With all due respect, I believe that you and many others over the last four decades are, and have been, deceived by people who have deceived themselves into believing that they and their behavior are inseparable parts of their personhood.
Read moreDear Bishop Katharine,
Read more"The Primates urge the representatives of The Episcopal Church and of those congregations in property disputes with it to suspend all actions in law arising in this situation. We also urge both parties to give assurances that no steps will be taken to alienate property from The Episcopal Church without its consent or to deny the use of that property to those congregations." Communique-ACNS
Read moreThrough a multitude of different steps, in meetings of Primates, meetings of a Panel of Reference, activities of "the listening process" and in debates and resolutions of myriad national, diocesan and local synods, orthodox Anglicans have been persecuted while their opponents made themselves impregnable.
Read moreThe meeting was a remarkable one in that we were able, through much painful honesty and clear speech, to come to a common agreement. Frankly, I was surprised at that. Given the great polarization in the Anglican Communion, I held out little hope for a way forward.
Read moreSince TEC's response to the Windsor Report has so far been less than satisfactory, the primates, in a communiqué issued at the end of their recent meeting, decided upon an interim plan to deal with the Episcopal Church until an Anglican Covenant is solidified. Among the items in this plan is a request that TEC unequivocally refrain from blessing same-sex unions:
Read moreFor a century or two a notion has been fostered by this movement and allowed to develop by much of the remainder of the Anglican church to the point of becoming the reigning theological motif of the leadership of many Anglican churches and of the leadership at the upper levels of the Anglican Communion.
Read moreThe polity of the Episcopal Church is one of shared decision making among the laity, priest and deacons and bishops. The House of Bishops does not make binding, final decisions about the governance of the Church. Decisions like those requested by the Primates must be carefully considered and ultimately decided by the whole Church, all orders of ministry, together.
Read moreThere were moments in the meeting of Anglican leaders in Tanzania when I guess most of those present felt a bit like this. The fact that they weren't prepared simply to leave things there suggests, though, that more needs to be said. There remains a strong belief that this kind of worldwide Christian institution means we all agree to take responsibility for each other in some way, and to recognise that none of us has ultimate interests and concerns that are exclusively local or personal.
Read moreThe more liberal among us fear irrelevancy. The process of de-coupling the Episcopal Church from historic Anglicanism coincides pretty closely with the revolutionary attitudes of the 1960s, when our benign trust in leadership was shattered by governments that did a lot of bad things behind our backs. The next generation didn't want the same old church as their parents. Church enrollment dropped; fear took root that the institution would decline and perhaps disappear.
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