The Presiding Bishop has written to the bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin asking him to confirm that it is his understanding that he has left the Episcopal Church.
As the day has gone on various people have begun to weigh in with their reactions to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent letter, in which he lays out his thinking about the next steps for the Communion.
The view that has been expressed by all the Instruments of Communion in recent years is that interventions are not to be sanctioned. … [T]he risk is magnified of smaller and smaller groups taking to themselves the authority to decide on the adequacy of a neighbour’s ministerial life or spiritual authenticity. The gospels and the epistles of Paul alike warn us against a hasty final judgement on the spiritual state of our neighbours.
We are I believe being challenged in the current circumstance not so much to focus too intently and singularly on the bad behaviour of the few, but rather to focus anew the very good behaviour of the many whose exemplary regard for the sacredness of all others whom God has created points us all toward that way in which God would probably say that grace is to be truly expressed.
Advent. A time of waiting and watching and preparation. A time, if we are not careful, of rampant materialism and tension that looks forward only to a too-secularized and too-commercialized Christmas holiday. On the other hand, Advent can be a time like no other—a time in which we pause and ask Christ into our hearts, invite God into our world.