The Times-Picayune is reporting that the Bishop of Louisiana has a handy-dandy resolution in his pocket - and it's all ready signed by bishops even before the meeting officially begins for the TEC House of Bishops. Notice the spin, though - of "two Anglican Communions" (that's not true, no, not at all - there is only one Anglican Communion, the question is whether The Episcopal Church will remain in it or be reduced in status). Notice also that the word "division" is being bandied about quite a bit (it used to be a no-no word, now it seems to be the Word of the Week). Notice also that The Episcopal Church will set up its own "scheme" (not the one in the Dar es Salaam Communique) and will spin it that this will solve all the problems. In fact, will there be two Episcopal Churches, but one General Convention? That's not a division, that's rearranging the deck furniture.Here's an excerpt from today's article:
Few observers expect the Episcopal bishops to retreat from their steady course of the past 30 years.Read the whole thing here.
"We expect the House of Bishops will continue the direction they've already set," said Peter Frank, a spokesman for the Anglican Communion Network, a fellowship of nine conservative dioceses and 650 to 700 congregations. He said conservative bishops will leave the New Orleans meeting when Williams leaves. The meeting is scheduled to continue until Tuesday.
Jenkins said he and 10 co-signers will offer a resolution that tracks the overseas primates' wishes: banning same-sex rites, ending ordination of gay bishops, and establishing some kind of alternative Episcopal leadership for conservative congregations.
But he said his highest priority is to hold the communion together even with its divisions.
"The most devastating thing, and the thing I do not want to see happen, is that there becomes two Anglican communions in North America," he said. "It is a sickness unto death. If we claim to be a catholic body, this is a temptation to which we cannot give in.
5 comments:
I think you misunderstand. The two Anglican Communions he's referring too in North America are the original one, including the TEC, and the soon to be created African one.
Thank you for making my point, Anon. Have a mug of Butterbeer on the house.
bb
There is a restaurant a couple of doors down (i.e., away from Bourbon Street) which is one of the many hole-in-the-wall-no-name restaurants which is really quite good. At least it WAS in 2005, my last visit to the Big Easy.
You should try a 'mudbug po-boy' (crawfish sub-sandwich). They make (made) excellent ones -- and traditional Loozyana cuisine samplers in the Riverwalk.
Godspeed, have fun!
"But he said his highest priority is to hold the communion together even with its divisions."
This sounds strangely to me like when having to choose between heresy and unity, one should always choose unity. Who said that again? I forget.
Hmm. Re-reading that, it didn't seem to come out right. But you know what I mean.
Someday I need to learn how to make italics, etc.
Lots of people actually have used this silly quote. Peter Lee of VA.,J Neil Alexander of Atlant ... but the quote goes back to a variety of sources.
Unfortunately it is a false choice. Look it up in your Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. To be a heretic automatically seperates you from the body of the faithful. To be schismatic does not, it is an injury in charity asnd sinful, but does not automatically lead to excommunication/seperation.
So someone please tell the good bishops that to choose heresy over schism is to choose the greater of two evils, and get exactly what you were trying to stay away from.
By the way, I tried to share this with my bishop but it didn't get more than a polite, "Well we can agree to disagree." Only we can't disagree over heresy and stay in the same room ... by definition.
Funny thing though ... after talking about how we should choose heresy over damaging our unity, the Integrity web site tells us we can't hold onto unity at the expense of justice. So justice is more important than either unity or truth.
And I thought justice came from holding stronger to both.
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