Oh No, The Episcopal Church Hasn’t Approved Same Sex Blessings

Except in these places:

Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Long Island
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Newark
Los Angeles
Massachusetts
Olympia

What would you think if I sang out of tune – Getting Down To Brass Tacks On the HOB Meeting In New Orleans

The axiom that we as human beings most use to judge people is the idea that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. It is where most prejudices and most sanity in life’s interaction come in. It is what inspires racism but also a debate on the HOBD listserv as to how to discern scammers from people in real need when they show up at the church house. I tend to think the old saying “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” is probably a pretty good rule of thumb on trusting what people say.

So, for example, while I have long criticized fellow Anglicans who have left the Episcopal Church for not doing so in a more organized fashion to make leaving an easier sell for me to folks who really don’t know what all is going on and others have expressed concern for the symptoms of purple fever the continuing church folks had in the 1970′s and 80′s, I frankly think this has been more coordinated then I’ve wanted to admit. Each new American bishop that has been consecrated has been done so in slightly different ways from the Singapore consecrations. Different procedures for determining who should be a Bishop. Bishop Minns being assigned solely to the United States, while the recent African consecrations have involved positions in Africa for these bishops – suffragan bishop at the cathedral, with an office and duties there, and so on. I have to admit though, as much as I hate to, that these folks are on the right track as far as selling leaving the Episcopal Church for another church, an Anglican church, in North America.

That is the key. The Diocese of Louisiana split into two because of many reasons, but one was the lack of visitation by the bishop in the Western part of the state, and the failure to reappoint another suffragan bishop after the suffragan became the Diocesan. Western Louisiana had its own bishop, stationed in Alexandria, who could visit the congregations in the old 318 area code. After Bishop Nolan moved to New Orleans, western Louisiana didn’t see him much, they didn’t appoint someone else, and western Louisiana did something about it.

The consecrations of these new bishops are being made in reliance on past performance indicating future performance. The number of bishops consecrated may seem like more than would otherwise be necessary, but if you think about the travel time among the interspersed congregations who are united by faith rather than geography, I tend to think maybe folks aren’t overplaying the hand on this one, as they have got good transportation, as in Bridge. Having good cards ain’t enough if you cant get to them.

But, that isn’t what I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to frame a question, and I wanted to make my point of view clear before I asked it. The question is this: what happens if the HOB takes a 180 degree turn and complies fully with the Tanzania Communique? What? My feeling is that many of us have counted on past performance being the best indicator of future performance we’ve ignored an important “what if.” One of the symptoms of groupthink is the shutting down if ideas and the discounting of fact scenarios that challenge our assumptions. If what I suggest happens, are we truly open to reconciliation with an aim toward restoring trust and unity? Or has much of what we have said been our own Braxton’s Lear?

Kendall Harmon was hinting at this sort of thing today – what assumptions are we making about how people are and really think? Are they correct, based on complete information, and taking into account all of the complexities of people? That, and Kendall, you said you don’t like to talk about yourself on your blog, but, those of us regular readers of your blog like it when you do, because, one, we all love you and your family even though we don’t all know your family, and two, because it makes us think and we understand you and this whole Anglican Communion mess a heck of a lot better from a thoughtful, Christian standpoint rather than from our own fear, anger, aggravation, and a thousand other feelings that come with trying to follow Jesus in the Episcopal Church – and just about every deadicated leader, liberal or conservative, I’ve ever talked with in the Episcopal Church has all of these feelings. +Rowan has it right in the quote I’ve had on the header of my blog lately. Church is just like that. We are part of it because of the same reasons +Rowan is –

“Well, because of the unwelcome conviction that it somehow tells the welcome truth about God, above all in its worship and sacraments. I don’t think I could put up with it for five minutes if I didn’t believe this; and – if I can’t try to say this in a pastoral, not an inquisitorial, spirit – I don’t know quite why Bishop Spong puts up with it.”

Well, with a mouthful of spiritual Coca-Cola in the teeth of my soul, I go on. Trying tell others the welcome truth about God. So do we all.

What if the Holy Spirit really showed us something in New Orleans. Would we accept it, embrace it? Again, the question is this: what happens if the HOB takes a 180 degree turn and complies fully with the Tanzania Communique?

Interesting Article In The Guardian Regarding Bishop Jenkins and His Resolutions

From here:

One senior Anglican engaged in the negotiations said: The situation is very volatile. The time has come for the Episcopal Church to tell us where they stand and give unreserved commitments to the rest of the communion.

They need to respond positively and unambiguously. The time for shilly-shallying is past. This is a watershed for the future of the communion.

But with few signs of compromise, an air of fatalism and uncertainty has descended on senior officials in the Anglican communion. The strategy appears to be an attempt to minimise any split by seeking an alliance of liberal and moderate conservative US bishops behind a form of words that would strengthen previous US assurances that they will not promote more gay clergy or formally celebrate gay partnerships. They are hoping to rally support around Charles Jenkins, the Bishop of Louisiana, a leading conservative who has insisted he wants to remain within the Episcopal Church.

From here:

One senior Anglican engaged in the negotiations said: The situation is very volatile. The time has come for the Episcopal Church to tell us where they stand and give unreserved commitments to the rest of the communion.

They need to respond positively and unambiguously. The time for shilly-shallying is past. This is a watershed for the future of the communion.

But with few signs of compromise, an air of fatalism and uncertainty has descended on senior officials in the Anglican communion. The strategy appears to be an attempt to minimise any split by seeking an alliance of liberal and moderate conservative US bishops behind a form of words that would strengthen previous US assurances that they will not promote more gay clergy or formally celebrate gay partnerships. They are hoping to rally support around Charles Jenkins, the Bishop of Louisiana, a leading conservative who has insisted he wants to remain within the Episcopal Church.

Incidentally, this is all very smart politically. This is the same thinking that came out of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Office when they invited my bishop, +Bruce MacPherson, to Tanzania. President of the PB’s Council of Advice saying the Episcopal Church and our Presiding Bishop have been intransigent toward the Anglican Communion – a criticism not coming from the Network, but from more to the middle. Here you have the hometown bishop for the meeting, busy ministering to those hurt by Katrina some two years later, who has been through hell as a result, and he is the front man on the resolution. A Nashotah House graduate, solidly conservative and at the same time solidly dedicated to both the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

One must expect this from +Rowan. You don’t get to be the ABC by being completely politically stupid. Check +Rowan out, check his background, his connections, check the stances he has taken on a variety of issues, and not just the presenting ones. While I and many others have often criticized him for what we have considered political blunders, I often wonder if those blunders weren’t blunders at all but were necessary for reasons we just don’t understand.

To paraphrase the Ghostbusters movie, he is either a certified genius or authentic wacko. But, we shouldn’t be too quick to jump to the wacko answer.