Greetings, again, in the name of our Lord. Allison and I miss all of you in South Carolina, pray for you, and carry you in our hearts while we’re here!
It is already past midnight, but I want to give you some highlights from these last couple of days. We finished today’s sessions (Tuesday) by hearing Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican, at the Plenary Session. Frankly, both Allison and I thought it was the clearest and boldest proclamation of the Gospel we have heard thus far at the Conference. Dr. Brian McLaren’s presentation last evening was perhaps more engaging, but it was more of an analysis of the changing contexts of the modern, post-modern, and post-colonial world in which we find ourselves doing mission in these first years of the 21st Century. This context is challenging for all Anglicans in our global family, but particularly for Episcopalians.
For now I’ll leave it to others to talk about the Indaba process that we are experiencing here at Lambeth. I’m trying to be patient with it, as it unfolds, but to say there is more than a little unrest from all corners would hardly be an overstatement.
There was a gathering of over a hundred bishops this afternoon from diverse provinces””TEC, U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Sudan, to name a few who gathered with some of the Primates of the Global South. Bishops from Common Cause and Communion Partners were present. I found it quite encouraging. Most of you know that I have strong convictions regarding the need for a Covenant to guide our common life as Anglicans and many of us are here not least because the Archbishop has said that Lambeth is about the Windsor Process and the Covenant. I have not, in the least, weakened in my resolve or commitments to that””or to helping shape an Anglicanism sufficient for the Twenty-first Century. But I need to tell you there is far more to this conference than what we might call the North American problem, (which, you may remember, I believe has revealed the Achilles heel of the Communion). Nevertheless, I cannot possibly convey to you in this short report the incredible witness to Jesus Christ and the gospel that is made on a daily basis in our small group Bible studies and the Indaba sessions by bishops from various parts of Africa, North and South India, South America and elsewhere. The need to partner with these people for the spreading of Christ’s Kingdom, the alleviation of suffering and deprivation, and for mutual prayer and support grows in me on a daily basis.
I wish to commend +Lawrence for his resolve to plough through the indaba at Kent. It is somewhat telling that “the clearest and boldest proclamation of the Gospel we have heard thus far at the Conference†was from someone outside the Anglican Communion. Also revealing is his observation “the whole thing seemed a bit forced and contrived.†Indeed, your grace, and the question is by who and for what purposes.
A gentle soul, clearly. He’s probably right that it seemed contrived. Hegel had something right, however, in his description of ideas.
“This context is challenging for all Anglicans in our global family, but particularly for Episcopalians. ” Why?
“There is so much going on here, so much to keep up with, and I hardly need to tell you, it is important.” What?
Freud had something right in his understanding of the psyche, as well. But it is in where they were very, very wrong that their philosophies became worse than useless.
Never was quite clear why Hegel’s ideas about ideas were immune to his ideas about ideas.
I find it sad that some within the church are going to such efforts and expense trying to convince others to reject basic biblical, church teaching. That some of its leaders even consider this an appropriate undertaking for the Lambeth Conference should be shocking, but alas it is old news.
It brings to mind Genesis 3.
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Thesis, antithesis, synthesis is useful to describe changing fashions in thought, because it seems to be what has happened a lot.
It cannot determine the truth of a proposition.
#6 – tired, You said it. It is so refreshing to read about the Archbishop of Sudan and Nazir Ali speaking plainly about all this that I could shout with relief and joy. I’m tired too – of all the hedging, hemming and hawing.
Brian McLaren is there? I didn’t think too many Anglicans were getting pulled into the emergent movement.