Yesterday’s issue of The Monitor, Uganda’s government paper, had an article about the coming Lambeth Conference and the Church of Uganda. The article is revealing, though readers should beware of placing too much stock in the quotations, since journalism practices in East Africa differ considerably from, say, the New York Times.

The article is primarily about Uganda’s decision boycott Lambeth:

Ms Alison Barfoot, Archbishop Luke Orombi’s assistant in charge of international relations, said the Church of Uganda’s decision to shun the forthcoming Lambeth Conference “was to communicate that this [homosexuality disagreement] is a very serious issue. How else do we make our point known”?

How indeed? Perhaps by coming to the conference and speaking with others? I for one believe that Americans would benefit from hearing how a progressive stance has caused pain in Africa. While I do not believe that we should retrench, and I yearn for the full inclusion of GLBT people in all sacraments, I do think that ECUSA has often had an unhelpful attitude. Put simply, we’ve demonstrated typical American hubris in our ecclesiastical actions, much as we’ve done in our national foreign policy. “We consecrated Gene Robinson according to our rules, so you have to deal with it!” I wonder how different things would be if we had said, “We feel called to move forward with the consecration of Gene Robinson. We know this will be painful, and we’d like to hear what you think — and seek to find a way to live together. Oh, and here’s our Biblical rationale for what we’re doing.”

Read more »

The Episcopal Majority has posted a series of four articles on the history of the Lambeth Conference. They’re well worth reading. For those who express dismay at the lack of legislation planned in the upcoming conference next summer, the first entry will be especially illuminating. Legislation was not the focus of Lambeth until recently, and the sense of Lambeth as a binding force was wholly absent at the first meeting.

It was the Bishop of Vermont who first suggested a conference of Anglican bishops; but it was an appeal from the Canadian bishops, who saw the political unity between their country and England beginning to dissolve, that brought about the first gathering. The Archbishop of Canterbury was nervous about it. Who knew what might happen if you brought together so many bishops, or what the consequences might be for the powers of individual bishops and archbishops?

“It should be distinctly understood,” said Archbishop Longley, “that at this meeting no declaration of faith shall be made, and no decision come to which shall affect generally the interests of the Church, but that we shall meet together for brotherly counsel and encouragement…. I should refuse to convene any assembly which pretended to enact any canons, or affected to make any decisions binding on the Church.”

Conservatives like to claim that we progressives are “revisionists.” Often, that charge is accurate. But it is quite often true that the so-called traditionalists are defending an invented “tradition.”

I recently hosted a little dinner party. Why am I mentioning this on 7WD? Our guests of honor were Philip Chester and Giles Goddard, two good friends of mine from London. They’re both priests in the Church of England, and I’ve been working with them for some time now in Inclusive Church.

Philip and Giles had been on a friend-raising tour in the US. Here are some of their reflections:

Contrary to popular perception the Episcopal Church is in good heart, and maintaining a significant position in the USA as a church which is both broad and welcoming; which covers a wide churchmanship with big differences of opinion and yet is determined to stay together. Given the sort of coverage the secessionist dioceses and parishes get in the UK, it’s a remarkable thing to learn that out of around 7,200 congregations across the country less than 100 have sought to leave. And out of around 110 domestic Dioceses, only 2 are likely to seek to secede. We’re talking very small numbers, less than 2%. Many of the other parishes which might previously have wanted to leave are now recognising that to be part of a greater whole is valid and important, and real efforts are being made to develop understanding between those of different positions.

Read the rest, over on my old stomping ground, the Inclusive Church blog. This is helpful, because neither the national media nor the blogosphere seems to reflect the reality of the Episcopal Church as most people experience it. Two gents from England have managed to give us Americans some good perspective.

My friend the Rev’d and the Honorable Tim Schenck (we are both on the Board of Governors of Episcopal Life, so I proposed at the last meeting that we should style ourselves like any other governor) writes a great blog, often filled with humor and wisdom.

Musing on the current baseball steroid-use controversies, Tim says this:

Of course this all makes me wonder what performance enhancing drugs for clergy might look like. And don’t tell me it’s the Holy Spirit. I’m talking about the clerical equivalent of human growth hormone. Would you take something if a quick shot in the sacristy made you a better preacher, more compassionate, or a crack administrator?

I don’t know. But if I’m ever called to testify before Congress, I’ll swear the only performance enhancing drug I’ve ever used is Advil.

If I were going to take performance-enhancing drugs for clerics, I’d want more patience, better listening skills, and greater ability to respond to leaking churches.

I’ve just had to add a blog to my list of blogging friends in Rhode Island. My list is longer, but I had omitted blogs that hadn’t been active in a while. Then, just today, my RSS reader brought me to a new entry on the blog of the Rev’d Clare Fisher-Davies. Her writing is beautiful, thoughtful, and inspiring. Whilst I tend to write about matters of some distance from myself, Clare writes about the struggles and joys that are closest to her heart.

Here’s a taste:

…I always was suspicious of people who said that some terrible catastrophe was a blessing. It sounded falsely pious to my cynical ears. But now I know what they mean. I would never have chosen this for Gerry - it’s been ghastly, and hard and painful and scary - but it has given us a deeper emotional intimacy with each other, it has taught me to open myself up to the care and support of others, it has given me insights into the world of the seriously ill…it’s grounded me more deeply in prayer. And most of all, this experience has taught me to be thankful.

