Reader Response to the Lambeth Conference
Episcopal News Service. July 29, 2008 [072908-12]
Reader responses to ELO's coverage of the Lambeth Conference follow.
Lambeth Conference Daily Account: Bishop Suffragan Catherine S. Roskam of New York, Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona
The Rev. Canon Nancy Platt • Augusta, Maine
How saddened I am to read that there is still an effort to ban same sex blessings and gay clergy continuing. It is as unrealistic as it was to not ordain women in the 70's and 80's when I was marginalized by the church. Blessings and ordination still happened and will in an underground way and still make gays marginal people. It almost sounds as though it is easier to be Muslim or Buddhist than gay in our Christian church.
Windsor Group proposes continuing bans on border crossings, same-gender blessings, consecration of gay bishops
Ned Carmody • Ivy Gates-Troy, South Carolina
Thank God for the cross-border interventions. At least those who are orthodox have a place to go.
Windsor Group proposes continuing bans on border crossings, same-gender blessings, consecration of gay bishops
Reed Ide • New York, New York
I am extremely fearful that the Episcopal Church is going to be boxed into an untenable position. The genie is out of the bottle in the U.S., and is pushing at the cork in the U.K., Canada, and other regions. Human rights and human dignity are not negotiable. But I fear the Lambeth
Conference will consider them to be exactly that. As a gay Episcopalian, I have watched, listened, and felt the need to be patient as this issue moved through the process of examination and discourse. However, if at the end of the Lambeth Council, we who are gay and lesbian members of the church are told once again to accept second class status for another indefinite period, then the time has come for me to leave the church.
Windsor Group proposes continuing bans on border crossings, same-gender blessings, consecration of gay bishops
Barry Lace • Glen Oaks, New York
This proposal does not come as a surprise. I quess what really disturbs me is the almost sadistic nature of the position which upholds that sexual expression should only be in the context of marriage and then denies that opportunity to persons of the same sex. It seems like a mission in conflict. This is truly cruel and for some persons leads to a depressing state of life. Thank God, I, as a gay man living with my partner for over 30 years, keep a closed ear to this dark, spiritually unhealthy message. I wonder when this church will see light.
Windsor Group proposes continuing bans on border crossings, same-gender blessings, consecration of gay bishops
Linda McMillan • Austin, Texas
How about we actually enforce the ban on border crossings, marry no one, bless everyone, and get us some more gay bishops? That's my Windsor Continuation plan. I'll just hold my breath.
Windsor Continuation Group proposals on homosexuality issues, interventions, get mixed reception
Peggy Ziegler • Bend, Oregon
I feel that our commission from Christ is clear; love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. My conscience tells me that excluding people who are in loving monogamous relationships with someone of the same sex is not living according to this commission. If the church excludes them in any manor, it will no longer be my church, for I don't believe we have the right to tell God’s children that they can't be a part of God's family.
Sudanese primate wants Robinson's resignation
Tim Yeager • Oak Park, Illinois
I find Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul's comments to be very disappointing. I have met him at our diocesan conventions, before he was elected the Sudanese primate, and had personal conversations with him about the civil war in Sudan and the response of the Church to it. It is hardly a Christian response to the differences in the Church to suggest that the other side resign, and worse to refuse to speak to the person with whom he has differences. But his refusal to even speak with Bishop Robinson would seem to be consistent with his even more incredible statement that there are gay or lesbian people in Sudan.
Reader Response to the Lambeth Conference
Andrew Genovese • Albany, New York
Inquisition. Schism. Condemnation. Shunning. Scripture. Tradition. Reason. Truth. I’m tired. How about you? His yoke was easy and his burden light. How did it get so tough and heavy? Think of all the wealth, power, fame and knowledge available to Christians. What good is it?
No good without love.
Still dripping water from the Jordan, Jesus is dragged into the desert where he rejects the usual nonsense of wealth, power and fame. Annoyed by a bunch of disciples that still didn’t get it, Jesus ridicules their concept of knowledge, saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” That was how many years ago?
And Paul, the well-educated, the well-connected, the zealot, always struggling with what to make of that blinding experience, writes that he considers all of it trash except for his knowledge of Christ. He determines to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. But we seem to need more, more fruit of the tree that brought us here.
Maybe love is enough. Maybe all you need is love. Maybe loving is a way of knowing as well as having, being and doing.
If God is (literally) love, and if it is the sign of our discipleship, and if it fulfills the law (and the rules and the regulations and the agendas and the goals and the …), why do we not make love our basic principle and core mission – love of God, each other and the earth?
