The Rev. Canon Philip Groves, facilitator for The Listening Process, addressed the gathering. He is charged with monitoring The Listening Process. He expressed his appreciation of the contributions of the Episcopal Church to The Listening Process over the years. He added that other Anglican provinces have a listening process and processes are “frequently going on very quietly.”
He reviewed the resolution that “requests the Primates and the ACC to establish a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion and to share statements and resources among us.”
Groves called for the need to reflect, communicate, and engage.
“The Church must be diverse because humanity is diverse; it must be one because Christ is one,” he quoted from Andrews Walls in The Ephesian Movement.
They have someone in charge of the Listening “Process”?
“Our church has always been enriched by people who know themselves to be attracted to people of their own gender…”
I know people that were stunned to see certain Roman Catholic priests sacked in that church’s recent troubles, so spiritually enriching had they been. So what? One can be spiritually enriching to the community while carrying on evil acts in other parts of one’s life. I might go so far as to say that’s the de facto state in which we all find ourselves. Knowing myself, though, the last conclusion I would draw is that my sins represent valuable diversity for the Church.
Dialogue, listening, communication. You first have to have ears to hear. If they haven’t gotten it by now, they never will.
[blockquote]Nomfundo Walaza, a layperson and a member of Joint Standing Committee of ACC who is the CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Center. She spoke about Millennium Development Goals (MDG) #3, Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.
She called the MDGs “a noble attempt, a shared future for all people.” She added, “Gains have been made, [b]success is still possible, and much needs to be done.”[/b][/blockquote]
I’m confused! I thought that TEc was giving a sizable amount of $$$ to their new gospel, the MDG’s? With all that $$$ and time that is being spent toward them why does this ladies statement sound so bleak about, [i]”success still being possbile”[/i], as if it has already failed?
First we have reconciliation, with no real attempt at reconciliation, and now we have listening, with no real attempt to listen. By “listen” TEC means we talk, you listen. Lambeth spoke clearly in 1998 that homosexual activity was against the accepted teaching of the church, and the Bible today says the same thing on the topic that it did then.
Where is there any evidence that TEC is serious about reconciliation with orthodox members, or listening to orthodox members in any meaningful way? Again, this is just more meaningless empty rhetoric.
“Following the small group discussion in a Q&A;session she addressed issues of trafficking of women and children. “We need a global organization of men who are enraged and say that this must stop,” she said. “We have to get men to a point of rage.”
I look forward to the statement from the House of Bishops condemning Elliot Spitzer for trafficking in women.
BillS, right on! It’s been nearly ten long years since the AC spoke…and TEC ignored it, with impunity. And we wonder why so many have spoken with their feet and their wallets, and left for Christian churches?!?
I have commented several times on the redefinition of standard vocabulary that has become the common practice with TEC. Consider then in this context the use of the word diverse in the fourth paragraph. What does he mean in these two uses? Are their denotations the same? Are their connotations the same? Or are these two very different words. LM
Prayers for the House of Bishops can be found Lent & Beyond. Just keep scrolling down.
The 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution 1.10 committed all the provinces of the Anglican Communion to what is called a ‘listening process’. The resolution recognised that there are people who recognise themselves as having ‘homosexual orientation’ and that that they look to the church for pastoral care, moral direction and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. The resolution continues: ‘We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.’
This statement is made alongside an affirmation of faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union and of abstinence for those who are not called to marriage. The conference also could not advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.
The Primates’ Meeting of 2005 urged the Anglican Consultative Council, which met later that year, to appoint a facilitator to monitor the work being done, share the results and enable further listening.
The ACC met in Nottingham and passed a resolution calling for the appointment of such a facilitator to establish “a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion” and to honour the process of mutual listening, including ‘listening to the experience of homosexual persons’ and the experience of local churches around the world in reflecting on these matters in the light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.
At their meeting in Dar Es Salaam in 2007 the Primates commended the work of the Facilitator and asked for ‘the preparation of material to assist the bishops at 2008 Lambeth Conference’. The present focus of the Facilitator is in producing that material in the form of a Study Guide.