Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts said that he told Williams that gay rights issues should not depend on approval from the majority of the Anglican Communion, but urged Williams to recognize that gay rights supporters, such as Shaw, believe they are acting in a prophetic way.
“There are certain times in history when you simply have to act – the majority isn’t going to do it,” Shaw said in an interview. “Speaking truth isn’t just liberal thinking, but it’s something that has a deep place in biblical literature, in the life of Jesus and the prophets.”
Shaw said he also told Williams that it is difficult to seek consensus in the American church “when these American bishops are going to Africa and making promises and playing on the fears of the African church.”
Shaw was referring to the fact that Anglican leaders in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda have consecrated American priests, including the Rev. William Murdoch of Massachusetts, as bishops to minister to the alienated conservative minority in the United States who no longer feel comfortable in the Episcopal Church.
The Anglican Communion has been facing the possibility of schism since 2003, when the Episcopal Church approved as the bishop of New Hampshire the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay and lives with his longtime partner. The approval, which conservatives said violated the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality, exacerbated long-developing tensions over the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church.
The bishops in attendance are so divided that they are not all staying in the same hotel. The official meeting hotel is the InterContinental, but Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, the leader of the wing of the church most upset by the Robinson consecration, is staying down the block at the Parc St. Charles with a handful of other conservatives.
What is truth?
Yep, it’s the orthodox’s fault. The sad thing is that I believe this sort of spin, ultimately will win the day for TEC.
Shaw: “Speaking truth isn’t just liberal thinking…”
Actually we have four years of evidence that truth isn’t liberal thinking at all. The dishonest statements of the pb and others about the Anglican crisis and pecusa demonstrate conclusively that speaking truth is not liberal thinking at all.
Shaw said he also told Williams that it is difficult to seek consensus in the American church “when these American bishops are going to Africa and making promises and playing on the fears of the African church.”
For liberals consensus means that conservatives should shut up and pay up. We see how consensus works in pecusa on women’s ordination. A conscience clause is given and then revoked.
Well, the solution is simple. CANA, AMiA etc. should declare that they are “doing a new thing” and are “prophetic”…but as we have seen many times before TEC has cornered the market on prophecy.
“gay rights supporters, such as Shaw, believe they are acting in a prophetic way.”
And I do not. So – one of us is right and one of us is wrong. Which is it?
#7, “one of us is right and one of us is wrong. Which is it?”
Well, since, according to the Bishop, “speaking truth” is ONLY a liberal trait, you HAVE to be wrong. Right?
And why does Bp. Shaw and the liberals have the monopoly on what is “prophetic”? Why can’t the orthodox claim to be prophetic in their actions “yeah, we we know it violates Anglican polity, but there are times when one must just do it and be prophetic.” This silly argument can cut any way you want it to.
I love how liberals throw around the word “prophetic” as if they have a corner on the market. But here in Mass. where the media, educational establishment, the courts, and the government are dictatorially in favor of anything Gay, there is no way Bishop Shaw is anything resembling a prophet. In fact, in this state one could argue he is merely a puppet of the “powers that be” in this most immoral of states.
That’s called “contextualization”, deaconjohn25, and thank you for establishing it.