Update with reactions The penultimate draft of the Reflections paper from the Lambeth Conference is now available on the conference web site. Section K on
“I think what we’re running into is a kind of difficult rubbing between the indaba process which has been in large measure very conversational, very relational” and the work of the WCG, which is “seeking to find structures and procedures whereby we can remain in communion with one another,” said Archbishop Hiltz. “How the two can interface for the well-being is a huge challenge at this moment.”
The bishops keep asking Western churches to sacrifice their desire to include GLBT people more fully in the Church. Who exactly do the bishops think is authorize to negotiate this sacrifice on behalf of gay and lesbian Christians? The primarily male, exclusively heterosexual delegations from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada?
The hearings and indaba conversations have become more contentious in recent days, as some of the bishops push for a reaffirmation of Lambeth 1. 10. Conference organizers say it is highly unlikely that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will alter the conference agenda to permit any sort of vote, so those who want to produce such a statement may have to draft it and then seek signatures.
A wise priest once said that interpreting the Scripture is like eating a trout. Some bites are fleshy and fall right off the bone, easy to eat and tasty. Others are spiny and hard to swallow, the small bones sticking in your throat. This fellows says, “as with the Bible, go for the easy parts first, and when you’ve learned how good they are, and how good fish is, then go after the hard bites.”
When we are nearby to our usual place of meditation, we should return to that place at the appointed times, for we are sustained by such continuity. We are physical creatures, and concrete reinforcement of habits of meditation, prayer, and gratefulness will assist us in the work.
By Jim Naughton Mouneer Anis, presiding bishop of Jerusalem the Middle East, has just given the most extraordinary interview here at the Lambeth Conference. If
The appendix of the St. Andrew’s Draft, which many Episcopal Church leaders find overly legalistic and potentially punitive, is “a first draft,” Cameron said, merely “an attempt,” to determine how disputes should be settled within the Anglican Communion. Canon lawyers were asked to contribute to the draft, Cameron said, “so we shouldn’t be surprised it came out legalistic.”