Compendium Preludium: essays regarding the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion

Over the past year I have posted a number of essays that relate to the work we will do at General Convention. Here are some of them, posted by category. There are an additional few published in the Witness and on Louie Crew’s Anglican Pages from previous years.

Beginning in 1998, with an essay on Bishop Spong's Twelve Theses I have been regularly working on the issues that grew from the thread of criticism of the Episcopal Church that concerned discipline in our life together as an Anglican Communion. Previously, of course I had written The Challenge of Change: The Anglican Communion in the Post Modern Era. Looking back at these I realized that much of my writing energy has been taken up with the assault on the relatively open and provisional Anglican community of churches. These ten years or so have been frustrating for many of us as we have seen the focus of the Episcopal Church increasingly turning inward and its energies sapped by having to constantly reassess its actions in the face of this or that criticism.

Now at this point it seems clear: The gang that doesn't like prayer book change is talking to the gang that doesn't like the ordination of women, and to those who can't stand women bishops, or priests or bishops who are not straight, or modernity or post modernity, or the democratic inclination to make decisions by vote, or who believe that not only is the canon of scripture closed but that the understanding of what scripture means is plain and not subject to scrutiny. They have lately added to their criticisms the sense that the Archbishop of Canterbury is not a focus of unity because his office is flawed because he is chosen by a secular process. They constitute a common cause, which is the destruction of the Episcopal Church as it is now constituted and its replacement by a harder than stone regular paid up patriarchy. The same for the Anglican Communion, which they would like to see become a world wide church, just like, well you know, "those other guys." Well, I am sure they will find something for their efforts, but it may turn and bite them.

Now, with General Convention three days away I am both more sanguine about the situation we find ourselves in, and hopeful that we will continue to be the Episcopal Church in General Convention in assembled, doing what God is calling us to do. It's time to get to the matters at hand with a full good heart, and be the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and not some concoction dreamed up by people who wanted something else.

Click on any one of these references and it will take you to the Essay. Hope some of these remain helpful to the tasks at hand.

Regarding the Windsor Report:
Windsor Nosh #1: Four really bad ideas in the Windsor Report
Windsor Nosh #2: The Bishops as Instruments of Communion
Windsor Nosh #3 On the Windsor Report "Speculation"
Windsor Nosh #4: Repentance and all that.
Windsor Nosh #5 , The Bonds of Affection - a really good idea
Speaking of Regret...
A wee note on the matter of subsidiarity:


Regarding the Election of the Presiding Bishop:
Many are Called but One will be Chosen

Regarding the Anglican Communion:
The Anglican Communion (published in The Witness)

Not a Worldwide Church, but a Fellowship
Holding One Another in Mutual Regard.
There is an Anglican Communion future if we want it and, if we are mindful of the times we may be part of it.
The Gathering Swarm: The effort to capture the queen, or move the hive to warmer climes Lambeth Resolution 1.10, 1998, is no "Official Teaching of the Anglican Communion"
What the Canons of the Church of England say about the Anglican Communion
Small Delights in being Anglican
Ruthless Realism and the Situation in which the Church actually finds Itself: Mission in the 21st Century:
Contending with Anglican Realignment
The Politics of Loving Kindness in a Heartless World: Working for the good beyond the boundaries of contention.
Mystic Sweet Communion is one thing and the Anglican Communion is another.
PROLOGUE TO STEPPING THROUGH THE DOOR: An Agenda for Anglicans
A FOURTH WAY: On the Anglican Communion as an Ecumenical Fellowship