NPR: So the bottom line is it fair to say that at least the door has been opened for gay and lesbian bishops in addition to Bishop Robinson.
KJS: The door has been open for many years.
NPR: So if an openly gay or lesbian person were to make it through to the stage where he or she could be consecrated bishop you would go ahead with that.
KJS: It is my duty, my canonical duty as Presiding Bishop, to take order for the consecration of a bishop whose election has been affirmed by the consent process.
NPR: The Archbishop of Canterbury said that we need to have a real thorough exploration of all of this and we need to have a wider consent within the communion in order to go ahead with either the consecration of gay bishops or blessings of gay unions. He said that does not exist in the communion right now. How do you feel about that?
KJS: The conversations been going on in The Episcopal Church for 45 years. The reality is that same-sex unions are blessed in many churches of the Anglican Communion. Not just in the United States or Canada, but in the Church of England. Not officially but that is reality.
NPR: Do you think there is scriptural basis for what the convention did and what is it.
KJS: The scriptural basis for what the convention affirmed about our discernment process is that each human being is made in the image of God.
Observe the hostility toward C of E and ‘Archbishops’ in this — this from one of the fiercest deployers of top-down power anywhere in the Communion.
1.The Windsor Report requested that TEC effect a moratorium on electing and consenting to the consecration of non celibate same sex bishops until the Communionhad reached a new consensus. The JSC reported in 2007 that they interpreted TEC’s actions as complying with this request. The HOB assured them that this interpretation was correct.
No it seems that the PB is arguing that whatever occurred at General Convention 2006 and at the New Orleans September 2007 HOB meeting actually changed nothing.
It’s hard not to feel that TEC is deliberately deceiving the Communion.
2. Of course it’s true that some (no one knows how many – though I think it is being researched) non celibate sex same partnerships are blessed within the COE. Of course, what the PB doesn’t say is that clergy who do so are breaching the Guidelines of the COE House of Bishops.
In other words, the PB of all people should know that some clergy breach their own church’s discipline and that their disobedience should not be taken to represent the normative practice or teaching of their church.
I am just stunned by the theological vacuity in her answer to the question about scriptural basis. I’d really be interested in what reappraisers who read T19 would have to say about it. If KJS is right, don’t they realize that she’s essentially negated all ethics — period?
Q: “You just elected Joe the Serial Killer as bishop of Kansas. What is your scriptural basis for doing that?”
A: “Each human being is made in the image of God.”
Q: “You just elected Nancy the Prostitute as bishop of Vermont. What is your scriptural basis for doing that?”
A: “Each human being is made in the image of God.”
Rapists, murderers, drug pushers, child pornographers — all can be bishops since “each human being is made in the image of God.”
I could have understood if KJS had said “the scriptural basis is that the bible, properly understood doesn’t condemn homosexuality per se.” She might be wrong, but at least she’d be correctly identifying that the key issue is whether or not this is or is not sin.
I note in passing that the ABC, when he spoke in Rome, nudged up to (but didn’t quite commit himself to supporting) a similar argument in favor of the ordination of women . Namely, that it is unacceptable to distinguish amongst the baptized based on gender.
Jon, I wonder if KJS even believes in Original Sin, or the practical consequences of humankind’s rebellion against God in the Garden. She and other revisionists only care to go part of the way in the story. Yes, humanity is made in the image and likeness of God the creator. But, we have defaced that image through our embrace of sin. We are enslaved to sin, blinded by our sin nature, and desperately need a Savior to free us from that bondage.
What she is arguing for is for us to remain dead in our sins, blinded to our true condition, and not worry about the consequences, because “God made us that way, so it must be acceptable.” Which is what most all of us want to hear and believe. Unfortunately, that’s NOT what the plain teaching of God’s Word, both written and Incarnate, wants us to hear and believe.
I agree. KJS almost certainly does not believe in original sin, and has as a result of her very high anthropology, an extremely weak view of the Cross and the need for an Atoning Savior.
The impression that I get from most people who share her general take on We Are All Made In God’s Image, is that they have a lot of difficulty explaining what EXACTLY the “good news” is that the church is supposed to share. With you and me it’s different — we can say that we think that all people are gravely sick and dying (bound, blinded, miserable offenders) and they are “born that way” — and therefore we need total intervention from without: but the Good News is that there is such a Saviour in Christ Jesus and his Cross. What exactly the Good News is according to KJS I am far less clear.