Day one, and there has already been a shock. The conservatives had hoped to seize the high moral ground at the outset of the five-day primates' meeting here in Tanzania. Instead they are reeling on the ropes.
The conservative Global South group went into the White Sands conference centre near Dar Es Salaam on Thursday morning reasonably confident that their condemnation of the liberal Episcopal Church would be vindicated.
They have consistently called on the Americans to repent for consecrating Gene Robinson as Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop in 2003, and most of them believe that the Episcopal Church has, if anything, become more decadent since.
They had expected that a report assessing the current position of the Episcopal Church would provide them with further ammunition in their argument that it had "walked apart" from the rest, and should be disciplined.
They even meekly dropped their objections to the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the unapologetically liberal head of the Episcopal Church; after all, it would have looked petulant to try to exclude her from a discussion about her own Church which they believed would ultimately go their way.
But then the bombshell dropped - the report not only failed to reinforce their position, but it all but exonerated the Episcopal Church. Read more
Saturday, 17 February 2007
Conservatives 'reeling on the ropes' in Tanzania
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2 comments:
I am appalled and dusgusted. Politics 1 - Biblical truth 0
Result everyone loses.
“I am left wondering what is our own strategy here at home? If it turns out that the Global South couldn't fight the battle for us on their own turf, what makes us think they're going to fight the battle for us here?”
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Are we fighting the right battle? I mean, where exactly where we hoping to go? Is “orthodoxy” just another name for our comfortZone? OK – the gay and gender agenda is well out of order, but aren’t we simply defending the mediocre against the bad? I think it is time to review not only our strategy, but our goals – I mean, what were the goals of the English Reformers? As regards strategy, everyone knows what we are against, but does anyone know what we are for? Do we? What are we building on? See Matthew 7 – and 1 Corinthians 3 (here the apostle is talking about the Church)
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“EXCEPT the Lord conduct the plan,
The best concerted schemes are vain,
And never can succeed;
We spend our wretched strength for nought:
But if our works in thee be wrought,
They shall be blest indeed.”
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A man’s world – high above Bigtown in Northmorland stands a grim reminder of lawless times, Boldenhaugh Castle with its grim and sturdy walls 20 foot thick – not only did the appearance of King Stewart, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispel those supposed and surmised mists, and gave unto all that were well affected exceeding cause of comfort, in due course it brought about the fading away of the border retrievers – the King is o’er the border gan in London for to dwell, and we mun friends wi’ England be for he bides there himsell. Gentler times brought gentler manners – wood panelling carpets, and antiques and pictures, etc.
But death and taxes dispelled all that moved, and finally the laird moved to his London house and let the castle fall into decay – his great-grandson (someone in the City apparently and married into wealth) determined to restore the old seat. A handful of family and friends would early clear the rubbish that spring, and then the builders could move in and put the icing on the cake.
Sadly, summer faded into fall, and they’d hardly made any progress against decades of pigeon poo – because it was getting a tad chill, a brazier was set up – and forgotten – the fire spread – it was elevenFive and the fire fair outshone the fireworks – after a week the firemen conceded defeat – it would have to take its course – containment was the agenda – a fortnight’s steady rain saw to it.
One morning in December a despondent laird and lady drove out from Bigtown to survey the ruins – the sun was bright and the waning moon was clearly visible high up in a deep blue sky – suddenly the castle hove into view, awesome and beautiful as the day it had been set up. Gone was all the poo, and gone too was all the fancy panelling – by the way anything of real value had long gone – in order to satisfy the insatiable demands of the revenue man – the castle, solid, unmovable and unshakeable, remained – things had turned out better than expected – wow!!
Sounds a bit like the fire of 1 Corinthians 3 in which our work is tested by fire – guess what the solid and sure building represents. The pigeon poo is not difficult to discern – error, ignorance and superstition, erroneous and strange doctrine and practice – all consumed in the blaze – as for the fancy decoration and panelling – there are our cherished evangelical traditions – in themselves, they are harmless – they are the sort of things harmless in themselves (the principle is set out, for example, in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8) that cause divisions.
There you go then – could this be the shaking of Hebrews 12 in which things that can be shaken are shaken so that that which cannot be shaken will remain? When the dust settles, shall we be ready to build on the foundations – complete the job the English Reformers started? Every parish a gospel parish and every parson a minister of the gospel – as in Sydney – apparently 65 new churches have been planted – my goodness, what do they put in their cocoa?
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