Aiya Iluvatar

Invitations to the Tea Party

Rowan Williams has sent out invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference. These are important because they have always reflected a kind of de-facto survey of who is in and who is out of communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, a traditional definition of who is part of the Anglican Communion. To tell the truth, I am a little surprised at the timing. I was expecting him to wait until after the September deadline for us to respond to the Primate's Dar Es-Salaam communique to decide whether the American church got invitations at all. The fact that they have been issued previous to this deadline seems to me to make the statement that the Episcopal Church is still at the table no matter how we respond in September. This may ratchet down anxiety at the September House of Bishops meeting and allow +++Rowan's presence to be much less confrontational.

Of course, the big non-story. +Gene Robinson has not been invited. Despite Susan Russell's statement that she is "outraged and appalled" (Which is pretty much a boilerplate phrase in Integrity press releases), I think anyone with ears to listen knew this was coming. It was laid out pretty clearly in the Windsor Report.

The REAL story - Martyn Minns, the newly-installed bishop of the break-away CANA has also not been invited. Not only that, but Anglican Communion Secretary General Kenneth Kearon has indicated that CANA falls under the same category as AMiA - that of an Anglican splinter group not in communion. While he indicates that +Gene might be invited as a guest, there is no such indication about Minns, who has become a real pain in the posterior for Rowan Williams. There are also a couple of African bishops who have not been sent invitations, due to serious corruption charges.

Those on the left are outraged at +Gene's exclusion. I would prefer for him to be there as a full voting member, but I find it hard to be "outraged" about something that has been blindingly obvious since his consecration - namely that as a pioneer, he will pay a price for his witness. Those on the right are outraged at +Minns' exclusion. This is what happens when you decide your impatient self-righteousness trumps dialog and relationship.

For those of us somewhere in the center, I think this is a hopeful development. It points to the fact that, statements from Bob Duncan and Peter Akinola notwithstanding, the Episcopal Church has done everything it can realistically do within its polity to show that we wish to remain in the Anglican Communion and that the communion leadership knows it. We withheld our representatives from the ACC meeting, we stopped all episcopal consecrations for a year, we developed a DEPO and Primatial Vicar procedure, we passed B033 at General Convention despite incredible resistance from both right and left, and our two most liberal dioceses (California and Newark) refrained from electing GLBT candidates to the Episcopate as a symbol of defiance.

I think the invitations indicate two things:

1. The extreme right is increasingly unable to get traction. ECUSA continues to be gracious even in the face of continuous vitriol from its detractors. Indications are that the right is beginning to splinter and fight over the bones. Our ability to maintain this graciousness has to do with the inspired leadership of our Presiding Bishop (whom many of our male bishops seem to have a crush on.)
2. ECUSA is and will continue to be a member of the Anglican Communion. +++Rowan will not enable the anger and rude behavior of the extreme right. If Nigeria and his ilk decide to "opt-out," that will be their decision. Most of the communion will stick with +++Rowan and us by extension.

I know people on the left may be very hurt by +Gene's exclusion, but we can't mistake the battle for the war. This might be considered a tactical setback for ECUSA, but it looks to me like we are moving towards a strategic victory. Only time will tell.

David+

Technorati Tags: anglican, Anglican Communion, christianity, episcopal, gene robinson, lambeth conference, religion, Windsor Report

Towel Day Tomorrow

Technorati Tags: douglas adams, sci fi

The Onion - IHOP Martin Luther

Modern-Day Martin Luther Nails 95 Comment Cards To IHOP Door

SIOUX FALLS, SD—"IHOP has grown weak on powdered sugar and fruity garnishes, forsaking the purity of its original mission," said Lyman, a onetime regular customer.

Technorati Tags: christianity, humor, IHOP, Luther, religion

A Hobbit-Library

Can I please, please have one? A library designed to hold a collector's rare Tolkien manuscripts.

