Boycotting Lambeth

I cannot, in our technological age, say that much ink has been spilled, but many bytes have wiggled their way through the intertubes on the issue of whether or not to attend Lambeth this year. Thinking Anglicans reports that Ugandan bishops will not be going.

[Archbishop Henry Orombi] added that their non-attendance was a means of expressing their disapproval that American bishops have been invited to the ten-yearly gathering of Primates. He said: “This decision has been made to protest the invitations extended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, to TEC Bishops whose stand and unrepentant actions created the current crisis of identity and authority in the Anglican Communion.” He added they planned to meet with other traditionalist bishops at an ‘alternative Lambeth’ called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June, which is expected to be attended by other conservative leaders from Africa and Australia.

The whole bit about "I won't come if so-and-so is coming" is not attractive even among those in their early teens. It is most unbecoming and immature among adults.

While some individual bishops have not been invited, all the Anglican provinces have been. It is an opportunity to see each other face-to-face, share our common humanity, get to know each other, learn about each other's contexts, and engage in dialogue. In shared humanity and dialogue there is opportunity to promote understanding and lessen tension. New ways to move forward together might be discovered. If not, at least new or renewed ties of fellowship might enable journeying, in both tension and charity, as we seek to follow our one Lord.

If you won't let me sit at your table and won't sit at a table where you and I are both invited, you may certainly do so. But that is your choice and, in the latter case, you were not excluded, so don't go crying about being excluded. You stayed home and pouted; you are welcome to your pout. Cherish your misery and indignation. But do not expect a scintilla of sympathy.

Those who clearly want their own party with their own rules about who gets in the door and sits at the table can bloody well throw their own party. They should send out their announcements to the chosen few and have their fun, but please just STFU about victimization and martyrdom until and unless the rest of us actually start burning you at the stake.

Btw, the more you carry on the more tempting that is but I don't want to waste good wood.

And do not, under any circumstances, steal the property on your way out the door. You may think you are the new Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and we should be glad to give you our gold as you leave but you're not and we're not, so get over it.
--the BB