More on Anglican/Episcopal Breaks

One of the concerns that has bothered me since the start of the controversy about the ordination of Gene Robinson has been the arrogant way that many in the American church have responded to legitimate concerns about the action. I will state at the outset that I am unsure about what the church should do in relation to gays and lesbians. The balance between the demands in theology to be inclusive and the proscriptions in parts of the Bible on behaviors is not clear in my mind. I have listened with care to each side of the debate and remain resolutely uncommitted to a final answer. The church has established ways of thinking about issues that are of importance to one part of the communion. The process is called discernment. But the leaders of the American part of the denomination believe that the issue is of such over-riding importance that the process of discernment be damned.

When the American church began to think about the ordination of women it went through a careful and prayerful process of thinking about the issue. What does scripture say about the role of women in the church. The process took a long time. In the eyes of some too long. But in the end the decision was established in a thoughtful way. While there are still elements in the Anglican communion who do not recognize the right of women to be ordained the vast majority of the church has recognized that the change was an appropriate one.

After the ECUSA decided to affirm the ordination of Bishop Robinson at its annual convention, the Archbishop of Canterbury convened a group of Anglican theologians to study the issue. That is a very Episcopal way to do things. The resulting report (the Windsor Report) concluded in part "at present it would be true to say that very many people within the Communion fail to see how the authorisation of such a rite is compatible with the teaching of scripture, tradition and reason. In such circumstances, it should not be surprising that such developments are seen by some as surrendering to the spirit of the age rather than an authentic development of the gospel." But the report also seemed to urge the American church to make its case on this issue. Ultimately, the report was an optimistic one which argued that if we cared about our community we would work our way through this set of issues. The report urged the American church to act with some humility,

The Anglicans urged the American church in a formal statement to refrain from additional ordinations until the issues could be sorted out. The rest of our "communion" said if you don't want to play by the rules we may have to expel you. But the response to all of these efforts to get the American church to think more carefully about its actions was confrontational.

The Anglican communion is a lot like a family. It is made up of parts that are similar in theology but different in outlook. But the leadership of the American church has acted like a petulant child - demanding that their way of looking at the world is the only way to go forward. It is sad to me that the so-called leaders of the American church are so tied to political correctness that they cannot take the time to bring their fellow communicants into a serious dialogue.