Scottish Primate on Lambeth
Bishop Idris Jones, in an address to his Diocesan Council, speaks of what he believes happens and didn't happen at this summer's Lambeth Conference.
While he rhetorically overstates the condition of the Communion, he rightly points out that the Communion is in a phase of rapid transformation:
"It seems to me that the issue is not that we lack structure but that the structure has failed to address the situation and when it has attempted to do so Provinces have simply continued to do what they wanted to do and ignored the proposals put forward by the Instruments of Unity. I do have an unease that at the heart of our Communion there is a lack of evenhanded dealing. It was almost as if we were trapped into a game of “my pain is bigger than your pain”. The approach of the Church of Canada about which we were able to learn so much more this year and which was praised for its theological method was completely ignored and brushed aside for example whilst and the interference of another Province in Canada where proper and full provision had been made for congregations who felt alienated remained un -rebuked in spite of it having been forbidden by the recent Primates meeting.The Canadian Anglican church has a long and strong history of fidelity and development - it gave the Communion A YP A for example - and has been not accorded the respect that it should have. There is more than one way of destroying a Communion but injustice is high on the list of how to achieve it.
We heard much about the need to support churches in other parts of the world; but very little of the vulnerability of the church where society has moved ahead of the game in its provisions which is the position that we find ourselves in along with other churches in the developed world."
Read the full article here.
It seems he's hit on a point ... we hear a lot about how important it is to proclaim the literal Biblical gospel in a country and context filled with Muslims, in order to address the concerns of the community hearing that gospel proclaimed (see Akinola's comments below).
Isn't it equally important for us to proclaim the gospel in the developed world in a way that addresses the concerns of the community hearing us as well? The developed world has moved farther ahead of the church in a number of issues related to justice, among them the full inclusion of GLBT people in common life.
Paul said it best: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Posted by Kit Carlson![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 12, 2008 1:58 PM
I do have an unease that at the heart of our Communion there is a lack of evenhanded dealing.
That's putting it mildly.
June Butler
Posted by GrandmèreMimi![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 12, 2008 9:49 PM