Despite 200 primates staying away because of the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop in New Hampshire Dr Rowan Williams took comfort from the conclusion of the proceedings yesterday.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, the last Sunday of the decennial gathering of the worldwide Anglican church, Dr Rowan Williams evidently did not want to sound triumphalist.
“I’m content, I think,” he said. But surely he was elated? “Encouraged,” he replied carefully. “Elated is a very dangerous thing to say.” But if he’d been offered this Sunday two months ago, would he have taken it? A pause, then: “Yes, definitely…..
“I feel a great deal of what I hoped for has happened,” he said. “We’ve found that very slowly there’s a slightly different way of doing business. What we haven’t had is a very consistent counter-narrative flowing through the conference from people feeling disenfranchised.”
Very sad. The methodology used is the same one that has been used for decades in TEC. Talk, talk, talk, see we are really nice people….our theology is not important. Really, we are no different than you. We love Jesus Too…but our society and culture is different than yours…we must be relevant to our time….that why we disagree it is not a salvation issue…..in fact, if you were us you would be doing the same thing….
Really, we are nice, very nice people.
The ABC has very, very low expectations.
Don
Mr Williams rigged the evaluation process of the HoB response to DeS so that the conclusion would be a jumbled mess and he could say that the Anglican Communion had a “mixed views” of whether the Americans complied with DeS. Over half of the primates and members of the ACC did not even bother to participate in the sham.
Now, that strategy worked so well that he used it with Shambeth. Again, many refused to participate and a “mixed views” conclusion resulted.
Another reason to be happy: One of Mr Williams’ goals was to put a wedge between the non-participating provinces and those of the rest of the Global South. We now have a [url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/15118/ ]document[/url] that he could not be more pleased with.
The [url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/15118/ ]document[/url] gives affirmation to Rowan’s creating an equivalency of cross border interventions with homosexual sanctifications – in direct conflict with the DeS communique.
Rowan can now rig it so that the “Forum of Reference” can come down hard on the interveners and fudge on the sanctifiers. (Of course, he has to fudge on the sanctifiers lest the battle be on his doorstep, and he has been fudging on the sanctifiers for years, so why should he change now?)
I do get tired of the orthodox getting duped again and again.
The Final Act.
Scene: Sunday night. The Archbishop’s drawing room. Sitting in three comfortable leather arm chairs, drinking single malt scotch, the Archbishop, Canon Kearnon and Katharine Jefferts Schori.
The ABC: “I don’t believe it. I can’t believe we got away with it.”
Kearnon: “I never thought they’d buy it. I expected any minute they’d rise up and tar and feather us.”
Schori: “Indaba? Who would ever have thought they’d buy it, let alone embrace it, and they did, hook, line and sinker. They’re all as dumb as a bag of broccoli.”
The ABC: “I know it’s early but any ideas for 2018?
Kearnon: “How about Inka Dindka Doos?”
Schori: “What the hell is that?”
Kearnon: “It’s an old Jimmy Durante song. We’ll tell them it’s from the Durante Tribe of Chad.”
ABC: “They’ll never believe it.”
Kearnon: “They bought Indaba.”
All three: Break into laughter.
ABC: “By the way Katherine, when can we expect the money?”
KJS: “The check’s in the mail.”
ABC: “Another round?”
Kearnon and KJS: “Thanks, that be’d great.”
The End.
[i] This does not add to the discussion. [/i]
Like the Elves, I must say I don’t feel cynicism is analytically useful, whichever point of view you take on the proceedings at Lambeth (and mine is rather less sanguine than the good ABC’s). #2 above surely nails the central point, when “a great deal of what I hoped for” amounts to “very slowly there’s a slightly different way of doing business.”
See how slowly and cautiously the Anglican Communion has moved to consider in dignity and respect the expressions of all its constituent members? This is nearly enough to express outright elation!
It’s a wonderful thing how all its constituent members are moving just as slowly and cautiously. Note TEC carefully and faithfully observing out of respect for the dignity of other AC members the requirement that SSBs be under retrospective moratoria. They will undoubtedly follow the same retrospective moratoria concerning the nomination, election, and consecration of unmarried partnered non-chaste bishops. Then, of course, we must of needs note that such care will also be exercised by the GS bishops in cross-national border crossings.
I usually try to laugh instead of crying, but I’m not sure that’s going to work this time. Instead, let’s all just get on with the future, OK? Can’t we all just get on with the future?
I–perhaps the only one–found #5 (Bill) amusing, and am wondering if somebody could please explain to me–re #6 (Elves)–how all of this talk, talk, talk “discussion” is penultimately any different than the indabadabadoo foisted upon Lambeth.
#9 KB, It is amusing but terribly sad. As with most humor, it must contain enough truth to strike some chord within us. This one strikes a chord of great pain.
Part of that pain is sourced by the apparent lack of understanding by the ABC. He says: “I feel a great deal of what I hoped for has happened,” he said. “We’ve found that very slowly there’s a slightly different way of doing business. What we haven’t had is a very consistent counter-narrative flowing through the conference from people feeling disenfranchised.”
My dear ABC, the representatives of the disenfranchised three-quarters of the Anglican world were not present at your conference. Their voice has not been heard by you in the last three conferences — why should they come to this one and again grow hoarse trying to persuade you to give attention to what is happening on your watch.
A new reformation is taking place. I do not know if it will take four years or forty, but it has started. There will be a wake-up call in early 2009, when the primates are assembled. At that time we will see if the ABC can wake up enough to hear the “very consistent counter-narrative flowing from people feeling disenfranchised.”
So far he has been unable and TEC has been unwilling. It may well be that in 2009 an orthodox anglican church emerges that does not recognize (or only in some limited form) the heterodox remainder.
Best wishes, — Stan
Actually #5’s remarks made a great deal of sense, the main point is a very rich province can buy what it wants. Every man it has been said has his price, it is not always money. This could have been a scene from Faust, or even from CSL’s Screwtape.
T here is more and more of Faust about TEC and its insatiable desires.
The devil ever sweetens the sauce to those hungry for guilty dishes. It is as if the Bad Old Guy has sent vgr to TEC as a gift, don’t you see, a dish which TEC can’t refuse because they had written him and declared what they wanted most for their church’s public supper. LM
This is ludicrousl The one thing the AB is interested about now is his (in his eyes) well-earned vacation before the holiday season. He is a seasoned academic, veteran of many faculty wars. He has managed to hang on, continues to live in Lambeth Palace, is ludicrously overpaid, and is no doubt counting the days until he can retire and his rich pension kicks in…
Which is exactly where the purple-shirted minions of TEC are today! Breathing a sigh of relief that Lambeth has closed, off to their well-financed vacations (in Europe, after all, the diocese already paid their airfare), and trying not to think about their sinking diocese back home.
It would be a sad scene if it were not so totally REVOLTING.