Live: Reflections, the second draft

We have just received the most recent draft of the reflections paper--which is still a work in progress. Here is the paragraph that may give the best sense of what is to come:

Indaba is not shaped to produce a Communique, an Encyclical Letter, or a text which resembles a series of dispositions or resolutions. Indaba is open-ended conversation, which doesn't begin by looking for results or feedback. The final document must be faithful to the indaba process: it will therefore be descriptive of the totality of the engagement which the bishops have undertaken under God.

Another worthwhile paragraph:

Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that there are great tensions in our relationship at present, and an erosion of trust between us. There is concern caused by a perceived lack of restraint and self-limitation, by impaired communion and by intervention across provinces. There is some lack of confidence in the "Instruments of Communion" as the means of achieving this and a particular concern about the role of the Primates' Meeting.

There is a strong view that the way forward lies chiefly through deepening: person to person relationships; diocesan partnerships; reviving our sense of belonging and mutual affection.

We recognize that the variety of provincial order---the different polities of our Churches--can produce misunderstandings and confusions.

Posted by Jim Naughton on July 30, 2008 9:42 AM | |
Comments (2)

Somehow "lack of restraint" always seems to come first and
"intervention across provinces" just scrapes in at the end.

Posted by Roger Mortimer [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 30, 2008 11:29 AM

Well, if you put it that way, Roger. When I read "lack of restraint and self-limitation", I thought of it as "failure to restrain/limit one's episcopal jurisdiction to one's own diocesan/provincial boundaries"!

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 31, 2008 12:14 AM

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