A reasonably short reflection on the untidy delight that is the Anglican Communion
In the still of the night, when all the pronouncements, letters, blog entries, emails, articles, books, opinions, mutterings and other tools of the struggle have been put down, the delight that is the Anglican Communion remains.
In the hours before the Lambeth Commission issues the Windsor Report, before the Church of England Report on Woman in the Episcopate, before the next round of fierce and necessary struggle is undertaken, the Anglican Communion is simply as it is, and we all are part of it.
A great deal is written about just why some of us should be denied membership in it, why others of us are the “real” Anglicans, why progressive action is necessary, why we can’t go on being untidy when all our ecumenical partners want us to be a church with a unified stance on issues, why (in other words) things can not remain as they are.
Still, in the quiet hours, I wonder: who we are is quite something! We are “untidy,” as Archbishop Tutu once remarked. Untidy enough so that justice found its way in even when we were not looking; just enough so that reason, reasonableness, got its foot in the door. Untidy enough that the doors are not locked against the stranger and the fool, the difficult and the lost.
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