As the General Synod of the Church of England faces the vote on women bishops, its most important decision in recent decades, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s head of reconciliation has outlined the keystones of his path to peace.
Canon David Porter, who has been working for month behind the scenes in the Church of England to broker new relationships between the factions divided over the consecration of women, told an international audience of church leaders that bad religion too easily triumphs over good, and that reconciliation is elusive.
Canon Porter, a leading peacemaker behind the scenes during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, made six “pertinent and provocative” observations of his experience of being a “religious peacemaker” in a situation of conflict where religion has often been said to be the cause and part of the problem rather than the solution.
Read it all from Christian Today.
It’s all process. Does it not matter that key participants in NI actually achieved core goals?
I don’t see that either in the Anglican Communion – in which the western churches seem to do entirely as they will – nor in the women bishops debate – in which literally every proposal made by those opposed has been shot down. It’s not NI style reconciliation if you just achieve everything you desire – it’s victory.