Revised 30 June: Do not miss this article! http://tinyurl.com/5bgnen utterly on point. jimB
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Well, Gafcon is finally over. The conference issued a statement -- wait how odd is that language? The conference issued a statement? GafCon is typical of the horribly bad theology and worse polity from the homophobic lobby over the last few years. They want to have it both ways.
In the illogic of the statement one can see the issues that divided the bishops who showed up. They want to purge the bad, evil, liberals and homosexuals, but they want to retain the 'Anglican" label and identity. They want to be in charge, but they do not want ABp Akinola in charge. So, we have the 'statement.'
It says that somehow Anglican thought ended with the failing Calvinism of the 39 Articles. It also says that the conference will spawn a new province that will somehow be out of fellowship with the American, Canadian and other bad liberal provinces, condemn Rowan Williams about every other paragraph and somehow gain standing in the WWAC.
Either that is an amazing faith in miracles or an inability to agree. I am voting for "b." Gafcon failed, and then tried to paper over the failure. This is another version of the St. Louis declaration that announced it was unified and then spawned 50 some 'true' misogynist denominations.
If it were not for the brutish, vicious and dishonest nature of the leadership, one could pity these folks. As is, we can pray for their conversion to Christianity, and toss them out. There really is not much else to do.
Finally, in their continuing inability to think about public relations, they issued their statement with 14 points. Someone there did not get the joke, but then consider the pun found in 'GAF(fe) Con. At the end of the first world war, President Wilson went off to France with his 14 points. When told he was coming to France with 14 points, president Clemenceau remarked, "Heavens, God only had ten!"
So now the great gaffe is 14 points! They cannot expect anyone to take them seriously!
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- JimB
- I am an Anglo-catholic Episcoplain layman, a lay contemplative, a musician, and a completely doting grandfather. New slogan for the election cycle: Vote for Cthulhu -- don't settle for the lesser evil!
4 comments:
Good stuff. I concur FWIW with much of what you say, with the added point that the Communique is actually incoherent. Williams recently noted Anglicans have not produced an eccelsiology adequate to the troubles they are creating--and that failure glares through the text of the Communique.
Their whole endeavor would be comical if their intentions were not so openly bad.
I'm puzzled. I read the GAFCON statement and I'm not sure I'd call it incoherent. That is, it is of a piece of the theology which conservative Anglicans have held. Now, mind you, I'd prefer a higher ecclesiology (which would really help matters, in my opinion), but I can't see how that is incoherent (merely wrong, I think). Unless we're trying to read it like liberals-a futile endeavor at best.
Peace,
Phil
Phil,
I do not hope the conservative enterprise is futile. I shall let my Scotist friend comment if he will on 'incoherent.'
I do think there is an effort there to paper over the cleavages. As I have observed in the past, one cannot build a church on opposition. Sooner or later one must be for something. Clearly, in my reading, the fact that Uganda and Pittsburgh ordain women is a problem for some of the others. The tap dancing on that issue does not lead to a solid statement.
FWIW
jimB
phil,
I'm happy to comment on the incoherence: points (6) and (13) in the Jerusalem Declaration have contradictory implications. I've argued for this in two posts on my site--and I'd be happy to hash it out some more.
Briefly, (6) commits the GACON Primates and member provinces to recognizing the catholicity of the church, and (13) commits them to denying the catholicity of the church. Additional premises: no church can be catholic without authority; the Jer Dec requires members to deny the authority of TEC; TEC is catholic. QED
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