Deputies told The Living Church Wednesday that they welcome the chance to discuss the volatile issue without the pressure of a pending vote during the same session.
“Hopefully that will provide a more open discussion,” said the Rev. Stephen Schafroth, a new deputy from the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. “I think that’s a stroke of genius by someone, because this is a church of many different opinions. That’s one of the beauties of this church.”
The Rev. Canon Neal Michel of the Diocese of Dallas also welcomed the discussion’s less pressured setting.
“It’s important to have conversation without trying to convince people,” said Canon Michel, who serves as Bishop James Stanton’s canon to the ordinary. “That’s what I encourage congregations to do all the time.”
Well it’s certainly possible to state your views about what is true and listen to someone else’s views on what they believe to be true. I wouldn’t call it conversation though. Nor is it more open – it is of course, more closed, because the question of truth is purposefully removed from the encounter. Are we really a church in which we try to tell ourselves it’s so great that we conduct conduct our theological debates like a huge vast form of non directive therapy. It’s a sign that we can’t actually talk each other. In other words – it’s an indication that things have completely broken down.