When are we going to admit the party's over? That the marriage is already dead? That those who have not listened for the past four decades are highly unlikely to begin now?
Can we just put the Anglican Communion down as mercifully as we might a suffering animal and be done with it?
At some point one stops cooperating with those who do not recognize one as a full human being.
So, anent their opinions and delicate feelings...
...and haven't for quite some time
I also think I will stick with my collective noun of a pestilence of primates.
Since I have, all my life, been someone who believed that our incarnate nature requires institutions as realities of social organization (in other words, I have not been inclined to an anti-institutional stance), this indicates how deeply disgusted I am with everything that has been going on in the AC since Lambeth 1998. Yes, there are the MDG but we aren't talking about them very much, are we?
Oh, an aside: Many have been saying that the Baptismal Covenant suffices. I agree, but what lots of folks do not realize is that it was developed in our BCP and is not commonly shared throughout Anglicanism. Despite its ancient roots and biblical foundations it is one of our modern innovation thingies. Shocking, I know.
--the B (how do you really feel?) B
4 comments:
I think this afternoon, when I signed on quickly for a bit of news, I discovered I was scared.
Now, I think I am closer to disgusted, and wondering what part of disgusting will make me leave, or what part of disgusting will make me dig in my heels and be faithful....
I can't figure it out because both seem not quite right...
Margaret, I suspect we shall continue trying to be faithful where we find ourselves, in contextual ministry. To the extent we can leaven some larger lump, we will probably do that just by being ourselves.
It is difficult to engage in larger contexts, and blessings on those who can and do. At my age I have the luxury of disengaging - my own diocese considers me retired, more or less. Aside from the mission where I preach once a month, nobody expects much from me, and I am happy to oblige in maintaining that minimal expectation. You, however, are in active stipendiary ministry, a very different situation than mine.
I pour my energy into writing fantasy fiction - almost always an exercise in imagining different ways of being and behaving. It is very theological, and some of it even very ecclesiastical, but I can postulate a world where the first primate of a region is a woman and where sexual orientation is a non-issue. The luxury of fiction until the toil - and martyrdom - of many make these a reality in our non-virtual world.
I fled the Protestant fold long ago. I am too sacramental and mystical for it. But the more the larger institutions act like this the more Protestant I become - or, basically, the more rebellious. It does not pay to tell a Taurus what he must or must not do.
See Fr. Troll's proposed covenant. Of course it makes more sense than the other one, but is so simple that it would never be adopted (sigh).
http://gafcon.blogspot.com/2009/05/ichabod-springs-covenant.html
Thank you, Susie Sue, for the link. Everyone should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Fr. Troll's wise words. Especially the fracking primates.
Post a Comment