Well, its Friday and it seems as GC is still going strong.
Gerns reports a conversation with Sentamu: I asked him if regret had to with actually consecrating +Gene, and he said no. Our regret must turn on how we needed to get a wider consensus in the Communion. We cannot, and must not, 'take back' +Gene's election and consecration. Our regret is that we did not make the case to the rest of the Communion as to the biblical basis for what God is calling us to do.... Third, having given ourselves and our friends in the Communion space, we have the chance to make the case. we need to make the biblical case for our vision of the church and our actions. He says we have a good case, but that we have only made a start in articulating it in a way that others, particulary with strong, positive biblical approach.
Danforth emphasizes reconciliation and emphasizes that sex isn't important. Via
Post Gazette tells its readers church is still talking about sex.
Where conservatives hate fudge, AKMA offers precision.
I’m not defending vagueness, but rather precision — about matters on which there is not a clear, distinct agreeement. That’s not a vice, but a virtue.
On the other hand, I see so little clear, precise writing that I sympathize with partisans who doubt that official church pronouncements aim not so much at precision as at empty but congenial sonorousness.
We need more philosophers, I suspect at GC and fewer ideologues.
Anderson Blames Homosexuals for the decline of the Episcopal Church. 700 people a week have left because of liberalism, he says. Actually, the problem is women. They got jobs.
Bates reports on GC. Note the word "appease" the Communion. Appeasement.
Stephen Colbert interviews Rep Lynn Westmoreland. Colbert didn't need to do much. For a moment, Colbert looked really disappointed and perplexed at the very end, amazed at Westmoreland's limitations.
"Anderson Blames Homosexuals for the decline of the Episcopal Church. 700 people a week have left because of liberalism, he says. Actually, the problem is women. They got jobs."
It's that and the fact that the church is controlled by aging baby boomers who haven't got a clue what young people want and frankly don't seem to care. Very few people under the age of 50 want or need to spend their time cooking meals, serving tea to the bishop, or learning to arrange flowers. And most people under the age of 50 are used to working and socializing with a far more diverse group of people than can be found in the average Episcopal Church. If the church is really serious about welcoming everyone, then it needs to stop talking about it so much and just start doing it. When the church starts actually reflecting the diversity it preaches about and starts valuing the young, the poor, the minorities instead of just paying lip service to them, then maybe the church will begin to see real growth. Shouting from the rooftops that you welcome everybody doesn't matter a whit if everything you actually offer wouldn't appeal to anyone but a select group. Like my favorite seminary professor has said. Sometimes what you do is so loud I can't hear what you say. I wish the Episcopal Church would stop preaching diversity and start living it. But enough of my rant.
Posted by: in Virginia | Jun 17, 2006 at 01:28 PM