O happy day?

Following deliberations yesterday, the Episcopal Church in the US released a statement, as announced in Episcopal Life news:

After nearly a full day of deliberations, the House of Bishops on September 25 agreed overwhelmingly by voice vote 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.”

They also pledged not to authorize public rites for same-gender blessings “until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion, or until General Convention takes further action,” according to the response.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told reporters at a news conference following the conclusion of the meeting that bishops found “common ground to stand on … high ground. Not everyone is 100 percent happy with every word in this document, but we believe we have found a place that all of us can stand together — at the foot of the cross.”

See the full statement here

BBC article here

For many this is a good day – not only because those who have shouted loudest in the argument seem to have been heard the most, but also because this will paper over the cracks the human sexuality debate has highlighted in our family of faith, and we can now all get back to the status quo. Or can we?

For countless others in the (Westernised) Anglican Communion this will be a day of mourning as the Episcopal Church has been forced to roll back on what was affirmed as positive, healing and Spirit-led in their province for the sake of unity. Sadly for the Episcopal Church, the choice for them was to stay part of the Anglican Communion or be responsible for its irreparable fracture. As they stand at the foot of the cross, we all should join them and repent together.

There will be much pain, a sense of rejection and of desperation as people within and outwith the church feel abandoned or let down by those who supported them. But there will be those who will feel they have won, and there will be much rejoicing. But put your party hats and whistles away and feel the pain that has been caused, not only to gay church members and leaders throughout the world, but also to those who must pick up the pieces of the bullying that has occurred in the leadership of our communion: the clergy and lay people who journey day to day with those struggling with issues of gender, identity and prejudice.

The arguments, in the public eye at least, have focussed on issues of sexuality. But there is much more than that at stake. Different contextual understandings of Scripture matter. The authority of a Primate in his or her own province matters. The authority of decisions of a College of Bishops or Synod within a province matters. The stories and journeys of people with God matter.

There are many issues on which the various members of the Anglican communion disagree, and we often cause pain to each other (either knowingly or unknowingly – see Revd Ruth’s Walsingham blog entry). What we need now is healing, and a time to look forward together in hope to what we can be as servants of Christ in this world. But I fear this will merely cover the cracks, and the rest be ignored - an unholy elastoplast.

Come Holy Spirit….prove me wrong please.

Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

Church yesterday found me ignoring my prepared sermon, and speaking “off the cuff” about the way the church treats people and issues.  With the situation in the Anglican Communion as it is, this invariably involved talking about the prejudices and pressures in the arguments regarding issues of human sexuality.

The sad thing is they are arguments which will not be won, arguments in which neither side will admit defeat or be converted to the other side’s way of thinking.  They are unsinkable rubber ducks bobbing on the rough waters of life and faith.

what has worried me throughout the whole mess of the last few years is the vitriol and bile coming from church-people at all levels of the institution on both sides of the argument - little room for, or expression of, the Holy Spirit in the way people are treated, regardless of the side of the argument they hold.  The pro-gay’s are “evil, corrupting the church”, the anti’s are “uneducated, lacking compassion or understanding, prejudiced” (paraphrases there…)

Regardless of which side of the arguments hold one’s loyalties,  people deserve more. They deserve not to be labelled and cast aside. They deserve to be loved, valued, respected and cared for as children of God, whether we like them or not, whether we agree with them or not.  Not easy I know. Loving those we hurt or hate, or who hurt & hate us, never is.  But I seem to remember a wise bloke once said something about loving our enemies.  In the end, such revolutionary attitudes were the death of him, but life for the rest of us.

Gene Robinson, sexuality, evangelicalism and the church

Many thanks to Kimberly for the links to these articles in The Scotsman and The Times, as Gene Robinson talks about his sexuality, his faith and the future of the Anglican Church