Comments on: ++Rowan Sends Letters

By: Derek the Ænglican

Derek the Ænglican — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:11:01 +0000

Well, bls, I’d agree certainly agree that we have a beautiful and important message to get out and it’s high time we get about doing it.

Too, I dislike both the rhetoric and the assumptions from both sides that automatically equates gay with liberal in all areas.

By: bls

bls — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:22:36 +0000

(And I don’t think we need to worry about a possible lack of “conservative” voices, either.

The people who want to destroy us are not “conservatives” - not of a type that I recognize, anyway. And I’m no leftist; I’ll be one of the more conservative (theologically) members of our new Communion - and I don’t mind.

There are plenty of gay conservatives, actually - and they aren’t going anywhere else, I assure you, while the church is in full-on anti-gay mode. Which I’m sure it will be for another century or so.

We just can’t afford to be around these reactionaries any longer. We’ll be fine, and I think better than fine. We have work to do, so let’s get to it.)

By: bls

bls — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:18:50 +0000

My fondest hope is that the Anglican Communion sinks into the sea, just as Canon Edward Norman predicted it would.

Not that anybody will notice, anyway, given the (conveniently ignored) fact that hardly anybody had ever heard of it before about 30 years ago. It’s basically a fiction anyway; the problem at this point it that it is getting in the way of evangelism.

The Churches continue to empty out because of the association with right-wing politics and the irrational hatred of gay people.

I don’t think we can really afford to be associated with this any longer. We have a beautiful and important message and it’s getting lost in the hysteria from the so-called “Global South” and their pals. We should be 10 times the size we are; we’re one of the few voices that a lot of people outside the church will listen to, I think. What about them? What about us? Why the hell do we care about the damned Anglican Communion? We need to be about our own business at last; we need to form our own worldwide communion based on Anglican ecclesiology (which this one isn’t) and grow at last.

Now is the time, really.

By: C. Wingate

C. Wingate — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:23:21 +0000

I think the advent letter could have been a great deal shorter but I suppose he felt all the side explanation was necessary. Anyway, it boils down to a pretty straightforward and reasonable message: he’s not a pope and won’t dictate theology, but he can’t go off and accept every kinked bit of polity thrown at him. Lambeth is going to have to act more as a synod and deal with ECUSA’s deviancies and the AMiA dubio-bishops as a council.

The liberals are mad at him because he’s putting the church ahead of the beliefs he supposedly shares with them. (Given continued commentary from him about gay marriage I’m beginning to doubt that he shares as much as they think, but that’s neither here nor there.) The conservatives– well, the rumblings about a counter-Lambeth have put things in a quite different light. A week ago I would have said that the pro-split side was being impatient; now I’m wondering how much the liberal radicals were right in smelling a conspiracy. I don’t think RW is dithering, but it may well be that his plan to force the bishops to work it out is going to collapse under the weight of all the posturing from the extremes.

By: Derek the Ænglican

Derek the Ænglican — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:49:10 +0000

Thanks Josh!

Yeah, I forgot to link to that one. It’s up there…

By: aconservativeblogforpeace

aconservativeblogforpeace — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:45:56 +0000

HM Dominion always has been less in-your-face than its boisterous, independent southern neighbour.

Except maybe in the hockey rink, eh?

By: aconservativeblogforpeace

aconservativeblogforpeace — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:58:26 +0000

Good point about Canada. HM Dominion always has been less in-your-face than its boisterous, independent southern neighbour. TEC could be targeted because it made a bolder move with Gene Robinson and it’s bigger and richer than the Anglican Church of Canada. From the conservative POV the same-sex blessings there are as much as communion-sunderer as in the States.

By: josh

josh — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:24:23 +0000

Off-topic: Derek, thank you for that marvelous piece on Episcopal Café with the O Antiphons! I’d heard of them but never seen them. Your good timing allows us all to use them as we count the last days of waiting and watching. I know one Daily Office visitor who will love seeing them.

O come, thou Rod of Jesse’s stem…

By: bls

bls — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:15:03 +0000

Not “unilaterally” again! Anybody ever heard of a country called Canada, maybe? Interesting that TEC alone continues to be Rowan Williams’ whipping boy. He doesn’t like the United States, it’s become obvious to me.

But who cares anymore? I’m sick to death of the Christian Church and sick to death of bishops (and priests, and laity) and their bigotry, and I don’t give a damn anymore what happens. It’s pretty much irrelevant to me (and to most of the world, as they exit the doors and don’t come back).

You all enjoy your purity and holiness, now….

By: aconservativeblogforpeace

aconservativeblogforpeace — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:01:53 +0000

The buzz I’ve read (yes, much of it is conservative buzz) says it’s more Cantuarian dithering but the bits I’ve read essentially agree with you and me (though each might put it differently). Centralisation - treating him like a Pope - is nothing to do with it. You’re right, it’s conciliarist. It’s about what most Anglicans worldwide want and ++Cantuar simply reflecting that. Much like if a bishop says no sale, a parish has to move, left or right, frankly, TEC’s walking alone acting unilaterally on these issues, prophetic or not, logically put it out of the Anglican Communion. (A worldwide democracy in action.) Which wouldn’t and shouldn’t affect most Episcopalians. Entirely fair.