Church of Nigeria: The Episcopal Church compared to “a cancerous lump”
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[Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams] boldly puts the blame at the door of the Episcopal Church where there had been no agreement or any kind of consensus — whether in the Episcopal Church itself or in the global Communion — before the ordination of Gene Robinson was undertaken. It is noteworthy also that he remarks that “the recent resolutions of the General Convention have not produced a complete response to the challenges of the Windsor Report…” One wonders if such blatant disregard should not be reprimanded.
The Archbishop says we “have tried to be a family of Churches willing to learn from each other across cultural divides, not assuming that European (or American or African) wisdom is what settles everything, opening up the lives of Christians here to the realities of Christian experience everywhere”. [sic] He then goes on to suggest that the genuine concerns expressed about orthodoxy and the need to contend for the faith once entrusted to the saints, have made the debate harder, and “reinforced the lines of division and led to enormous amounts of energy going into ‘political’ struggle (!) with and between churches in different parts of the world.” The idea that these genuine concerns have degenerated to the “politicization of a theological dispute” instead of “reasoned debate” is very sadly patronizing. One would have expected that those who had embarked on this religious misadventure would be encouraged to judge their actions against our well-established historic tradition.
A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure. To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient.
Hat tip: Get Religion
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One Response to “Church of Nigeria: The Episcopal Church compared to “a cancerous lump””
Copyright © 2002–2011 Kevin Robert (Basil) Fritts, all rights reserved.
July 10th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
I’m watching this discussion with a great deal of interest, because I believe it is precisely the sort of direction that the discussion ought to be moving within the ELCA. Good stuff.