Charles Robertson–The Episcopal Church In The Anglican Communion: Independent but Connected
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“Our directness can at times seem to be overly bold and unilateral,”
I always love it how, just when it looks as if a speaker is about to go all confessional, s/he actually confesses to something that, in her or his prejudiced and self-righteous view, ain’t no sin at all: just the usual prophetic boldness and steppin’ out on the high road of justice, courageously going it alone if we have to. As the kids say, gag me. TEC doesn’t, notice, truly confess to, say, arrogance, dissembling, disastrous policies … or anything else that might truly impress objective bystanders or move the conversation forward.
“while the more nuanced ways of our transatlantic colleagues can appear heavy-handed and non-transparent.”
more nuanced but also heavy-handed? won’t try to parse that one…
And isn’t TEC more guilty of being too cleverly nuanced by half in its statements and positions over the past eight years? The AC has been comparatively straightforward. Again, is the right person copping to the right offense? In fact, I can probably see “nuanced,” “heavy-handed,” and “non-transparent” as fitting together a little better on the other foot.
“Singularly unhelpful labels such as ‘cowboy diplomacy’ or ‘backroom politics’ can prevent the real possibility of mutual understanding and appreciation of both Church’s distinct contexts.”
He means both churches’
‘cowboy diplomacy’ or ‘backroom politics’ Why not acknowledge a deeper truth–that sometimes we’re called nasty things but there’s some helpful lesson to be gleaned from the criticism? Augustine talks about this in the Confessions, does he not?
“And if we can let go of the infallibility of our opinions about our own context, perhaps we could learn from the other.”
Must mean let go of the notion of the infallibility of our opinions.
Nice warmed-over rhetoric that I guess someone somewhere will be impressed with.
TEC is not diverse. General Convention is diverse. I also like the way he compares the situation in 1789, when no C of E bishop would ordain an indigenous bishop, to Antioch rather than to North America in 2011–ACNA and AMiA. Sometimes we just can’t see the forest because of all those pesky trees.
Yeah, right……..I’m “impressed.” Sure I am…..with its drollness, banality and mediocrity.
whatever he is living into, it does not seem to be at all the Gospel proclaimed in Antioch or Jerusalem . . .
I can recall meeting Chuck Robertson when he was a grad student at Durham. He was disappointed that, as an ‘evangelical’ in the TEC system, he felt thwarted re: scholarship support.
He’s been on an interesting journey to get where he is now…
Silly me. All these years, I thought the crux of the argument was regarding the infallibility of Holy Scripture.
“Independent but Connected.” Sounds like the ACNA!
The analysis of Acts is IMO unbalanced. Is it really right to say the church in Antioch was “independent”: especially if one frames “independent” using the concepts and histories of the unitary sovereignty claimed by the modern nation state?
Rather there’s something more like a family relationship between Antioch and Jerusalem – with significant matters are sometimes being taken back to the respected (if sometimes tricky!) senior family members in Jerusalem. The Anglican Communion is less a union of “independent” nation states and more like the going out and coming back together of family.
No, Katherine! “independent but [b]un[/b]connected” is more proper. [b]Un[/b]connected because they’ve distanced themselves so far from the majority of the Anglican Communion for reasons of [b]polity,[/b] that they are now virtually unrecognizable as a Christian body, and are now more Arian than Anglican. In fact, they’re no longer Anglican, but [b]Episcopalian;[/b] something which has been, in fact, been true all along.
And I remind you that the ACNA [b]is[/b] connected indirectly with the Communion via the Province of the Southern Cone.
Yes, that’s what I said, Cennydd13.
The Anglican Curmudgeon has an interesting post on this which some may have already read: http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/07/episcopal-church-as-rebellious-teenager.html