The church of God called into being by the act of Christ must be particularly careful in its judgements and its exclusions - for, as Jesus reminds those whom he chooses, we are not called to respect or tolerate each other - but to love one another, particularly those we determine to be the "enemy".
The heat is on.
The gay and lesbian person is placed on the altar - the presenting cause of schism. While the church beats itself into a frenzy it may easily forget that its primary vocation is to love, to make judgements without deeply loving is to hate, and hate is a cycle that leaves the cross standing powerless - without resurrection.
From Nigeria, we get pretty much the opposite sentiment from the Most Rev'd Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria. The Episcopal Synod there has just met, and they've issued a communinque. The letter pulls no punches, once again including Canterbury in their list of suspect dioceses: "Synod also regrets the inability of the See of Canterbury to prevent further impairment of the unity of the Church." And. because of this, it appears that Nigeria is positioning itself not to attend Lambeth 2008:
the moral justification for the proposed Lambeth Conference of 2008 is questionable in view of the fact that by promoting teachings and practices that are alien and inimical to the historic formularies of the Church, the Bishops of ECUSA, Canada and parts of Britain have abandoned the Biblical faith of our fathers.And just in case there was any doubt where this is headed, Nigeria is preparing to hold its own gathering of the "Anglican Communion" in 2008:
Synod underlines the need for maintaining the age-long tradition of a ten-yearly Conference of Bishops in the Anglican Communion for discussing issues affecting the Church. It therefore calls on the leadership of the Global South and Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) to do everything necessary to put in place a Conference of all Anglican Bishops to hold in 2008 should all efforts to get the apostles of 'revisionist agenda' to repent and retrace their steps fail.
So now the Archbishop of Canterbury is to be outside of Akinola's view of the Anglican Communion? Huh? The mind boggles. Call me a revisionist heretic, but I'll take the first option here: love and generosity sound like the Gospel to me.
UPDATE: I encourage you to read two very thoughtful reactions to all this. You'll find one great piece by Jim Naughton, and another by Mark Harris. They're both well worth reading.
Both "...very thoughtful reactions..." to which we are directed by the webmaster were written by promoters of the inchoate NER (New Episcopal Religion) revisionist agenda, and the Mark Harris piece includes rather crude and clearly disrespectful language sadly encountered when character assassination is employed against those continuing to practice the historic Christian faith once delivered to the saints: "...and premature e*********** concerning the thoughts of the Archbishop of Canterbury..."
ReplyDeleteIt is my sincere hope that future blogspot editorial link recommendations would include some semblance of balanced viewpoints (both NER and traditional) and civil propriety of language.
With love, generosity, and a desire for my comments to be received, accepted and displayed with tolerance and inclusiveness for a true diversity of viewpoints,
Geof Milner
In most of the links here, I have sought to represent a diversity of opinion. You'll find links to virtueonline and titusonenine, in addition to more liberal and moderate blogs.
ReplyDeleteMy aim here, however, is not always to be "balanced" but rather to post things that are edifying, provocative, profound, or newsworthy. When possible, I balance things. This is not always going to be possible -- and readers are always welcome to suggest additional links by email or here in the comments (as you've done elsewhere, Geof).
I'm not fond of the language that Geof cites as objectionable, but once one moves past that first paragraph, the essay that's linked is worthy of a good read, I think.
Thanks for your comment!