Category: Anglican Communion

There are two posts worth reading carefully at Thinking Anglicans.

The first is about the Primates’ Meeting later this month — more specifically, about attempts to prevent the primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States from taking part.

The second is about a Private Members Motion at Synod in the Church of England. The initial motion proposed (among other things) that every parish should ‘ensure a climate of sufficient acceptance and safety to enable the experience of lesbian and gay people to be heard…’ The bishops have proposed an amendment that omits this, and suggests instead that nothing must be done that could be seen as rocking the boat. This seems to be ‘the silencing process’ rather than ‘the listening process’.

I truly wonder what what the words ‘Anglican Communion’ will mean in a few weeks time.

Proceed with caution. Read this only if you can cope with sweeping generalizations, oversimplifications, and one side of the story.

Christine asks why The Episcopal Church in the States is so much more exercised by the ‘big divisive issues’ in the Anglican Communion than we are in the SEC. By which I assume she means ‘why are they talking about it, thinking about it, acting on it while we tuck our heads hoping that trouble will pass us by?’

‘It’, by the way, can be variously interpreted as ‘a Christian understanding of homosexuality’ or ‘the apparent crumbling of the Anglican Communion.’

I suspect that the variation in response reflects a basic difference of temperament between the churches. And this is where the sweeping generalizations start. For those of you familiar with Myers-Brigs, the American Church is predominantly Extrovert and Feeling. They sort out what matters most to them by talking about how it feels.

Britain, on the other hand, is Introvert –Thinking. They like to think through what they believe for themselves, and would generally prefer root canal to having to speak about it in public.

When we apply that to the current issues (of human sexuality and the nature of the Anglican Communion) it results in the following… Continue reading “sweeping generalizations” →

I suspect most of you will have already seen this at Thinking Anglicans, but in case you haven’t…

There’s an interesting public conversation going on between a Tutor in Ethics and Wycliff and a rector in South London. They come from opposite theological camps and have quite different views on what’s happening in the Anglican Communion, but are agreed in their determination to listen to each other.

The first letters set out the game board and offer nothing surprising. They seem too to be very English (I cannot imagine anyone in Scotland turning so quickly or so often to the 39 articles). It might be interesting, though, to see if they can keep conversation going without coming aground on opposing assumptions.

They deserve credit for talking publicly and civilly when so many people are either hiding or shouting.

The Thinking Anglicans link is here.