Jane Shaw wrote in last week’s Church Times about it. See Mission was behind the US vote.
MANY RESPONSES to last week’s decision by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention to allow (again) the possibility of gay bishops and same-sex blessings, have spoken of schism. Worse, some suggested that the Convention’s decisions were deliberately provocative.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As one of a number of international visitors at the General Convention, I witnessed the care and thought with which laity, clergy, and bishops deliberated on these issues. As the dust settles, we can ask more soberly: why did the votes go the way they did?
Meanwhile, from Global South Anglican we have Statement by Province of Southeast Asia Standing Committee.
Jane Shaw’s piece is very good and reminds us of the fundamental differences that exist in the way Provinces are governed. Jane is right to make much of Jenny Plane- Te Paa’s repudiation of the Windsor Report, this public denunciation by one of the Commissioners who produced the report and declaration that other Commissioners also feel the same is, I believe, a defining moment. I understand others who signed off on the Windsor Report are also willing to make their position clear with even more criticism of the Windsor Report. I am rather surprised a great deal more has not… Read more »
Anyone in the C of E wondering “Where are all the young people?”, need look no further than Shaw’s article for an answer. To quote from a letter in this week’s CT: “If you close the door on people, you can’t be surprised when your church is empty”.
Breaking news from the Dio. of Minnesota via Episcopal Cafe: The Rev. Dr. Bonnie Perry, who has lived with her Lesbian partner for the past 20+ years, is one of three candidates for Bishop of Minnesota. That should raise the blood pressure of ++Rowan Cantuar and +Tom Dunelm!
Jane Shaw’s essay, a report of being an international visitor at this most recent GenCon, really shows the foundations for punishing TEC, and for preaching how TEC has simply gone off the apostolic rails. It’s democracy is simply galling, and highly inconvenient to new covenant centralisation of everyting, moving significant Anglican global power from the bottom dispersed, to the top concentrated. Democracy in church life is also offense to any and all flat earth instances of fine church leadership – starting with those very high seats, York and Canterbury, and speaking out on high from those two seats. Believers like… Read more »
I really appreciate Jane Shaw’s essay. I would figure English and American conservs would understand that TEC moves as a whole (or at last a democratic majority) and not at the whim of a few or the one. Jenny Plane- Te Paa’s repudiation of the Windsor Report shows that the commission either didn’t understand how TEC is governed or simply didn’t want it governed in that way. In other words, someone didn’t do their homework or just didn’t like the answers they got to their homework (the Windsor Commision Group). I would suspect conservatives will say that Christianity is not… Read more »
“We are of the view that the passing of these 2 resolutions, when on a plain and ordinary reading, constitutes an abrogation by TEC of the agreed-to moratorium on the consecration of practising homosexual clergy as bishops and rites of blessing for same-sex unions. This effectively moves TEC irretrievably away from the orthodox position of the rest of the Anglican Communion as a whole on these issues. This is a negative development. It is also a repudiation of the listening and consultation processes put in place in an attempt to resolve these” – Statement of the Province of S.E.Asia S.C.… Read more »
Many of the same people who crafted the United States Constitution were responsible for the Constitution of the Episcopal Church – both created a short time after independence from Great Britain had been won. This is largely responsible for the very democratic way in which legislation proceeds. In addition, the “founders” were determined that there would be no connection, in the public mind, between the Episcopal Church and such things as monarchy, hierarchy, and aristocracy – all very unpopular at the time. This, presumably, is why we have a Presiding Bishop instead of an archbishop. It was important that our… Read more »
What Jane Shaw says about young people is (a) ageist and (b) counter-intuitive.
Not content with considering one group’s opinions superior to another groups on the grounds of (of all things) age, she also privileges the less experienced and less wise over the more experienced and more wise.
The younger someone is, the fewer social milieux and fewer options they will have encountered in the first place: naturally young people will go with what is familiar, present, and local to their own experience.