pretty much the same thing out of the left.
Perhaps, to be charitable, we all actually believe passionately what we believe. Our beliefs, ours or yours, are not likely to change, eh?
A sinner saved by God's Grace
Jim of Michigan
Not likely, perhaps, but beliefs can and do change. All of us were taught Leviticus, etc. Many of us came to believe differently. For centuries humans believed that the earth was the center of the universe. We now know that the universe is older and bigger than we can begin to comprehend. We still use the terms "sunrise" and "sunset" even though they have no meaning.(Sorry, Dad was an astronomer).
Surely God was and is aware of the scale of "his/her" creation. The (very human) writers of the Bible were not, and they were equally uniformed about human sexuality. Words such as zygote, sperm, amygdula and DNA were unknown to them. Christians, as a matter of faith, can choose to believe that Jesus was "born of a virgin." But is no longer possible to "believe" that one must "repent" for their sexual orientation. Modernity may be a bummer for some but holding one's breath until blue won't change, to use a current expression, "the facts on the ground." To continue to use the Bible to justify bigotry can no longer be tolerated and it shouldn't be necessary to be LGBT to understand this.
When Kendall Harmon talks about a "last chance," well, I don't see modernity being repealed anytime soon.
Well, what I was going to say - and that is after reading +Gene's blog and now this one, was that we all need to reach out to each other.
And I say that as someone who is not Episcopalian or Anglican.
What will be will be reached by new boundaries and new places - and all of us will be left gaping, as is the case with new life.
As for me, I never heard about Jesus walking backward, so it is hard to see backward happen.
I said this yesterday in a comment at Telling Secrets - "Merton once said "we are over the falls and into new waters." and it fits here too, I think.
Hmmm... and I really wanted to say how much I liked reading +KJS's quote actually, but you got much more.
Peace and prayers for all.
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