David+

Technorati Tags: anglican, episcopal, hobbit, architecture, tolkien

How to Pray

An article I wrote on prayer for our parish newsletter. Appropriate for the National Day of Prayer.

Glad to have you here! Sit down on the couch. So what brings you here today? Ah, relationship problem with God again? God seems so distant? Do you ever talk? No, I’m not asking if you hear voices in your head, I’m asking if you pray. I see – you think prayer is about asking God for things, and it seems kind of silly, since God already knows what you want, being omnipotent at all. What if I told you that a relationship with God is much like any other relationship – that communication is key. Yes, you’re right, God already knows what you will say, but it’s the practice itself, not the content that is important. Living relationships require constant maintenance through communications. Many people are under the mistaken impression that prayer is about feeling or poetic creativity and if we can’t pray anything with deep emotion and great eloquence it’s not worth doing. But prayer is an act of will. It’s something we do to enhance our relationship with God even when we don’t feel like it or don’t know what to say. As Paul says, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” It’s less like a love letter and more like a simple “I Love You” before leaving the house in the morning. How should you pray? Well there are two main interrelated rules. They are: 1. Something is better than nothing. 2. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Choose something simple to start with – maybe the Lord’s Prayer during a shower or just before you turn the key in your car. You can move up to more complex things like the Daily Office, but start with something you know you can hold to. You will be amazed at how regular, daily prayer, no matter how brief, can change your outlook on life and invigorate your connection to the divine. What if you want more? Your next step might be something a little more involved, like one of the daily devotions starting on page 136 of the BCP or a form of the Anglican Rosary that appeals to you. There are several websites dedicated to praying the Daily Office – but remember, don’t over commit. Start small and work your way up. Pick something and do it every single day, even if you have to put it off to just before bed. God will wait for you. So what have you been praying for? Um, no – I’ve never heard that one before. Are you sure you can find a large enough basket for that? How would you compensate for the torque? I tell you what – let’s take this up next time…..

David+

Links:
Daily Office on the Internet - http://www.missionstclare.com/
Anglican Rosary - http://www.kingofpeace.org/prayerbeads.htm

Disunity among the supposedly unified?

An interesting post from Dan Martins of the Diocese of San Joaquin:

"Over the past week or so there's been a spike in "intelligence chatter" in the Anglican-Episcopal universe. From the sources I have been able to tap, along with those that have just fallen in my lap, I am reasonably well assured that a sub-group of some five dioceses within the Anglican Communion Network have cooked up a plan to hold hands and jump off the slowly-sinking ship that is the Episcopal Church and swim to . . . well, here's where the intelligence gets sketchy--OK, non-existent."

"I don't expect I'll cause any tsunamis by predicting that I'm probably not going to like the details when I hear them. In the most charitable construction, a move of this sort represents a 'Plan B' in response to last month's resounding rejection of the Primates' Pastoral Council/Primatial Vicar plan by the House of Bishops. A more jaded exegesis sees it as the most radical fringe of the Network exploiting the HOB's ill-advised actions by making a run for something more like they would have wanted in the first place anyway."

"Most tragically, the initiative that I anticipate hearing about officially next week represents just one more level of fragmentation among conservative Anglicans in America. Our adversaries are going to glut themselves on the news and then ask for seconds. It seems that we just can't hang together. So we're going to hang separately."

This really is no surprise to me. A read of Donald Armentrout's unpublished Episcopal Splinter Groups is a sad story of fracture and sub-fracture. Once you make the choice that you are so different from your fellow Christian that you need to separate from them, then there is no principle to stop you once you find out you don't exactly agree with everyone who left with you. It is the curse of Protestantism. Organizations made up of people that are only unified in their dislike of the diversity of the Episcopal Church will soon find that they can't stand the diversity even within that group and strike out on their own.

This is what happens when you think that what Christianity offers is certitude & stability rather than relationship & challenge.

David+

Technorati Tags: anglican, Anglican Communion, christianity, episcopal, religion, Windsor Report