From Ireland:
The Rt Revd the Lord Eames of Armagh, OM, gave the Annual Lecture of the College of St George, Windsor Castle on 26 May 2009. Speaking on the theme of the mechanics of reconciliation, he drew from his extensive experience both in the Anglican Communion and in ministering in Northern Ireland.
Full text of his lecture at Lord Eames’ St George’s Windsor Lecture 2009.
From Canada:
Twelve of Canada’s finest theologians explore issues relating to same-sex blessings in a series of essays now posted online. These essays by members of the Primate’s Theological Commission form the third and final part to the Galilee Report, which considered questions of human relationships and the blessings of same-sex unions.
The first two parts, a report on the commission’s discussion and the essay “Integrity and Sanctity” were posted in May 2009…
Full press release
Links to all the papers at The Galilee Report Primate’s Theological Commission.
From the USA:
We Will, With God’s Help, published in June 2009 by the Chicago Consultation, is a collection of essays about perspectives on baptism, sexuality and the Anglican Communion….
Full press release
The full text of the essays, as a PDF file.
As an American member of the Episcopal Church, I wish to offer offer public thanks to Canadian theologians: Walter Deller, Stephen Andrews, Lisa Wang, Stephen Andrews, Paul Jennings, Gary Thorne, Paul Jennings, Jamie Howison, Victoria Matthews, Trudy Lebans, Robert Moore, and Linda Nicholls. Their essays are thought-provoking and helpful. And perhaps, most importantly, the Candaians did their work openly and weren’t part of a nameless and covert theological commission like the one being conducted in secrecy by American Bishop Henry Parsley.
After reading a few of the essays I find myself asking “why is it that only the experience of the early Jewish or Christian communities (the bible) are considered when we try to understand to what and where God is calling us?”
Why are many orthodox (Bob Duncan, former Canon Mary Haggard Hays) willing to throw out 1 Cor. 14:34- but quote Romans when it comes to GLBT community?
Cafeteria Christians (and I gladly admit I’m one unlike many others).
“why is it that only the experience of the early Jewish or Christian communities (the bible) are considered when we try to understand to what and where God is calling us?” Because they were much closer to the revelation of the Good News than we are? Because some of them actually looked Jesus in the face and heard the sound of His voice? Because some of them actually KNEW what a Resurrected Body looks like? Because they in all likelihood heard Him say things that did not make it into the written Scriptures 40 odd years later, but which informed… Read more »
Yes, Ford, but you yourself are surely going to accord some significance to your own experience as a gay man and to the experience of other gay people? And is it not right to accord some significance to all the research done on the prevalence of homosexuality in all societies and periods and on the scientific issues? In other words: Christians aren’t – or shouldn’t be – committed to the proposition that divine revelation stopped in the first century.
Ford, “Because some of them actually looked Jesus in the face and heard the sound of His voice?” Whereas now he’s dead and we only have the uninspired written down words of God in a dusty old book? “Because, unlike us, they knew what Paul REALLY meant by those two words we translate as ‘homosexual’?” Because, unlike us, they also knew that Jesus really didn’t want to say anything against slavery? That he didn’t mean women to be equal to men? “Because that historical position means that they didn’t have to sort through 1700 years of compromise to the State,… Read more »
“Whereas now he’s dead and we only have the uninspired written down words of God in a dusty old book?” He’s alive. We also have the Spirit, Whose job is likely more difficult 2000 years on, and Whose guidance we must seek carefully and deliberately as a result. “Because, unlike us, they also knew that Jesus really didn’t want to say anything against…” Why assume that? More likely actually, they heard Him condemn both those attitudes. I don’t think they took Divine Dictation for three years. I think they spoke of a lot of things that informed them when they… Read more »
Ford Maybe we don’t know “better” than those before us, but we know “differently”? We are forever discerning what being a Christian means for the age we live in. We face new challenges, have to accommodate new scientific etc. discoveries, live in differently structured societies. It is just not possible to apply the letter of anything “they” did without trying to understand the spirit behind their thinking. Also, you say “Because, unlike us, they knew what Paul REALLY meant by those two words we translate as ‘homosexual’?” But are you now assuming that all translators of the bible through the… Read more »
“But are you now assuming that all translators of the bible through the ages have faithfully preserved that knowledge and that the backward connections we are making now are so obvious?” No. There has been 15-20 centuries between the earliest Christians and us. That’s ample time for mistakes to have crept in. That’s why the Reformation was necessary, for starters. “Or even that Paul knew the absolute and final truth about Jesus for all times?” Of course he didn’t. But I am absolutely sure of one thing, he, and the Apostles and Early Church, knew things about Jesus that we… Read more »
Between baptism and education for choices of enlightenment give us education any day.
“Between baptism and education for choices of enlightenment give us education any day.” The point is that the word has different meanings in the two traditions, and its use in the East does not preclude the idea that someone can have an impressive education and still not be “enlightened” in the sense of having “received the Light”, as they say. It’s about spiritual intelligence versus book smarts, and the value placed on each. It isn’t that the East places no value on book smarts, but that the West places no value on spiritual intelligence. They are two kinds of intelligence,… Read more »