I think most everyone agrees that the recent Lambeth Conference was, to put it mildly, a waste of time. When what is most needed to hold the Anglican Communion together is some decisive leadership and clear direction, what we got were.... Reflections.
Yep. That's helpful.
So, what now? The Episcopal Left and their fellow travelers are going to press on with their "doing a new thing" agenda, which it describes, at the same time, as an utterly minor point not essential to the Faith, and as the moral equivalent of the abolition movement. (Which is it, guys?) I see the US church now, at their 2009 General Convention, going ahead and removing the bar against practicing homosexuals becoming bishops and on gay marriage. It's easy to "live in tension" when you're the ones causing it.
But Chris Johnson says, not so fast. It may not get that far. He points out that there is a meeting coming up of the Primates, the heads of the various Anglican churches, before the General Convention. And quite a number of those Primates are not at all pleased with the US and (many) Canadian churches pressing on with the gay agenda. I agree with Chris that the Primates may well have had enough, and may draw a line in the sand on this and several other issues that were purposely not dealt with at Lambeth.
Will that happen? Maybe. If it does, it will guarantee a vote to mandate gay marriage and gay bishops at General Convention. Just like teenagers when you tell them no, the 60's crowd running The Episcopal Church (tm) will do it anyway, just to spite you.
Even if it gets to that, I don't really think it matters. Weather we like it or not, the Anglican Communion, and the Episcopal Church (tm) will split. As my friend Ontario Emperor correctly surmises, the split is already taking place; person by person, parish by parish. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. Sure, there will be the big, news-making events, such as when a number of Primates in the third-world form a parallel Anglican structure - and take between one-third to one-half of the Anglicans in the world with them. But Anglicans here are growing tired of "living in tension," and this will only end when each person, or parish, or clergy, makes the choice: either "OK, let's go with this "new thing" agenda" and stay, or "No, we must stay true to Scripture," and move on. Many have already done so.
In Dioceses like mine (Louisiana), where conservatives and orthodox are still a (slim) majority and pretty much left alone, that choice has not been forced on us. The pressure locally is not there to take action, so we stay. ("It's not my/our problem," is what I most often hear.) But if the General Convention votes as it likely will, or if we get a left-of-center Bishop anytime soon who pushes the "doing a new thing" agenda locally, I could see a large part of my diocese moving on - especially if there is a traditional Anglican structure in place where they could quickly find a home.
And the fear of such a separate Anglican structure, offering a choice, may well be why the Lefty leadership of The Episcopal Church (tm) today have their sporks all in a knot about "foreign incursions" and "poaching," and why The Episcopal Church (tm) will spare no legal action or expense (theirs or others) in fighting to retain property when disaffected parishes try to leave. If the disaffected in The Episcopal Church (tm) are the infinitesimally small minority the Presiding Bishop keeps saying, why not just let 'em go and be done with it? Think of all those legal fees you could now spend instead on the Millennium Development Goals. But they can't do that, because I think they know the reality - a lot more people have left than they admit, and if given the choice more parishioners, parishes, and even dioceses would jump ship.
So the saga continues pretty much as it did before, except that some bishops got a highly publicized trip to Jolly Olde England. Lambeth 2008 is not the beginning of the end. But it is, alas, pretty darn close to it.
1 comment:
That pretty well covers it. TEC will not repent and reform. The leaders are firmly convinced they are in the right. The moderates, both clergy and lay, are more concerned with pensions and mortgages, which makes it very tempting to rationalize that it is not their problem, usually in unctuous tones. Where I live, we have CANA, AMiA, FiF-NA, Antiochian Orthodox, and several Continuing Churches of various types. In terms of parishes, comparable to the TEC diocese in the same area, though with substantially less in the pews. So to someone who is just waking up, it looks as if they will have to pick a "one off" church, with all the quirks and problems which that can entail. Anglicans are Organization People, and need to know they are joining not just a parish, but a properly Anglican group. The North American Anglican Province, or whatever it is going to be called, needs to come into being sooner rather than later to protect not only people like +Duncan from Shori's Cephalopods, but to allow the faithful churches to compete on a more equal footing with TEC. Once that happens, many of the faithful but timorous will vote with their feet.
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