I had hoped that the ghastly invention of so-called ”˜Indaba’ might have disappeared from the counsels of the Church with the retirement of Rowan Williams…
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…the small groups operating at General Synod on Saturday at least had a purpose ”“ to decide legislation on women bishops which can carry assent through the General Synod process. But it’s difficult to see what these kinds of structured exercises in reconciliation actually achieve when the final decision-making is still enacted through an adversarial process of stand-ing orders, voting and politicking.
In fact, only 48 hours after these small groups a series of amendments intended to improve provision for traditionalist consciences were being voted down one by one. Speaker after speaker stood up to assure their opponents that they wanted them to be a full part of the Church while at the same time defeating every measure that might have given them some space for flourishing.
These sorts of small group-driven conversations, Indaba and attempts at reconciliation provide the illusion that a real conversation has taken place and people have listened to each other. In reality, they merely substitute process for truth-telling.
Until people walk out on those Indabas, they will continue to use them to stifle real theological discussion.
But if they walk out, will they then be denied the ability to vote on a matter?
2, doesn’t matter. The correct result will be fixed.
The CofE seems so comfortable with the world that it seems clear that the Catholic wing with its right fixation on Apostolic order seems destined to be squeezed out in what looks like, across the pond, a fixation on power and position and property. Having been through this in the US I fear the result. Pride and hardness of heart seem somehow easy to diagnose and lament. I have no ultimate fear, because Jesus tells us to fear not because he has overcome the world. But it is clear it will take some decades for all this to settle, and I do not hold with those who say it is just a generational thing that will die away.
Inadaba – western imperialistic technique practiced on the unenlightened to deny them voice just like the colonials from whom the word and proper usage is debased