Eight members of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies are scheduled meet privately with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at General Convention in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church.
General Convention meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, and Williams will be present July 7-9.
The session is not an official convention meeting and thus there has been no announcement of the plans. However, when contacted by Episcopal News Service, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of the Diocese of California confirmed the details.
Transparency?
Though it’s claimed that the meeting is not “constituted in an official way“…
– the permission of the PB and HoD’s Anderson was requested
– the PB and Anderson facilitated scheduling with the ABC
– they carved time out of the Convention schedule
– it’s posited as a part of The Listening Process
That sounds official enough to me.
And if it’s supposed to be “in the context of the communion-wide Listening Process, which is intended to hear all sides of the issues concerning human sexuality and the church”, how is it helpful to have a private (but not secret) meeting, after which they “don’t expect to issue a communiqué or anything like that“???
I don’t know what William’s intentions for the meeting are, but I feel relatively certain that TEC’s intention, particularly given some of the delegates, is to give him some orders to disrupt possible re-emergence of the covenant and to attack the ACNA and the global south provinces.
Perchance is this the site of a “back-room deal”?
The most outrageous statement in this article for me is “the meeting will be a chance for dialogue and a chance for Williams to hear about the ministries of eight Episcopalians whose “significant fundamental characteristic” is “our deep love for the Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion.”
As if Williams is simply ignorant – if he only knew how faithful glbt people were, there’d be no problem! It’s all a question of education, right?
This is so backward. If there were any concern at all for the catholic traditions of anglicanism, or for recognizing the ABC’s authority instead of dictating to him, then the ‘educational’ component of this meeting would be the other way ’round – the delegates would request a private meeting to listen to the ABC, not to talk; to hear the mind of the communion, not to push a tired message one more time. But I get the feeling this group is well-described by the line in the parable: If they will not listen to moses and the prophets, then they will not listen even if someone rise from the dead (or cross the pond).
When is the meeting with “eight straights?”
Among the classy comments on this subject from proud lesbian Elizabeth Kaeton on Susan Russell’s blog:
“With all due respect to +++Himself, here’s my message to him:
“I’m here. I’m queer. I’m baptized. Get over it.”
How inviting. How respectful from one who wants to be listened to. How rude. How unsuprising.
And just WHY do we continue to cave in to these impetuous people? I’ve listened…and YUCK !!!!!
If the Archbishop of Canterbury allies himself with Louis Crew (Diocese of Newark) he will be making a deal with a very powerful enemy of the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church may think that Crew is qualified to participate simply because he is a homosexual but that should not be the only qualification. Crews actions against Archbishop Orombi and his other trouble making activities regarding the Anglican Communion should be made known to the ABC. This information is easily available to anyone who is interested.
Maybe the ACO prefers that the ABC walk into these sessions as an innocent without any background information but in my humble opinion they will be negligent if they do not supply this important background information.
Let’s not make too much out of this informal unofficial meeting. Lambeth ’98 called for listening, so he’s listening. The ABC has only one goal at this point, keep as many Anglicans at the table as he possibly can for as long as he can. He’s never going to satisfy either side, because if he did, he would destroy what he sees as the prime objective. I think that history will record that “Rowan’s rule” was essentially a holding action playing for time.
#8 Betty … Believe me, +Rowan already knows who Louie Crew is! What matters here is that a good faith invitation by LGBT deputies to meet directly with the Archbishop of Canterbury was not met with the brush off many of us anticipated. We look forward to welcoming him to Anaheim and to this opportunity to share how the polity of the Episcopal Church works as we move forward toward the full inclusion of all the baptized.
But didn’t he get an earful of TEC polity the last time the ABC dropped by? What’s changed that he doesn’t already know?
Susan Russel wrote: we move forward toward the full inclusion of all the baptized
On this surface, this sounds like “we have no standards,” so for example “any baptized person can be consecrated as priest, even my 5 year old Toddler.” The reality, of course, is that TEC leaders enforce their own standards (they suspend suspected pedophiles from their vestries, they don’t marry 10 year old couples, they don’t bless polygamy yet, they require university degrees for priests) so the phrase “full inclusion of all the baptized” is misleading.
They recognize that positions and blessings in the church are subject to meeting certain qualifications. They even accept that some of the qualifications are moral qualifications. They just don’t accept that sexuality should be a moral qualification.
What this tribe doesn’t realize is that….Rowan Williams is….An ANGLICAN! He will promise them anything, agree with everything, then go to a similar meeting with their polar opposites and…Promise *them* anything, agree with *everything*. That’s because the first requirement of being Archbishop of Canterbury is that you have to be AN ANGLICAN. Once you figure that out, I mean really keep that in front of you, you realize that Williams being there or not being there is exactly the same thing. He isn’t a vector, that’s something with magnitude and a direction. He is closer to a point in geometry; with no magnitude and simply a location. Undefined, actually. We like it that way.
I wonder how long ABC Williams will consent to being told he doesn’t understand our polity? It’s really not that complicated. He’s enigmatic, but he’s not an idiot.
[blockquote]When is the meeting with “eight straights?†[/blockquote]
Don’t worry, TEC’s trying to scrape together that group right now.
10. SR:
“Full inclusion of all the baptized that want to remain in this ridiculous mockery of a cipher of a Church” ??