The Church of England Newspaper is on the web today with numerous reports of General Synod:
Quandary ahead on women bishops
Faithful Cities report lacks evangelistic focus – says Synod
Commissioners want scrutiny
Synod’s Carbon attitudes lukewarm
Women bishops are justified
Archbishop criticises US Churchs legal processes for doubts
Dr Williams clarifies his thinking on the plans for a two-tier Anglican Communion
Church to double FE chaplains
Pensions plan welcomed
Synod debates merits of tax policy
Archbishop demonstrates that he has found his true home in York
Couples allowed to wed in any churches where they have link
Plans for freehold replacement unveiled to Synod members
Prisons policy defended
I read the article reporting the Archbishop of York’s comments about General Convention with great interest. His statement strikes me as highly inappropriate. The Church of England has no authority to dictate to The Episcopal Church as to how it should conduct its affairs or structure its legislative process. I suppose that to someone who got his job from the Prime Minister and The Queen it all seems rather rowdy.
++York: “The [General] Convention [of TEC] failed to meet the precise request of Windsor.” Windsor was a *consultative* document. It didn’t have “precise requests”. ++York: “It left too much room for doubt and didn’t stop the rumour and impression of ‘doing our own thing’” Well, good thing no one is spreading such “rumours” then. Oh… ++York: “The Archbishop blamed this, not on the arrogance of Episcopalians” Gee, thanks (I think). ++York: “…but on the Convention’s legislative processes. “Modelled on the House of Representatives and the Senate, and acting like them, are not fir [sic] for the purpose of engendering good… Read more »
And compared to the antics of the early church, TEC is quite orderly. Read detailed accounts of the early Church Councils. For that matter, think of the accounts of how some of the early bishops were chosen – I can’t remember which one was elected because the vote was a tie and he, standing there watching, had a dove alight on his shoulder, so he was bishop by acclamation. Two strands of comment are beginning to wear a bit thin with me at least: 1.WR as a directive to be followed instead of a document to be met with response.… Read more »
With regard to the relaxtion of CoE residency requirements for weddings, this is a very good thing. There is no reason not to look at it as an opportunity for evangelisation, at least in the modest, gentle form typical of, say, ECUSA. My wife and I were married in a cathedral where I had attended Christmas midnight mass for many years, and some years the Easter morning eucharist –but little else. My wife had not been a regular churchgoer since adolescence. We were received warmly, treated with kindness, and were delighted with the service. We joined the congregation, now many… Read more »
Mark Harris has written an outstanding response to ++York, here http://anglicanfuture.blogspot.com/2006/07/archbishop-of-york-opines-about.html concluding “The Archbishop ended his remarks on General Convention by quoting Don Curran, a delegate from Central Florida who said “We have been asked to build a bridge. The bridge is one thousand feet long. If the bridge is only 950 feet long, it does not work. It’s useless.” Perhaps Mr. Curran and the Archbishop might remember that General Convention is not asked to build real bridges, and only sometimes metaphorical ones. With metaphorical bridge building, one can also ask if perhaps some others in the Communion might have… Read more »
So Canterbury is asking, as if thinking out loud – “It is a question of how we work out, faithfully, attentively, obediently, what we need to do and say in order to remain within sight and sound of each other in the fellowship to which Christ has called us.” Some starts on answering this question: What shall we do to remain within sight and sound of each other in the (Anglican) fellowship to which Christ has called us? Suggestion One: Agree to disagree in differences of Anglican good conscience. Suggestion Two: Stop interfering and triangulating between/among differing communities within provinces.… Read more »
Let’s not be conned about weddings.
It may be cynical but the CofE is keen to get its share of wedding revenue.
There is certainly no pastoral opportunity to establish follow-up when the venue is chosen on grounds of appearance.
And whatever the clergy say on the wedding day itself is usually tolerated in order (just) to get the certificate.
It’s very difficult to see any real eternal good coming from this move. Cept perhaps keeping a few clergy busy on Saturdays!
Oh, its a waste of time anyway – now there are other options which don’t involve having to follow set religious services, which aren’t popular amongst non-churchgoers, I doubt whether the church’s apparent desperation will be satisfied.
It also means that if you have an ugly local church, expect free Saturdays forever more!
“Suggestion Four: Grow up, period. We live in an increasingly diverse and differentiated global world – a planetary village with an amazing range of neighborhoods, and all the rest. Learning to live together in peace and good will given our differences is at least as holy a calling as any ascetic discipline of the body that some puritannical believers wishe to enforce upon all.” All of these are excellent suggestions, but this is the one that I think is key. We all need to accept the fact of difference and diversity. Martin Marty, I think, once defined the church catholic… Read more »
Re Cynthia’s point: Yes about families. Yes about diversity. No to the static underlying worldview: I will explain…. One of the reasons (not the only one) that people have different views on various topics is that some of those views are informed and researched (and checked for logical contradiction) and some are not. By all means let’s have different views that are all informed and researched living side by side and continuing to dialogue. But there is no merit in diversity *per se*; and the only proper response to the uninformed is to inform them better. ‘Growing up’ has nothing… Read more »
My passing reference to growing up gestures towards at least two touchstones. (There may be more touchstones, but the distinctive modern twist/dilemma if you will is that we can no longer simply base all of our discernment and inquiry on asking, only, Which views are true? One must also at the same time irreducibly ask, How does each view function or operate, dynamically or structurally, through and in and by its informational or belief contents?) Our received distinctively Anglican legacy is that we have at minimum three irreducible avenues through which to weigh and seek what is true, i.e., the… Read more »