The presiding bishop responded that “until” was Windsor language. I concurred and asked if any bishop objected to the use of “until” as opposed to “unless,” and she replied, “no.” She could not recall any opposition to this major shift in wording.
That’s incredible. Let’s remember that while the Windsor Report said “until,” the primates deliberately changed that word to “unless.”
ECUSA/TEC: the church of the Ambiguity.
“We … pledge not to authorize for use in our dioceses any public rites of same-sex blessings until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion.” “Until” is an expression of historical determinism, an inheritance from Marxism. It is the idea that history is going their way and that reasserters (either within or outside the US) cannot stop it. This is a very common on the left.
But, in politics and economics, Marx had his doubts about the results. At one time Marx got into a conversation with the wife of the publisher of Das Kapital in Germany about who would do the chores in Marx’s “new world.” It started light heartedly but turned serious, at which point the woman said, “I cannot picture you in an egalitarian period since your inclinations and habits are thoroughly aristocratic.”
“Neither can I,” Marx replied, “those times must come but we must be gone by then.”
What’s new about this? ECUSA/TEC has been straining at gnats and swallowing camels for 3 decades. Face it, folks! The truth is not in them or in their words.
This is just more of the same old, same old. When will people realize that the leopard ain’t gonna change its spots?
Really! I thought Episcopalians were supposed to be the ones with brains – as in “You don’t have to leave your brains at the door”. I guess, like so many other things in the Episcopal Church, that this, too, is a big fat lie!
Unless v. until? Who cares. I disagree that this was the most important part. I thought it was going to be the addition of the proviso “until GC acts further.” Now that was significant.
Widening Gyre – they didn’t want to alter B033 which referred to GC. I believe that Bishop Whalon’s resolution spoke directly to this issue and recommended the Windsor Report language -“until.”
Oh please. If the word ‘until’ has this connotation, the word ‘unless’ itself suggests that a change might be possible. Should we assume that was the Primates’ intention, now that we’re parsing words?
Is the Episcopal Church supposed to do, not just what the primates say, but they’re also supposed to be quiet about it and go home?
I don’t think so. I have plenty of problems with what TEC is doing – but I firmly defend the right of individuals and the church to continue to argue with the AC about the issue.
As a lawyer I am struck by the number of Bishops with law degrees. I do not know many attorneys – including my close friends whom I could see as Bishop material.