he global Anglican Communion got through its scheduled day of reckoning over homosexuality yesterday with Toronto Bishop Colin Johnson giving credit to the Holy Spirit for avoiding an open split between liberal and conservative bishops.
Less bullish observers of the church’s decennial Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England – attended by more than 600 bishops – chalked up the absence of rift to a boycott by 230 prelates who say homosexuality is against God’s will, and a conference structure carefully crafted to rule out decisions being made.
Bishop Johnson, acting as spokesman for fellow liberals at the closed talks, said he couldn’t speak for any bishops having changed their minds during the one day scheduled for discussion of sexuality but “I think probably some have nuanced their positions. … The conversation continues. We are continuing to engage.
“The third party in the conversation is the Holy Spirit, and in listening to one another and the Holy Spirit we can have an encounter and be transformed.
“The conversation continues. We are continuing to engage.”
And Bishhop Whosis below says that we badnesses only want to punish TEC, get revenge and all that, which is bad for us spiritually and raises our bad lipoproteins. But when you read the above, how can you not conclude that TEC NEEDS to be punished because it has broken all the laws, flouted all common sense and scripture, filled the air with the most dreadful vacuities, and truely believes it can walk. If the “communion” does not punish this, what is its purpose, where is it strength, and where is its integrity? Larry
“…a conference structure carefully crafted to rule out decisions being made.”
And so, the blood of the martyrs being slaughtered by Muslims, not because of their witness for Christ, but because they belong to the “homosexual” Church, will cry out from the ground to the Highest Heaven. How long, oh Lord? How long?
Larry Morse said:
At this point, it seems to me that Lambeth and the Anglican Communion never had that strength. In the past, there was always one unchanging, unalterable foundation on which the agreed (or covenantal) union rested, that being Holy Scripture. Since at least 1978, this unifying foundation has slowly been eroding in some parts of the Communion. Now, in those parts, that erosion is complete. And without a single foundation for all the involved parties, the two expressions are moving farther and farther apart, as is inevitable. Now there’s really no way to bring the two groups back together again because, as others have written, the groups are talking at cross purposes. Without any foundational unity, they’re no longer speaking the same language (reminds me of Babel).
Since the essence of Lambeth has always been a tacit agreement held amongst all the involved churches, there never were any teeth, because none were ever needed! Now that they’re needed, well….