As the Episcopal Church gets ready for General Convention later this year, we find ourselves at something of an inflection point. Not only will be electing a new Presiding Bishop, but this General Convention will also be wrestling with the work of the TREC, the Task Force for Re-imagining the Episcopal Church. At the last GC in 2012, there was a palpable sense that we need significant and fundamental changes in how we organize and manage ourselves for Christ’s mission in today’s world.
Well, we aren’t alone in seeking to address how we might be and do church. The Church of England, in a somewhat different process is wrestling with many of the same issues and beginning to take tentative steps in what may be a new direction.
The progressive group, Modern Church has a new post on their site where they look at some of these changes in direction and wonder where they might lead them if there might be other paths available?
From the post by Ian Duffield
And now there’s an episcopal push to re-brand the Church of England—as struggling businesses do.
The Archbishop’s Presidential Address at February’s Synod tried to neutralise concern by describing the proposals as only a ‘means to an end’, but we know that inappropriate means are counter-productive; after all, to use a hammer when you need a screwdriver is to make matters worse.
Modern Church and members of congregations should be concerned about these proposals. Concerns relate to four aspects:
Presumptions;
Process;
Plans;
Purpose.
As we begin our own process of discernment and change, there might be words of wisdom here.
posted by Jon White
All Content © 2017 Episcopal Café
I wish, Christopher, that you would write about why you believe that women and LGBT aren’t created in the Image of God? Why you think that our call to ministry, ordained and lay, should be rejected in spite of all evidence of the amazing work of the Holy Spirit? Why you believe that every discernment committee is wrong on women and LGBT ministers? Why it is OK to oppress women and LGBT people? Surely you know that the church has been on the wrong side of racism, slavery, burning of witches, etc.? Surely you know that Scripture can be used inclusively and exclusively? What is really at stake here? We don’t worship the BCP, we worship Jesus.
It’s such a hard hearted approach. LGBT teen suicide, bullying, hate crimes, these are the fruits of the exclusive view. The fruits of liberation have been lovely. Why fight it?
I want sincerely to thank The Lead for its willingness to entertain voices that are now fully on the outskirts of TEC.
I am a third-generation Episcopal Priest. This church has been literally my only home.
Accusing no one, and with as much equanimity as I can muster, it would never have occurred to me that the only real identifying mark of Episcopalians (who have no Confessions, Curia, Barrier Act, Book of Order, Magisterial Reformer)–that is, the Book of Common Prayer–would in time become as porous an identity marker as it now is. And with it the Constitution.
But I am willing to accept this verdict as indicative of a New Episcopal Church.
I thank the workers here for keeping track of responses and seeking to play fair, given their own deeply held commitments.
“But the hope of making little Popes out of Diocesan Bishops so they can oppress women and LGBT people in their diocese fiefdoms stays alive…”.
Welcome to the New Episcopal Church.
When all those who believe in constitutional order and Bishops exercising jurisdiction as charged have been run off, one wonders where the new fault lines will lie? Those with Presbyterian and congregational polity are at least organized that way from the ground up.
It amazes me that a post on the future of Church of England has turned into a contest of whack-a-mole.
Amusing, John. I’m not surprised, however. There’s no end to the agenda of pushing back against the liberation of women and LGBT people. There’s no canon, no footnote, no bureaucratic process that is too small to address if it can fan the flames of intolerance and the effort to restore the old status quo.
LGBT people can get legally married in a beautiful Rite in many dioceses. Women make up a large percentage of priests. There’s no turning back the clock. But the hope of making little Popes out of Diocesan Bishops so they can oppress women and LGBT people in their diocese fiefdoms stays alive…
I do not know Mr. Haller and am happy to call him anything he wishes. Friar Haller is fine with me. I am a Virginia Seminary graduate from the 70s and do not like to infer.
I signed my name as I did to indicate why the topic might be of specific concern. The Diocese of Dallas is electing a bishop and we are in the middle of the walkabouts this week. What will the office of Bishop actually look like if we begin saying that occasional/supplemental rites are no longer optional and under the direction of a Bishop?
Canon Seitz
This makes 4 for this thread today.
David Allen