There are two ways to see the legal marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. One is as the start of something radical: an experiment that jeopardizes millennia of accumulated social patrimony. The other is as the end of something radical: an experiment in which gay people were told that they could have all the sex and love they could find, but they could not even think about marriage.
The age-old tomato/tomahto refrain comes to mind as GAFCON speakers assert that they are working toward a way to “sustain the highest level of communion and work well together,” not toward a schism. The reason they are dodging that, as some of the metaphors Archbishop Peter Jensen is using indicate implicitly, is that they are operating under the belief that the schism has already happened.
We all know plenty of people who followed a vocational path to a second “career.” The Wall Street Journal today profiles Linda Watt, Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal Church and a former foreign service officer and amabassador to Panama, in its Second Acts Column. Noting that the two paths are not as disparate as they might seem, the article examines Watt’s background in-depth; Watt also shares her tips for vocationally-oriented career changers.
Earlier this week, Archbishop Rowan Williams addressed the Diocese of Hereford and got a standing ovation when he said the issues presently facing the church were serious ones, but would not split the Church of England.
Jonathan Marlowe points to the problem with corporate ambivalence within his denomination. “The Methodist Church has a clear statement in our social principles opposing capital punishment. I am glad that we take this prophetic stand,” he writes.”Should we apply our principle of nonjudgmentalism to this area and say simply: “United Methodists are not of one mind with respect to capital punishment,” and leave it at that? I would be deeply disappointed.”
This weekend, about 3,000 Native American Episcopalians and others are expected at the Niobrara Convocation as Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori leads the closing Eucharist. In an interview with the local paper, Jefferts Schori also makes a pithy observation about the matters dominating the headlines with regard to the Anglican Communion.
There’s some lovely video of The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows working with members of the congregation she serves in Syracuse to creates garden plots in the city. It’s hoped that the plots will provide healthy food this summer for Grace Church’s food pantry patrons.
There have a been a number of stories about the Global Anglican Future Conference appearing in the press and on NPR today. Here’s a list of a few we haven’t already mentioned.
Bishop Bob Duncan’s address to the gathered at GAFCON has been posted to the Anglican Communion Network webpage. In his address Bishop Duncan claims that the Elizabethan settlement, out of which has grown modern Anglicanism, has now failed and a new model must be found.
“Hard-line bishops make a mess of it in the Holy Land” is how the Telegraph headlines today’s report on the startup of the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem today. The article details a number of the initial organizational hurdles the meeting has had to overcome so far.