There's tons of stuff in the media at the moment about the Church of England, because the Lambeth conference is about to start and there are Bishops from all over the world all over the TV news and papers.
One in particular - Gene Robinson, whom the papers are calling the world's first openly gay bishop. He hasn't been invited to Lambeth, but is going anyway and will surely take every media opportunity to rub the noses of his opponents in the mess that we are all making of the Anglican Church.
I have my own strong opinions about the ethical prerequisites for Christian leadership, which we won't get into right now. Let's just say they are founded on a high valuing of Christian marriage. Thing is, I'm in a cleft stick, since my ecclesiology tells me that the validity of a sacramental ministry is not dependant on the nature of the minister providing it (Article 26, the 39 Articles of Religion) whereas my (I guess relatively conservative)Biblical approach to morality tells me that the ECUSA (i.e. US Anglicans) should not have elected Gene, (an out, active gay man) as a bishop, given the storm they must have known it would cause. So in fact it ought to have been just his electors, not Gene himself who were dis invited to the Lambeth conference.
The worst thing about all this mess is that it is just a distraction from the task of parish ministry which I should be getting on with instead of blogging away on here.
Stuff on Women Bishops to come later.
Who's this then?
- Tim Goodbody
- Chelmsford, Essex, United Kingdom
- The occasional blog of an Anglican priest in rural Essex
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