Please read widely from a variety of points of view and if something is asserted, check the documentation if you can to make sure it is accurate. Seek not to jump to conclusions.
And get ready for this: if the Conference goes as I have been concerned it might (and I defer judgment in any final sense until the end), one of the responses is going to be: see, people like that (ie people who are concerned) just do not understand, they are against–and then you fill in the blank–meeting face to face, group process, face to face encounter, the importance of understanding different contexts, the Archbishop of Canterbury personally, etc. It does not follow that if Lambeth 2008 failed to do the most important thing that nothing good in the process occurred, but it is the larger overall outcome that matters. The Windsor Report used the metaphor or image of sickness to describe the state of the Communion (when it was written, now it is worse). The central question remains did the conference contribute the helping the serious sickness of the Anglican Communion overall heal or did it do the opposite? KSH.
The answer is that it has done neither. The only thing the conference has demonstrated is this: When grown men of moderate intelligence have allowed themselves to be duped into paticipating in a bogus “indaba” process for three weeks, it is the best evidence that the Holy Spirit has departed the Anglican Communion.
Sage advice as always.
The answer to the last question comes down to whether something comes out of Lambeth which is both positive and would not have happened had there not been a Lambeth 2008. It does not need to be an official Lambeth pronouncement; it can be something completely external by the GAFCON Communion as a result of Lambeth 2008. The situation now is that of watching a patient who will either clearly die, or survive but with permanent debilitating damage, unless strong, aggressive treatment is given. So far the jury is still out on whether that treatment will be forthcoming, though I have hopes and prayers.
The comments by the American bishops indicate the importance of personal contact, communication, and relationship. I think some of the bishops have been able to hear from other bishops what they have not been able to hear from clergy in their dioceses, and I hope this will encourage them to listen more carefully to those with whom they disagree. If that happens maybe the time and expense will have been worth it.
Kendall, I think you know what the outcome is going to be.
Although several ‘bright lights’ have shone during the conference, the final call of the conference will be, as expressed by ++Williams, “To focus on the Center”. I fear that he did not mean the center to be to the ‘Glory of Jesus Christ’ but rather the center is the seat of ‘compromise’.
Lambeth has certainly been a good diagnostic, and I suspect that it applies not just to the Anglican Communion but much of what we used to call Western civilization. We lack not only apparatus for decision-making but the confidence and will to exercise it. We are not sure what we are here for, beyond enjoying ourselves until the party runs out. And maybe spread a little largesse to ease our consciences as we party. Belshazzar’s feast.
People who have a sense of mission, whether southern Christians or Muslims or Chinese scare us, but that is not enough to get us to think clearly and commit. But fear is the beginning of wisdom. Maybe the Lord isn’t done with us yet.
#1
The Holy Spirit has not left my church!
It demonstrated clearly to the entire world that..
“… nothing matters enough to us to understand why some conflicts are unavoidable and very costly – why some feel we put unity before truth, and so feel we have no very deep sense of truth itself.”
Inadabadaveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeda, baby.
[blockquote] The comments by the American bishops indicate the importance of personal contact, communication, and relationship.[/blockquote]
Of course one could say that much about David and Bathsheba.
The answer Kendal is a resounding “NO”.