If not, how are we Christians different from the world to which we are sent in peace?
Lambeth Digest, Day 7
Sara Hamlen • Boston, Massachusetts
I am much more interested in the "laundry lines" story than the Windsor-ad-infinitem discussions. When you are far from home at long conferences, it's those moments in the laundry line that your most interesting conversations occur (or on the shuttle bus at the end of the day). Thanks for including these everyday details in your reports.
Windsor Continuation Group proposals on homosexuality issues,interventions, get mixed reception
George McGonigle • Austin, Texas
I suppose we expect too much from Lambeth. Bishops, like the rest of us, are searching for truth "in all peace." But I must say the first public document issuing from the "Windsor Continuation Group" is a very small blip on the radar screen covering the Communion's troubles. The only clear items I can discern are: (a) you Episcopalians and Canadians need to keep your shirt on while the rest of the Communion decides how to relate to what you're doing, if we can, (b) we need a "super province" (read "pastoral forum") to make recommendations on how to deal with emerging issues dividing us and to "hold" splinter groups "in trust" until reconciliation can take place, and (c) let's have a "covenant" but we don't yet know what it should say.
I think some sort of framing document (maybe "covenant" is too liable to be misunderstood as having theological overtones some find fiendish) is probably a good idea, as long as the varieties of ecclesiology present within the Communion are somehow accommodated ... a big order. Seems to me eliminating a lot of theological gesticulations and sticking with the Chicago/Lambeth Quadrilateral and a simple procedure for referring issues deemed divisive to some sort of body which would study their implications with input from all provincial structures as well as theologians and canonists so that a thorough airing takes place before action is taken. I may be naive but I think our General Convention is made up of reasonable, caring, intelligent folk who are willing to stay in, rather than out, of communion with a wide variety of churches who, like we, are struggling to be faithful to our Lord and Savior and to each other.
Windsor Continuation Group proposals on homosexuality issues, interventions, get mixed reception
Kevin Todd • Easton, Maryland
The subject of homosexuality needs to be resolved soon and can't keep being procrastinated until the next meeting. I don't see how the Episcopal Church can ban ordination of gay and lesbian people to the Episcopate. Bishop Gene Robinson was elected fair and square; therefore, the process should be allowed. I agree with Archbishop Clive Handford, former primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East and chair of the continuation group, who told a news briefing that "we are not anywhere intending to imply that Bishop Gene Robinson should resign as a result of what we have called for in our observations."
Same-sex unions should be blessed as well. They are two people that love and care for each other, wanting to start a life together. So what that they are of the same gender?
What hope do LGBT's have with this "forum" if Archbishop Williams is the president and he gets to appoint a chair? This should not be allowed.
The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA, issued a statement saying, in part, that "LGBT Anglicans are back on the chopping block based on the work of the Windsor Continuation Group."
Acknowledging the long-term nature of the Windsor Process, she added, "sadly, what was continued today was the process of institutionalizing bigotry and marginalizing the LGBT baptized. Acceptance of these recommendations would result in de facto sacramental apartheid."
God loves LGBT people as much as he loves heterosexuals. There is no difference in his love for creation.
Windsor Continuation Group proposals on homosexuality issues, interventions, get mixed reception
Laura Freeze • Hammond, Louisiana
This seems like a "cop out" to me. The response given in this article is much like a government body - you can't make a decision, so you form another committee and hope the problem goes away.
This is a moral issue and not about what one does in the bedroom. Would Jesus exclude people from serving God in the way that they are called because simply they are people that love differently? I don't presume to know exactly what he would think but I would guess he would not exclude anyone who was called to serve God.
I think that this issue has been politicized on both sides - we need to take it out the political realm and simply let those who have been called to serve - serve.
Lambeth Conference begins considering 'difficult situations'
Arthur MacFadden Ed.D. • Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Is it not amazing how words and deeds are colored by the authority, the power base and/or perceived power base manifested in each individual that is practiced or cited by those who are the "leaders" of the church. Or is it self image? Vanity? No, no, no, it cannot be ... it is you, not me.
Power can be the Great Corruptor.
There is a PROBLEM within the Church. Where is the will to solve it?
How long are you going to tempt GOD? He can make the decision. He has spoken in many ways … are you listening or are you going to persist in having it your way?
You speak and teach of a day of judgment for each of us ... that means each of the clergy is to be included in the "us." Vaya con Dios.