Anglican Communion Deputy Secretary General Gregory Cameron, left, and retired Province of the West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez explain the potential process for the adoption of the proposed Anglican covenant during a news briefing May 5, that was part of the Anglican Consultative Council May 2-12 meeting in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo/Mary Frances Schjonberg
Or, do they really believe the rest of us are idiots?
Here's the latest 'fancy footwork' from Kingston, Jamaica where the Anglican Consultative Council is meeting.
The title says it all.
'Evolving' covenant adoption process makes for ambiguity
"Evolving." Yeah. That's the ticket.
"Canon Kearon also said, "we're feeling our way" in terms of the implications for those provinces that decide not to sign onto the covenant, whether entities other than the provinces which are now members of the Anglican Consultative Council (as listed in the council's constitution) would be allowed to adopt the covenant and whether there would be a time limit for provinces to decide."
Ya got that? They're just "feeling their way" to a "covenant."
I read that and what I hear is, "We are making this up as we go along."
Add your own favorite metaphor. Mine is "building the plane while we're up in the air." No wonder Gomez thinks the Anglican Communion is on the brink of disaster. That's because, with these two clowns running the Covenant Process, if the ACC signed on now, we surely will be.
Instead of "feeling their way," I wish they could feel our pain as we are subjected to reading about what is either their incompetence or their duplicity played out on the international stage.
Either way, what an embarrassment!
Oh, wait! You're going to LOVE this next piece.
"Also during the news conference, Gomez was asked to expand on a comment made during his May 4 covenant presentation to the ACC that the Episcopal Church's General Convention meeting this summer threatened the future of the Anglican Communion. He told reporters that he had seen "on the net" some "statements that are alleged to be resolutions that are going to be put before convention." Gomez was at first reluctant to describe that material, but later called it "some stuff I saw related to the sexuality question" and "one about removing any barrier to persons involved in same-sex relationships."
"It did seem to me that if those are passed by the convention, that the state of the communion would be somewhat imperiled [because] other provinces would react to that kind of action," Gomez said."
Are you following this? I know. It's hard when my jaw keeps dropping to my chest. Not easy, either, to drink your morning coffee and read this stuff, either.
So, let me get this straight, as it were. The 'imperiled state of the communion' and primatial impatience of which Gomez spoke yesterday is due, at least in part, to this "stuff" that is "related to the sexuality question" that "are ALLEGED to be resolutions" he has "seen on the net" which just might pass General Convention - but hasn't because General Convention hasn't even happened yet and won't for another nine weeks or so.
I am NOT making this up.
What I AM thinking of doing, however, is calling my local pharmaceutical rep and asking if he might be willing to donate some Paxil or Valium for these boys.
They are about as nervous as two long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs.
I can't imagine that people on the conservative or even 'orthodox' side of the aisle are any happier about this.
We can only hope that the members of the ACC will see through all of these shenanigans and that Anglican decency and order will prevail.
Actually, come to think of it, dey be in Jamaica, mon. Dey can get dem som sweet smellin' stuff, baby. It's been a long while since I've been to Kingston, but I think I can still remember some places where all you have to do is walk by, breathe deeply and all your worries fade away.
Somebody cue Bob Marley to sing: "One love. One heart. Let's get together and feel alright."
Let's hope everyone at the ACC will listen to the lyrics of this song:
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One Love)
Hear the children crying (One Heart)
Sayin' give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin' let's get together and feel all right
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love)
There is one question I'd really like to ask (One Heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One Love)
So shall it be in the end (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
One more thing
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (One Love)
So when the Man comes there will be no no doom (One Song)
Have pity on those whose chances grove thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation
Sayin' One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
I'm pleading to mankind (One Love)
Oh Lord (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Let's get together and feel all right
Elizabeth wrote:
ReplyDelete'Ya got that? They're just "feeling their way" to a "covenant."
I read that and what I hear is, "We are making this up as we go along."
How about they're feeling their way to see how much they can get away with?
As to them feeling our pain and embarassment over their posturing and shameful public antics, I think they're too blinded by their own kleig lights, too hypnotized by the drone of their own voices and two entangled in their own purple skirts to ever remember there's a living, breathing, aching hungry world 'out there;' hungry for the embodied Good News of Jesus Christ.
Do they have even the first hint of an idea of what asses they so self-importantly make of themselves, and of what embrassment and shame they bring down upon the Church as they become more and more curia-like the longer this goes on?
David@Montreal
"We can only hope that the members of the ACC will see through all of these shenanigans and that Anglican decency and order will prevail."
ReplyDeleteMany join you in this hope and will pray that it be so!
Yup!
ReplyDeleteI like the building the airplane while flying metaphor. On my little space I have another comparison -- used car and tv chopper salesmen.
Both I think are apt.
FWIW
jimB
It is interesting that the Deputy Secretary General has now contradicted the Secretary General, his boss, but now his ecclesial junior, who held a press conference previously with the chairperson of the ACC meeting, Bishop John Paterson of Auckland, New Zealand, regarding adoption of this Covenant and its effect with membership rank in the ACC. The Sec Gen said there would be no effect, and the Dep Sec Gen is two days later saying that there well could be.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that five conservative Anglicans iron out documents in back rooms and then throw these onto a meeting floor for limited discussion, a quick vote, and ¡Alacazam! we have both the mind of the Communion, not to mention the mind of Christ through God's Holy Spirit!
David - I like your translation much better than mine. You seem to have a better grasp of the "English" than I. Then again, I'm American. ;~)
ReplyDeleteJohn - "We live in sure and certain hope," as we pray in the BCP.
Hey, Jim - your image of the TV chopper guy also makes me think of the Oxyclean guy who is so annoyingly omnipresent these days.
I sometimes scream at him, "Oh, get a life, pal."
Dahveed, darling - I LOVE the word, "Alacazam!" We used to use it with the kids all the time. I never knew it was Spanish for "Bullshit!"
So, wait, we've got WMD in our resolutions?
ReplyDeleteSo what they're putting together is not really a covenant at all, but a set of bylaws, dictating membership requirements for the Anglican Communion. And the problem is that if they allow in those radicals advocating same sex marriage, the conservatives won’t sign on because all of their heterosexual marriages will just go up in smoke, cease to exist, go kaput. All of their perfect children will then come from split homes. And, oh yes, the locusts will come and devour the grain in the fields. It sounds very much like some of the discussions I remember from my ill-spent youth. If you won’t play by my rules, I’ll take my ball and go home.
ReplyDeleteWell guess what guys; “It ain’t gonna work”. Gays are not going back in the closet. Women are not going to give up the vote. Freed people are not going back into servitude. Women are not going to go barefoot (unless it’s deemed fashionable), etc. etc. etc.
If case they haven’t noticed the writing on the State house walls recently, more and more of the states are beginning the process toward full marriage equality. These bishops really need a strong dose of reality.
Or, do they really believe the rest of us are idiots?
ReplyDeleteYEP! It is the same kind of paternalism that is present in the RC.
Mary Sue - apparently, according to Gomez (Why do I always feel like I'm in an Addams Family movie when I say his name?).
ReplyDeleteBill - Well, either one: a 'strong does of reality' or a strong whiff of ganja. How about this: A good swift kick in the butt?
Muthah - These boys are so close to Rome, all their surplices are lined in lace.
Those boys may be close to Rome but they are standing back to back. They don't really want Rome. They want their own pope and they all want to be him.
ReplyDeleteWord is shall.
Brilliant, Pseudo. You got it.
ReplyDelete