The Episcopal Church is meeting in its trienniel General Convention this week in Anaheim. There’s already been a tremendous flow of information about the goings-on from TitusOneNine and Stand Firm, so much that it’s really impossible to keep up with it all. So I’m going to pick out items here and there as they appear to try to give a flavor for non-Anglicans of what’s going on (keeping in mind that there’s a lot more happening than I can mention, some of it self-destructive, some of it constructive). The first comes from a clergy deputy from South Carolina, Steve Wood, who is blogging about his experience there, and today offers this insight from the World Missions Committee:
Here’s the set-up for the Legislative Committee, World Missions, that I am assigned to monitor. You’ll see our own retired Suffragan, Bill Skilton (blue shirt) sitting next to Bishop Wolf and Gay Jennings. Bishop Wolf and Deputy Jennings chair the committee representing the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, respectively. [He’s referring to a picture that follows underneath this text–DSF]
Silly me, I thought that a committee entitled “world missions” might actually talk about the proclamation of the Gospel message to the ends of the earth. And, maybe they will. But not just yet. Instead, here is a sampling of the resolutions set to appear before this committee: equal access to discernment process for transgendered persons; several resolutions seeking to overturn or supersede resolution B033 (a moratorium on same-sex blessings/ordinations passed in 2006); affirmation of full participation in the Anglican Communion for all Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual and Transgendered persons. And, that’s just the appetizer. I’ll keep you appraised on these as they move through committee and onto the floor. The only connection I can make between these topics and world missions is that passage will effectively END any credible efforts at world mission.
One side note: Interestingly, when the Archbishop of Canterbury walked into this legislative session the topic under consideration immediately shifted to Resolution D057: “Five Marks of Mission”. When members of committee objected as to the reordering the agenda and questioned the chair as to the rationale for the out-of-order consideration of the this particular resolution, the chair responded by saying, “I thought the ABC might rather hear us discuss the mission commitment of the Episcopal Church”. I’d like to hear someone around hear discuss, and affirm, that Jesus it THE way, THE truth and THE life.
The mind boggles.
(Via T19.)
July 9, 2009 at 11:11 am
Is Bishop Wolf Geralen Wolf, or some other person? I’m rather surprised that the person who defrocked the “islamopalian priest” would be party to a charade like that.
July 9, 2009 at 12:07 pm
It is the same Bishop Wolf, though I don’t know how much say she has either in determining what her committee is assigned, or in the agenda (she has a co-chair).
July 9, 2009 at 3:17 pm
GenCon is a political convention, just like the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod; very far removed from how we as Christians ought to be making decisions. I wonder how much time they will take to pray?
July 10, 2009 at 4:20 am
Kate, we kind of pray. It sometimes feels like we’re talking out loud because we don’t often address a deity, nor do we close with a Prayer Book closing formula, but the leadership calls it prayer.
July 10, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Prayers of the type you describe (along with a number of practices) are among the tools used by ‘facilitators’ to reach a desired consensus. Translation – they serve to cause a kind of confusion that lets the people who plan the meetings get their way.