Further from the presiding bishop's letter

This paragraph clearly calls out the duplicity of one Rowan Williams of Canterbury. And yet it has received very little comment on the web. I wonder why?

We are further distressed that such sanctions do not, apparently, apply to those parts of the Communion that continue to hold one view in public and exhibit other behaviors in private. Why is there no sanction on those who continue with a double standard? In our context bowing to anxiety by ignoring that sort of double-mindedness is usually termed a “failure of nerve.” Through many decades of wrestling with our own discomfort about recognizing the full humanity of persons who seem to differ from us, we continue to work at open and transparent communication as well as congruence between word and behavior. We openly admit our failure to achieve perfection!

Of course, one thinks of England here:

• England where civil partnerships are legal, and not uncommon among clergy
• England, where Dr. Williams is in charge, unlike North America where he meddles
• England where a standing joke is that they cannot ban gay choir directors because there would be no music (not true but none-the-less it is an English joke)
• England where there are at least as many gay bishops as in the USA

Somehow England does not have to assume "consultant status."

When the PB notes for TEC "We are further distressed..." she calls someone to account. I predict we won't hear from Dr. Williams on this. Hypocrisy works best in silence. We won't hear from England's gay bishops either. Cowardice works best in silence. The faithful readers of this blog (both :-) know, I have asked this before, what about England. Why CoE which doing what ACoCanada and TEC do: England gets a pass? Silence is not golden, it is false faced.

Fr. Jim Stockton titled his initial response to Dr. Williams's letter, "Call to Silence" and so it is. Dr. Williams' effort is not to make TEC or ACoCanada pure. Rather it is to make us shut up. Gene Robinson is not the first LBGT bishop in TEC (I personally know others) but he is its most honest one. I rather suspect that if we knew the truth we would find both bi-sexual and gay bishops in Central Africa. We do not know, at least in part because in Africa silence is life.

Finally then we see in this paragraph TEC's failure in Dr. Williams' view. Americans, I have been told by Europeans more than once, do not know when to shut up. When Timothy says, "preach the gospel in season, and out of season" where is the archbishop? Oh, yeah, making Christians "consultants." Well then!

FWIW
jimB