Bearing with each other

My Face to Faith column in the Guardian is now live:

Our church has not sought to increase the strain in the communion, but to redistribute it. The suffering on all sides of the debate over homosexuality must be borne by the entire church. Ideally, it would be borne by the entire communion in the form of generous pastoral discretion and respect for the discernment of individual provinces, but Williams and a majority of the primates have rejected this most Anglican of accommodations in favour of a single-issue magisterium on the issue of homosexuality.

Gradually, tentatively, the Episcopal Church has begun to push back. The result, in Anaheim, was a pair of resolutions that attempted to be firm yet conciliatory, recognising the need to move, but move slowly, in order to bring along as much of the church as possible.


Posted by Jim Naughton on July 17, 2009 7:31 PM | |
Comments (5)

Thanks for this, Jim. I am thrilled that GC2009 put our church on the right track, and ++Rowan and the ever-unctious +Tom need to get over themselves.

John Donnelly

Posted by John D [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 17, 2009 8:17 PM

Excellent statement, Jim. I especially like the part about how throwing LGBT's under the bus is a strain on our communion, indeed a sin against our brothers and sisters.

Posted by Bill Carroll [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 18, 2009 1:45 AM

Re the opening schtick, Jim:

In all honesty, I really didn't see the need to return cattiness for (Durham's) cattiness. [I realize that's frequently the way the Brits write, and like it, though! ;-/]

The rest was very fine.

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 18, 2009 2:39 AM

Very well-written, Jim. Thank you!

Posted by Rick Millsap [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 18, 2009 8:04 AM

This is the best characterization of the actual situation that I have read in quite awhile. Good job!

Posted by John Bledsoe [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 18, 2009 9:41 AM

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