The Guardian’s question of the week is How should gay bishops be chosen? Lesley Fellows is first up. She writes:
Jeffrey John is a man in a faithful relationship with his life partner. Normally the church would commend this sort of long-term and committed relationship – but the rules change when the two people in question are the same gender.
Meanwhile, I’ve got an article looking at the way we are choosing our bishop in the Diocese of Washington behind the paywall at The Times of London. Ruth Gledhill gives a taste of it on her blog, and I will be posting the entire article later this week on Daily Episcopalian. Here’s a brief excerpt:
The process that I witnessed was so different than the one described by the late Dean Colin Slee in his now-famous memo, that it seems almost unfair to draw comparisons. In filling the vacancy in Southwark, the English method of appointing bishops was clearly at its worst. Or so one hopes. A story of subterfuge leavened with a dash of Python-like absurdity, it featured a media leak meant to scuttle two candidacies, clumsy attempts to blame the leak on an innocent party, an investigation into the leak whose findings have been kept secret, and a delicious moment in which the Archbishop of York lobbied for votes while leading a group outing to the toilet. Little wonder that members of the Crown Nominating Committee were reduced to tears during the proceedings
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(That’s “I do hope…”!)
I do home t_r clarifies his identity, because I regard his comment as right on target. I have great fondness for the Church of England, who after all is our mother, or at least our aunt. Many of the people, clergy, and even bishops of the CofE are outstanding and exemplary Anglican Christians. But the institution herself is a train wreck, and I’m afraid that +Rowan and his Covenant at this point remind me of nothing so much as stones and glass houses. All of us in the Anglican Communion have a need for repentance and renewal, and for a deeper commitment to walking with each other and supporting each other as we seek to grow in faith. But this “Anglican Covenant” ain’t it.
And these fellows are proposing to function under a “covenant” relationship with us in TEC?
[t_r, please sign your first and last names to your comments. It’s a requirement at the Cafe. We have a stack of your past comments that have not been approved solely for that reason. – eds.]