Insult and bad manners by the Primates

George Conger's wrote a facinating two part article on the Primates Meeting for The Church of England Newspaper. It can be accessed HERE

I note the following remarks from that article:

Conservative American and British activists, and the press corps, quickly
found that Dromantine’s security guards were not a formidable obstacle to gaining
access to the Primates, and would kindly fetch ACC staffers or pass notes to
Primates if asked.

Car traffic into Dromantine, however was busy throughout the week as
conservative activists would take primates off-campus from the centre to dine and
strategise.

As problems unfolded over the leak, Bishop Griswold became perturbed after
witnessing the departure of a number of global south primates with their
American supporters to dine off-campus.

It is clear from the Conger report that the "Conservative American and British activists" worked with the clear intention of influencing the Primates' discussions. What is surprising is the brazen way in which there seems to have been not even a minimal effort to hide the fact that the efforts of the "global south" primates were managed or advised by a sizable body of "activists" not of their number. If Conger is right in his reporting there is little question that the management of the confrontation was in the hands of these so called activists.

From this report it would appear that the lack of any mutual interdependence and responsibility among the primates, a lack of community trust, and a break in communion, was confirmed in all respects: there was no common Eucharist, often there seem not to have been common meals, and certainly there was a breach of any sense of community restraint.

While it might be argued that the issues before the Primates were of such importance that all good manners were of no value, still several of the reported behaviors were insulting to the Archbishop of Canterbury as host and insulting to our Primate.

More than those insults, however, I am surprised and confounded by the unwillingness of certain Primates to share in the Eucharistic meal with our Primate. It is a declaration that they have already judged him to be the embodiment of the evils they perceive the Episcopal Church to have worked in the world. In that judgment, these Primates bring judgment on themselves. To turn the Eucharist into an occasion to publicized their purity and Bishop Griswold's impurity is outrageous. The managers and advisers did these good men no good service here.

We come to the Lord's table, not our own, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who gathers us in and is the door, the door keeper, and the Judge of the matter. For this reason I believe it would have been important for the ABC to have celebrated the Eucharist daily, inviting all who would come to come. Then those who would not come would have to explain why it is that they refused not only the ABC's invitation, but the Lord's.

Dinner at the Doomsday Café, Part II

(from a note I sent to the House of Bishops / House of Deputies List)

Several correspondents have written regarding a dinner hosted by either the American Anglican Council and the Moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, or by the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.( See VirtueOnline & The Guardian )

The Guardian said "Last night the leading critic of the Americans and Canadians, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, was said to be entertaining his supporters and the traditionalist American and English evangelicals, who have been circling the meeting semi-clandestinely all week, at what was described as a "celebratory" party, paid for by the Americans.

One of those in attendance was expected to be the US Episcopal bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, who has led the opposition and has been staying locally, apparently holidaying in Newry in February."

Assuming such an entertainment was held, we may wonder what was being celebrated by this group in far Newry. What was being served in the Doomsday Café?

The Moderator and Bishop of Pittsburgh gave a statement compared this meeting of the Primates to the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD. He said that as that Synod "decided for unity with the universal Christian Church in matters of worship and church order, so the 2005 Primates meeting has decided for unity with the universal Christian Church in matters of doctrine and morals."

One wonders... perhaps that is a bit over the top. In 664 one might well argue that there was indeed a "universal Christian Church" but in 2005 there certainly is not. A good number of the Evangelicals present at dinner last night must cringe at the thought that they are one with the doctrines of, say, Roman Catholics concerning Mary or Transubstantiation. And while celebrating, perhaps those still able at that late hour to read the Primate's document would notice that nothing is said of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, no mention is made of the Moderator of that organization, or of realignment.

The Episcopal Church is being asked to step back from full participation in the work of one of the four instruments for unity - a request which does not seem to work for unity at all, but rather for self-inflicted punishment (if that). But no one is being asked to step forward in its place. So what is being celebrated? At the Doomsday Café the roast is cold and the bread is old, and the only joy there is to hope we will beat ourselves up to prove we want to be good.

As for the Gospel: it is everywhere being heard, outside that Café and inside it. For the Gospel calls us all beyond the edges of the ACC, the AAC, the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion and damn near everything else.

Or at least so it seems to me.

Dinner at the Doomsday Cafe

Earlier this afternoon David Virtue on VirtueOnline.com published a report titled, ACTION AGAINST EPISCOPAL CHURCH USA AND ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA - CONSERVATIVES WIN!!

The article had to do with the results of the Primates Meeting in Ireland. Immediately there were cautions against assuming the truth of the report. The warning is appropriate concerning "news" from VirtueOnline. It is not just news, it is commentary and sometimes reaches beyond itself.

At the same time David Virtue confirmed something he had written earlier, that the American Anglican Council leadership was around near where the Primates were meeting in Ireland. His note now indicates that Bishop Duncan is there as well. So the realignment crowd is in place, seemingly well organized to get information out, and more importantly in, to select Primates.

David Virtue writes,"VirtueOnline can also confirm that Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan leader of the Anglican Communion Network is in the area and he and the American Anglican Council will be hosting a dinner for the majority of the Primates at the end of their historic, epoch-making conference". Assuming this is true it is one more sign of an arrogance almost beyond belief, that the Moderator of the Network would with the AAC leadership host a such a dinner. The symbolic "visuals" of realignment are not very subtle here, are they? First the Moderator of the Network goes to Nigeria where he is claimed to be treated as a Primate, and now it is claimed he will hosts a party with "the majority" of Primates. This stuff is the makings of good theater...dramatic visual signs so that we can all see the flow of the tragedy or the comedy that is unfolding.

For the moment the Moderator is also the Bishop of Pittsburgh, a diocese in the Episcopal Church. At some point the theater of usurpation must give way to the reality of insulting and grossly arrogant behavior.

If Virtue is wrong in his report of such a dinner, shame on him. If he is right, shame on the Moderator and the leadership of the AAC.

How much more must we be subjected to from the AAC leadership before we notice that theater is not enough?

Book Review: Hope among the Fragments

Book Review: Hope among the Fragments: The Broken Church and its Engagement of Scripture, By Ephraim Radner. (First published in The Living Church, Feb 27, 2005)

This book is an important but not easy read. Buy it. Radner proposes that we “begin anew, even if timidly, the exercise of these wasted muscles by which the Scripture’s spiritual meanings are moved toward the hope that undergirds the Church as God’s vessel for our final life in him.” (p.10)

Radner sculpts out a challenging and complex figure of the mutuality between Church....

To continue this review click HERE

Hunter S. Thompson, fallen hero of a fallen nation.

I got the news of HST's death from my son while at a meeting, the sort of meeting that HST would have avoided like the plague or perhaps described as a plague. He carried a big hammer and he beat it down on the skulls of any who confused the web of foolishness we call living with the real life whose name is passion.

I didn't know who to share this sad news with, at least who to share it with who would understand...so I wrote my son back. I said in that note, "HST,Jr is a Hero fallen to the hands of his own National Rifle Association dogma that guns don't kill people, people do. Where o where will we find again the voice of madness equal to the real madness going on around us? Where will the howl first prophesied by Alan Ginsberg find fiendish voice if not in HST, Jr? It's enough to drive a person to drink, or walk or crawl a person to drink. Someone light the fire.

To see a fine obit, got to:
Yahoo! News - Writer Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

Hunter, you gave us no peace, but I hope you found it for yourself.