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Yesterday we had our annual meeting of LEMs and lay readers (now given the title "Worship Leaders.") Joe Reynolds, our dean, gave a very wonderful talk about why the Episcopal church is a Bible-based, Bible-believing church. Joe grew up in the Southern Baptist church, a place where emphasis was placed on select short verses and phrases. The Episcopal church, on the other hand, presents the entire Bible, difficult passages and all. We try to make sense of the whole, not just isolated verses. The stories coming out of Pittsburgh are very sad. Until I read them I thought we were supposed to listen to one another. It appears that many are so busy structuring their own new Anglikan (my new word) world (which may well exist without the original Anglicans, since I don't think Canterbury and York are ready to cast anyone out). Anglicans don't generally throw around words like "heresy" or "non-Christian" even to other church folk with whom they do not agree. I'd have to concur that the words and actions I have seen are most un-Anglican. But in the Anglikan world, where the real truth is known and possessed and enforced, there's no need for a big tent. The Anglikan narrow door has been constructed, and it's as if those parts of the Gospel where Jesus strongly criticizes Pharisees have been ignored or forgotten. (Maybe they were never learned - I don't know.) The spirit of love, acceptance, and forgiveness seems absent. And if we are to "know they are Christians by their love," it seems a lot of people might have trouble recognizing the Christianity within the Anglikan group. As I noted some time ago, it seems that the Anglikans, led by their Global South primates, are walking apart already. I'm saddened that they wouldn't even take the time to engage in the Windsor Report's process of listening and dialogue, but it's their choice to shut us out, not the other way around. (And I would like to remind a few of you that I am not sure how I would have voted at GC2003 - I would prefer a stronger consensus on the gay clergy issue.... before moving that far, especially since that action was the spark for the latest upheaval.) However, I think the Anglikans would have found another object for their protest even if +VGR wasn't consecrated. There is a lot of power talk going around, and it's unsettling. We are trying to serve the Lord with our whole hearts in the spirit of the Gospel and following the truths we discern from the Bible. But we see the Bible as a guide, not as a penal code. Tom Fitzhugh [from Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, and delegate to General Convention 2006] |