The Guardian has several articles on the eve of the Lambeth Conference. Giles Fraser reflects on his time with Gene Robinson and Stephen Bates wonders if Archbishop Rowan Williams is the man for the job of holding the Anglican Communion together.
Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson: The irony missed by Christian homophobes is that the gay US bishop is sustained by a faith you could call fundamentalist, Giles Fraser writes how Bishop Robinson copes with the abuse like that which occurred Sunday at the church Fraser serves.
How on earth does Gene Robinson cope with the disgusting abuse to which he is subjected most days – the protester who interrupted his sermon in my church on Sunday being a pretty mild example? Day after day, buckets of spiritual shit are thrown at him, sometimes by fellow bishops, and he just keeps going.
Spending some time with him over the last few days, I have discovered how he does it. He is the real deal. He is a believer. Responding to attacks that he had a “homosexual agenda”, he insisted: “Here and now, in St Mary’s Church, Putney, I want to reveal to you the homosexual agenda. The homosexual agenda is: Jesus.” He went on to preach a fiery, almost revivalist, sermon, calling on Anglicans to take Jesus into their heart and to allow Him to cast out their fear.
What makes this person so interesting is that he has lost any sense that he is able to support himself spiritually through his own effort alone. His recognition of his “failure” to cope is precisely his strength.
Read it all here
Church of England: Beset by liberals, hounded by conservatives, Williams needs a miracle to keep church intact by Stephen Bates.
With the Anglican communion crumbling around his ears; with revolt among the remaining rump of high Anglo-Catholics over the church’s palsied progress towards women bishops; with conservative evangelicals around the world in alliance with some African primates against any accommodation with gay people and with a fierce internecine struggle over authority and property in the sister American Episcopal church, Williams must wonder whether it wouldn’t have been better to do what he considered as a student and become a Catholic instead.
Read it here.