Fall Out

Very oddly when I Googled the term 'slap on the wrist', this scary nun was one of the first images I got. I don't think she actually is a nun, you know, but there's a truly righteous slap on the wrist coming in the direction of anyone on the wrong end of that ruler. 

And probably a rather more painful one than was inflicted on the Episcopal Church of the USA yesterday as a result of the global primates' meeting in Canterbury. I'm not sure what are the precise consequences of the measures outlined in the statement here but they will of course have next to no effect in any Episcopal parish in the US. It's a somewhat symbolic act of discipline designed to make it possible for the extremes of Anglicanism to keep meeting and talking to each other for a few more years in the hope that the Holy Spirit might lead us towards some greater degree of understanding in the future. And probably just about worth it for that.

Justin Welby made it all a bit easier to swallow by apologising publicly for the way Anglicans have traditionally treated LGBT people. This is itself significant enough. The Today programme yesterday decided to get the most extreme bishops they could uncover on either side - Alan Wilson, the ultra-liberal Bishop of Buckingham, and the former Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, where they ban chasubles and aren't totally convinced slavery is a bad thing - to talk about the matter. Bishop Jensen quoted the Abp of Uganda saying 'our doors are open for those facing sexual disorientation to be counselled, healed and prayed for' which is a million miles away from recognising any degree of responsibility for real human beings being hurt and damaged, and, therefore, from Justin Welby's apology.  When the head of an organisation in which most people don't feel they have anything to apologise for apologises, the words carry dramatic importance: they are not the first step in the process of coming to terms with people of minority sexual identities, but perhaps the second, as the first is to recognise the common humanity and rights of such people. In their context, most of the African Churches dare not take that first step even if they wanted to; while in South Africa the Anglican Church is grappling with new realities more open-mindedly, in a more liberal cultural setting. I'm not sure what the Archdiocese of Sydney's excuse is.

So far three of the congregation of Swanvale Halt have collared me in person or via email to express their dismay at the result of the events in Canterbury, and I replied basically in the terms of my previous post about the necessity of living with difference. It continues to be miraculous that (the Archbishop of Uganda aside) the meeting concluded with a result that everyone accepted, ECUSA even voluntarily holding out its corporate hand to be slapped by its brethren. The Church proceeds falteringly and frustratingly, trying to glimpse the mind of God through the fog of Christians' own desires, delusions and fears. How could it be any other way? But it is still the Church, both before and after any decision it might take, the same sacramental sign of the same God preparing for the same End. 

And I hold in veneration
for the love of Him alone,
holy Church as his creation,
and her teachings as his own

even when it's not very easy.