more jesus stuff today.
recently the Episcopal Church of the USA, the mainline, protestant, Anglican church we all know (ha ha) and love, has come under a lot of heat for ordaining a bishop with cooties. it’s gotten out of hand, and there are international conferences on the identity of the church, whole countries breaking communion with us, american diocese asking for african non-cootie friendly bishops to lead them, pages and pages of extremely english stuff denouncing, not precisely gays per se, but our inclusion of gays in the church, proposed radical changes to the canonical and authoritativeand on and on. here’s a pretty accurate if hilarious representation of one of the most important documents in the whole thing.
i’ma lean on my pa again for a more detailed look at the inside baseball, if you’re interested.
the bishops of the ECUSA recently met in texas to respond to one of the commmuniques, and put the smackdown pretty hard on cootie-based theology. this is a good bit:
We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God. The Dar es Salaam Communiqué is distressingly silent on this subject. And, contrary to the way the Anglican Communion Network and the American Anglican Council have represented us, we proclaim a Gospel that welcomes diversity of thought and encourages free and open theological debate as a way of seeking God’s truth. If that means that others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done, we must with great regret and sorrow accept their decision.
BOO-yah!
they pretty much get it all right in the whole thing.
gives you hope that maybea really meaningful and potentially widespread reformation might be underway in certain sectors of the american christian psyche.
