All of this is salutary and worth the attention of the Church in general. Nevertheless, we think there is a larger problem facing the church when it comes to thinking and reflecting upon issues of such magnitude as war and peace. That is, we Christians, as a group are not well formed or prepared to speak, to listen and to argue about such matters in ways that reflect the true riches of the Christian tradition. Rather than issue one more statement, it seems to us that the most urgent questions facing the General Convention, and indeed all Christians, are not whether or not just war thinking needs to be updated because of the changing shape of war. Instead, we would urge the bishops to take the lead in offering churches a pedagogy for Christian citizenship.
A first step would be confessing how poorly we have managed this task when we take it up at all. We have too often not considered our duties as Christian citizens to our fellow-citizens in the kingdom of God and in the United States. We have not truly taken up the responsibilities that come with the vast worldly power that the United States has enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, for our fellow Christians around the world and for humanity as a whole, our neighbors in Christ. We have not acted in our capacity as citizens to take due care for how our nation reflects God’s will to care for the least and the lost, both at home and abroad. We have failed in our fundamental responsibilities to care for creation. For all these things, we are truly sorry and we humbly repent.As ever, our repentance must take the form of a renewed and more serious intent to do better. We can do this by thinking in new and deeper ways about the relationship between our roles as citizens of this worldly kingdom and our more fundamental vocation as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. It is for this we need a new pedagogy for Christian citizenship.
A worthy subject, but the Episcopal Church has no business with it right now. Just read [i] The State of the Church [/i] in the “Blue Book.”
“Serious conflict” moving like a flu through our congregations.
Our people huddled into hostile camps that can’t even find a common language with which to speak about the division.
A narrow membership demographic.
And we are going to develop a “pedagogy for Christian citizenship,” that leads to work for peace?
The reason I am not being sarcastic is because I am genuinely [i] sad [/i] as I read this. They say they want to confess, but can’t even see that we need to confess the wretched state of things [i] within [/i] the denomination – they want to talk about national, environmental and ecumenical issues, looking away from the lack of Christian citizenship in our own denomination.
Sad. Only word I can come up with.
“A first step would be confessing how poorly we have managed this task when we take it up at all”.
I wish that this was an admission about the HOB/815’s inept responses to the disintegration of this Church and their blood-lust for lawsuits. But it isn’t. How can these people even be taken seriously on WAR when they don’t even know how to understand PEACE?
A committee of Homeopaths commenting on brain surgery.
Well, this committee report should have as much influence as the one issued on gay bishops……………………………….
and is just as worth consideration by the ECUSA/TEC/GCC/EO-PAC as that one has been given.
Waste of paper.