I encourage you to read the rest of this post and to visit her blog. I’m glad for her news, mostly, and I’m also glad to see her at work in the blogosphere again. Deo gracias.

Ruth Gledhill has posted a modern take on an ancient epic:

Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte.
An Archbishop of Canterbury Tale

With apologies to Geoffrey Chaucer

1 Whan in Februar, withe hise global warmynge

2 Midst unseasonabyl rain and stormynge

3 Gaia in hyr heat encourages

4 Englande folke to goon pilgrimages.

5 Frome everiches farme and shire

6 Frome London Towne and Lancanshire

7 The pilgryms toward Canterbury wended

8 Wyth fyve weke holiday leave extended

9 In hybryd Prius and Subaru

Read the rest on her blog. The whole sharia affair was epically ridiculous (helped by Ruth and her media colleagues, it should be noted). How to respond? We could hang to some anger, or we could laugh. I’m glad Ruth has encouraged us to do the latter.

This map has been around a while, but it just showed up over at Strange Maps. I suppose, on the one hand, it doesn’t really show us anything new. But it also provides us with some visual data to back up what we might have thought about the landscape of America.

In my own little world, concerned with the Episcopal Church, I think it’s interesting to note that stewardship patterns are lousy (it seems) in the predominantly Roman Catholic areas, and much better in predominantly Southern Baptist areas. Could it be that some dioceses are riding on the coat tails of good teaching about tithing in Baptist churches? You see, in the parish I serve, where we rank below the diocesan giving average in the worst-giving diocese in the country, our congregation is comprised of many former Roman Catholics. It takes a long time — and a conversion experience! — to move someone beyond the “toss a buck into the plate” mentality. And of course, there’s more. Read more »

You might have read about the recent appointment of a Windsor Continuation Group (I am not making that up). Archbishop Rowan Williams wants to drag this out, I guess. Personally, I’d be happy if we merely did what Lambeth said we should do in either 1978 or 1988. But I digress.

Somehow, BabyBlueOnline has managed to sneak video of the first meeting of this group. Don’t believe my account of this feat of espionage? Check it out. It’s right there, in plain view. There is apparently no limit to what BabyBlue and her ilk will do to expose the inner workings of the Anglican bureaucracy.

(Warning: for the humor impaired — you should be on the lookout in this posting for irony.)

Next summer, lots of Anglican bishops will converge on Canterbury for the confusingly-named Lambeth Conference. Of course, a few bishops will absent themselves, believing that that reconciliation can only happen if people don’t talk with one another. Go figure.

In his address to General Synod, Archbishop Rowan Williams said this:

Some critics have complained that Lambeth is too focused on prayer and reflection and not enough on decision-making; but I am bound to say that I regard this as an extraordinary thing to say about any Christian gathering – as if we could make any decision worthy of the gospel without the utmost attention to listening together to God. I partly understand that some feel there may be an attempt to appeal to the need for prayer and reflection as an alibi for not grasping the nettles; but I would gently but firmly say that it is also possible to use a rhetoric about needing decisive action as an alibi for waiting on God. I simply pray that we’ll get the balance as right as we can.

Read more »

Are you a preacher? What do you seek in your preaching? Are you a listener? What do you wish your preacher said? This post says, “You get what you preach for.”

When you preach salvation, people come to know Jesus.
When you preach about loving Jesus, people become better lovers of Jesus.
When you preach prosperity, people want to be prosperous.
When you preach about the second coming, people get ready.
When you preach healing, people will be healed.
When you preach hope, people are more hopeful.
When you preach about tithing, people tithe.

What you talk about is what people are going to respond to. In other words, you get what you preach for.

This is not about communication manipulation. This is about communication transformation.

This has invited much self-examination on my part. I think I ask for a few things on a pretty regular basis:

• I ask for people to share their faith with others, and to invite their friends to church.
• I ask that we focus on God’s love of us, and our gratitude as a response.
• I ask people to be extravagantly generous with their money, their care, and their talents.

We’ll see if I get what I preach for…

Chris Harrison has produced some remarkably beautiful and information-rich graphics to illustrate social relationships in the Bible. You can read more on his website. (Via Boing Boing, via kottke).

I was really happy to read this:

This Lent, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, are calling for ‘good neighbours’ - online and offline - to try out daily suggestions to help create a safer and more pleasant environment in the real world.

The innovative campaign will use popular social networking websites and blogs to share actions to make the world a better place in small and simple ways. These range from leaving a thank-you note for your postie to going a whole day without gossiping.

Last year, more than 130,000 people joined in with Love Life Live Lent, launched by the Church of England to inspire, by text message, simple acts of service that spread happiness in our communities.

This year, daily suggestions are available not only through two colourful booklets produced by Church House Publishing, but also through social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and photo-sharing website Flickr. A group of prominent bloggers has also been enlisted to help spread the word through cyberspace. They include ‘blogging bishop’, the Rt Revd Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, and Dave Walker, creator of the popular CartoonChurch website and blog.

So, facebookers, you can find God online. Oh, and blog readers, you can find me on facebook. I’m always happy to have a new friend.