In my last post I predicted as part of my prognostications for 2008 that , "The best minds and hearts in both the dissenter and progressive Anglican communities will find new levels of communion, probably over coffee. A little child will lead them."
This predictions is closer to reality because of the odd mind of the child philosopher and cartoonist Dave Walker. Today he has posted the cartoon to the right.
While I cannot leap to the fullness of his vision, it is true that Anglican bloggers from across otherwise great divides, as well as those who work together, do indeed love one another in ways that amaze us all.
Examples:
The pre-blog master of all blogging when there was no bog for blogging, Louie Crew, the Yoda of Anglican Communion internet community, extended a loving and kind hand to many of us making his vision that God loves absolutely everybody a reality in our own lives. I wrote my first essays and comments for several of his lists. His is amazingly gracious.
At the 2006 General Convention a hodgepodge of mostly Episcopal Church bloggers, mostly talkers of the verbose sort, did indeed find time for coffee, bourbon and fine times late at night after all the work of the day.
In the past three years, as the blogging world has exploded I have found friends and co-workers across barriers that otherwise might not have been breached had it not been for some mutual admiration for work done with some panache. So I find among Anglican Blog friends a wide range of people whose opinions I often do not share but whose energy and general good will have enriched us all.
The really big sites Thinking Anglicans and more recently The Episcopal Cafe are run by communicators who actually know what they are doing and provide amazing resources for us all. They have been willing to draw out of us all a greater degree of responsible journalistic behavior than we might otherwise have exhibited. They have done so while at the same time acknowledging occasionally the work done by many of us. It has always been a good day when TA or the Cafe acknowledges a bit of our work "above the fold." It is also wonderful to get a note of thanks, praise, or even constructive criticism from progressive friends whose blogs I admire greatly.
Then there the times when an act of kindness from someone across the divide kind of makes me believe that all this Christian stuff has sunk into us more than I might otherwise have believed. Just about the time that I am ready to cut the electronic tendrils that connect me to Kendall Harmon and his elves, or Brad Drell, or Baby Blue, or Stand Firm, one of them will post something that is startlingly graceful or beautiful, and suddenly the snarky falls away and the little child filled with wonder emerges - both in them and me.
Dave Walker believes this community of bloggers might actually form a circle that dances over the pit of division and gives some hint of a promised land where Anglican will not be synonymous with crabby divisiveness but a peace of God that passes all understanding.
It may be that this cartoon and the motivation behind it will go down as a parallel to believing in the Easter Rabbit (after all Dave is a bit of a strange fellow) but I think not. Rather it signals a hope that the intricate weaving of the web of bloggers and their sharing will more and more reflect the weaving of the web that constitutes Anglicanism at its best.
Dave Walker....go for it. If you want to join him in this visioning, he has opened a facebook spot for us all. Check in with his blog to join.
Though it does seem the temperature has gone up a few degrees as we enter the new year, it is fun to reach across the Great Divide and share a toast.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Mark. The first cup of coffee is on me. Or perhaps that's the first glass of whiskey!
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