Much of our religious language speaks of an “up there” – words that have now become an anachronism. Can the metaphor hold our religious imagination? I suppose that there is no need for location when it comes to God and prayer, but it helps my praying to think of a direction.
Openness is not gentility in the social arena. It is not polite listening to people with whom we inherently disagree. It is not political or civil or “nice.” It is not even simple hospitality. It is the munificent abandonment of the mind to new ideas, to new possibilities.
According to the ENS, five primates have now announced that they will boycott Lambeth in protest to the inclusion of the bishops the Episcopal Church amongst the assembled. Today Archbishop Nzimbi of Kenya joined four others who had previously indicated their concerns.
The Episcopal Church of the Sudan elected a new primate yesterday. The Rt. Rev. Daniel Deng Bul of the Diocese of Renk will succeed Archbishop Marona as the next leader of Anglicans in the Sudan.
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has ended its meeting in Ecuador and issued a statement to the Episcopal Church. In the letter, the
News broke yesterday that the Anglican Church of Uganda has decided to join Rwanda and Nigeria in their decision to boycott this summer’s Lambeth Conference.
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Far too many of our Anglican brothers and sisters around the world are dying, and people who are dying tend not to care one whit about someone else’s sexual orientation or activity. Far too many Anglicans have to worry about where to get enough food to eat. They are struggling, on a daily basis, to care for their children. They don’t have health care. They don’t have clean water, or medicine, or education.
But since, I am not over sanguine to hope for any publick Funds for the PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, either in this, or the other Colonies: And my great hopes are from the pious Clergy themselves, and such particular Persons amongst the devout Laity, whose Hearts are inflamed with a Love of God, and of those Souls which he has purchased with his own Blood:
At the end of their meeting this week in Quito, members of the Executive Council sent a message saying that the Diocese of Central Ecuador may provide a model for the reconstitution of the Diocese of San Joaquin, in addition to reviewing the financial health of the Episcopal Church (which ended the year with a $1 million surplus).