The bishops and stewards who set up blogs before the conference have been conscientious in keeping up with the discipline of regular posts. Here are some of the day’s highlights.
The Rev. Jim Simons has deep ties to the theological right. And yet he and the parish he serves as rector have decided to remain within the Episcopal Church in spite of the likelihood that his diocese (Pittsburgh) may decide to attempt to leave. He lays out his reasons for staying in a letter to his congregation.
The primates who are expected to serve on the Primate’s Council of the GAFCON movement have issued a response to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s concerns about the GAFCON communique and a critique of the present form of the proposed Anglican Covenant has also been posted.
There appear to have been some developments in the Virginia court cases regarding the property being claimed by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the Anglican District of Virginia (part of the CANA convocation associated with the Anglican Church of Nigeria).
Uganda was unique in that none of the bishops of that part of the Communion were attending. Today there’s news that Nigeria’s lone bishop, thought to be in attendance, has returned home.
Over the past couple of days there have been a number of stories about the “The Lambeth Reader” papers. These were distributed to the bishops attending the Lambeth Conference, but not made available to the larger public. Copies of the documents have been passed along to reporters covering the conference. The Church Times blog has some extended quotes in its overnight coverage.
Many years ago, when our children were very little, one of the girls turned to me and asked, “Will it be all right?” I wasn’t sure what the “it” referred to, but her question held a kind of cosmic significance. “Will it be all right?” I said yes, with my fingers crossed behind my back. That desire and wonder—will everything be all right?
My concern for the Lambeth Conference is that a critical mass of reporters—or perhaps just a handful of influential ones—will deem the conference a failure if it does not produce the sort of stories that they want to write, that they will say so repeatedly in the pages of their papers or on their blogs, and that this perception will become reality.
Originally orthodoxy meant the lived experience of being on the right track (orthos) in giving glory (that’s what doxa means) to God, in worshipping and adoring God, in community. And what these pioneers of Christian orthodoxy insisted on was the utter impossibility of capturing God in words and images, or grasping God in even the most sublime spiritual experience.