The primary reason for the impatience, though, was the conversation that was set to ensue, the topic of B033. B033 was a resolution passed at the last minute at the 2006 General Convention implementing a moratorium on the election of non-celibate homosexual persons to the Episcopacy. Two sessions have been set aside for discussion on this matter to determine the “mind of the house”. A vote of some sort in which one of several actions may be taken is likely, at least in the House of Deputies. The Bishops, not known for their bravery, will probably duck the issue (a number of them are worried that if they vote their conscience it will cost them in the offering plate, sad, but true) thereby consigning the church to three more years of hand-wringing and disingenuous behavior.
To begin our conversation we were instructed to find someone we don’t know (bad) and have a 30 minute conversation with them (worse) about these three questions:
1. What is your story with respect to B033?
2. What is our story as a church with respect to B033?
3. What is God calling us to do now?
What’s missing from the framework? How about God’s story? How about God’s self-revelation through Scripture? How about God’s revelation through history to His church?
[blockquote] I feel like a zoological oddity. You know, like I ought to be behind bars with a sign that says: “Rector Orthodoxos, commonly known as ‘biblical, parish priest.’ Extremely rare. Few remaining specimens are generally located in the southeastern regions of the United States. Known to bite. Approach with extreme caution.â€
Instead, I wear a sign that says, “Steve Wood, South Carolina†but it has the same effect. Truly. I get on an elevator and happy people having nice conversation see my sign and the cold front moves in. So much for “inclusivity.â€[/blockquote]
They aren’t asking, “South Carolina? How come your diocese is doing OK while ours are tanking?” Quel surprise.
Steve’s query about the absence of “God’s story” is key.
I have will have a post on this at [i] Northern Plains Anglicans [/i] on Sat. a.m. When we look at the Epistle (RCL) for Sunday, from Ephesians 1, it constantly points to God – God’s plan, choice, pleasure, timing, grace… it is all about the Father’s story, and we find our place in it through Christ’s shed blood and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Robroy, why would they ask? There is NO way they’d do the things that SC has done in order to bring it its prosperity.
My wife and I have had similar experiences around the country. It’s all sweetness and light until they realize that you might be one of “them”. Suddenly, the “Inclusivity” and “Ubuntu” fade to insult and exclusion.
Question. If “individual relationship to God” is heresy, why all the individual “story telling”?
Shouldn’t the “public narrative” be about the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’s relationship to God?
This is part of the current idea that our own stories are scripture which is still being written. Everything is anecdotal and there is not truth apart from the stories. EFM enforces this idea.
If what is most important for TEC is personal stories, then how is there ever possible a “community” story. And if personal stories are so important, then why is Christ’s personal story of 40 days in the wilderness before starting his ministry and his “personal relationship” with God during that time (don’t believe John the Baptist went with Him) not important. The PB and her reappraising theologists (not theologians) can’t keep the truth from discrediting them, even when it has to come from their own lips, as when they read the gospel appointed for the day from St. Mark (if they read it).