What Happened at Lambeth ?

Plenty of folks have analyzed what happened at Lambeth. I've done it myself on my blog, Desert's Child.

But even as I wrote that analysis I was nagged by the knowledge that I was missing something important, something key to understanding the dynamic of Lambeth. I've finally got it.

It is the Baptismal Covenant.
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Homophobia is a Sin Whose End Time is Now

From a paper delivered by the Rev. Canon Marilyn McCord Adams at the Chicago Consultation, Seabury-Western Seminary, December 5, 2007.

The Church is a school for Kingdom-heralds. The Church is charged with responsibility for Christian education that grows us up in the knowledge and love of God and sends us out for word-and-deed proclamation of God's love for a broken and divided world.
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The Truly Orthodox Anglicans

Here we are, just a few months away from the Lambeth Conference and we find ourselves in an impasse: the Bishop of New Hampshire without an invitation to attend the meeting, the poachers from the Global South hunting in the U.S.A. and Canada, the schismatics trying to steal TEC's property, the Nigerian post-colonial neo-crusader-in-reverse uttering threats, and the Archbishop of Canterbury giving the impression that he is willing to sacrifice the Episcopal Church in order to appease the radical conservatives and thus maintain the unity of an already fractured Anglican Communion.
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Who Has the Power ?

Who has the power to expel the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion? Despite those who want TEC to be denied membership, few are paying any attention to the actual process required for that to become a reality. This essay, written by former director of government relations for The Episcopal Church, The Rev. Canon Robert J. Brooks, was originally posted on the website of The Episcopal Majority.
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Rescuing the Faith Once Delivered

When the leadership team bent on "realigning" the Diocese of Fort Worth reiterates its goals, one usually hears the hope that if only the Presiding Bishop and the General Convention would leave them alone, they could ... Well, let them say it for themselves.
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Biblical Fundamentalism

"God gives his word, you either take it or leave it. We either agree with God or go our own way."The problem with biblical fundamentalism is its shrink-wrapped, one-dimensional literalism that puts God in a box, or, better yet, in a book! The Bible is indeed the inspired word of God, but every word in the Bible is a time-conditioned human word that has an historical context. Conclusions drawn from the Bible which are wooden, mechanical, unreflective and concrete-operational about the operation of God generally confirm the reader in his status quo because the Bible so read confirms what the reader already knows it means.

Walter Brueggemann puts it this way: "The authority of the Bible is a perennial and urgent issue for those of us who stake our lives on its testimony. The issue, however, is bound to remain unsettled and therefore perpetually disputatious. It cannot be otherwise, since the biblical text is endlessly 'strange and new.' It always and inescapably outdistances our categories of understanding and explanations, of interpretation and control. Because the Bible is 'the live word of the living God,' it will not compliantly submit to the accounts we prefer to give of it. There is something intrinsically unfamiliar about the book; and when we seek to override that unfamiliarity, we are on the hazardous ground of idolatry. Rather than proclaiming loud, dogmatic slogans about the Bible, we might do better to consider the odd and intimate ways in which we have been led to where we are in our relationship with the scriptures."

The Reverend John Payne, now retired, was formerly rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, Wichita Falls, TX. This comment first appeared in the All Saints parish bulletin of June 5, 2005. The quotation from Walter Brueggemann is from his article, "Biblical Authority, a personal reflection," The Christian Century, January 3-10, 2001 issue, page 14.

Chicago's New Episcopal Bishop Speaks Up for Gay Clergy

Chicago's new Episcopal bishop and the church's national leader sent a clear message Sunday about where they stand on gay clergy, a smoldering issue that threatens to tear apart the denomination.

Wrapping up a five-day tour in honor of Jeffrey Lee, the new Chicago bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori declared that the American church will not stand alone in its support of gay clergy during an international meeting in July in Lambeth, England.
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Bishop Conveys Message of Activism

Calling for economic evangelism and political advocacy, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, elected leader of the nation's 2.7 million Episcopal Church members, roused an audience of her denomination's regional leaders in Roanoke on Saturday.

"Pester your legislators" to be more aggressive in battling poverty and hunger across the globe, urged Jefferts Schori. "Annoy them."
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