The Communion - Part 3

From the beginning of my assignment to be serve as a missionary in Rome, I have had three primary tasks in serving here - (1) serve refugees at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, (2) participate in every part of parish ministry at St. Paul's Within the Walls, and (3) engage in inter-Anglican, ecumenical, and interfaith dialogue, particularly at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Particularly throughout January 2016, amidst the critical Primates' Meeting in Canterbury and the annual celebration of Christian Unity Week, the third of my mission tasks has garnered significant attention. For this reason, my blog posts in the month of January will particularly focus on building relationships across various lines of faith and culture. 

On January 15, 2016, the Primates of the Anglican Communion released this statement following their recent meeting in Canterbury. The following day, several of the primates including the Archbishop of Canterbury held a press conference to report on the meeting and its results.

 Immediately, a whirlwind of statements, commentaries, Facebook posts, tweets, and arguments of all sorts virtually flew from the desks of diocesan bishops clergy and Anglican watchers of all sorts. Coming down on every possible perspective, this flood of supplementary statements merely added to the worldwide crush of news reports from the secular media and all forms of gossip and rumor-spreading across the globe. To my reading, the vast majority of the commentary has been disappointingly salacious, inflammatory, knee-jerk and either uninformed of the structures of Anglicanism or so vitriolic as to be unfit for the Body of Christ, the Church.

At the Anglican Centre, Rome, with Archbishops David Moxon (New Zealand) and Philip Freier (Australia)
along with artist Leftaris Olympios and Episcopal seminarian Tommie Watkins.

Only a few of the reports and reactions in the wake of the Primate’s meeting truly merit consultation and reflection for the sake of sober, informed and Christ-like discourse across the communion. Every Anglican should read the original statement from the Primates here. Likewise, Every Episcopalian needs to read the brief report from the Episcopal News Service and especially Presiding Bishop Curry's six-minute video message from Canterbury following the Primate’s meeting. Episcopalians would also be wise to read the statements of their respective local diocesan bishops, which can probably be found on your diocesan websites, such as this one from my bishop, +Tom Breidenthal of Southern Ohio. Finally, the most regaled of the reaction blog posts is this one from the Very Rev. Andrew McGowan, dean of my own Berkeley Divinity School. McGowan’s brief reflection was even highly recommended to me personally by Archbishop Phillip Freier of Australia, who was one of the 38 primates present at the meeting.

In the spirit of adding constructively to the global conversation, I offer here a few reflections of my own:

(1)  In the first paragraph of their statement, the Primates expressed their unanimous desire to “walk together” – to remain in Communion with one another. This was far from a foregone conclusion going into the meeting, and in large part it is extraordinarily good news. Even in the midst of massive and fundamental disagreements about the direction in which Christ calls us to walk, I am gratified by the Primates’ desire for the churches to at least discern that will of God together. The Anglican Communion has not broken apart, but remains one family, even in the midst of considerable dysfunction.

(2) The Primates consequently unanimously affirm what is in fact an empirical truth, albeit one that is difficult for Episcopalians to hear – in voting to allow clergy to perform same-sex-marriages, the Episcopal Church did change a fundamental aspect of its doctrine of marriage without serious consultation of the rest of the Anglican Communion before moving forward. Regardless of one’s opinion of same-sex marriage in general, it is factually true that the Episcopal Church was the first member church of the Anglican Communion to make this particular step. It is not clear, however, what kind of “consultation” the other primates would have wanted or expected, especially because each member church (e.g. the Episcopal Church USA, the Church of England, the Province of West Africa, the Church of Australia, etc) is completely autonomous. We are not an Anglican federation or a republic but instead we are a confederation of individual national/multinational provinces that generally get to make their own rules. There is no “pope” and nothing on the worldwide Anglican scale like a Congress or a ruling legislative body. There is no mechanism by which any member Church, including the Episcopal Church can truly judge, decide on, force, or veto the doctrines of other Churches. So what kind of consultation is in order? In any group decision, somebody simply has to be first. Somebody had to be the first to ordain women (see Frances Li Tim Oi), and now women can be ordained in provinces across the globe. Somebody had to make the first official steps as a Church apart from Roman Catholicism in order for our Communion to exist at all. Issues of justice, of civil rights and equality are simply not to be submitted to committees or legislatures for approval, but to be acted upon boldly and intrepidly.

(3) The Primates make clear the displeasure of the majority of their members with TEC’s move forward toward full acceptance of same-sex marriage. As a “consequence” of TEC’s decision (not a “sanction” or a “punishment” the Archbishop of Canterbury later clearly articulated), the Primates express their desire to exclude TEC members from voting on certain ecumenical committees for three years. Admittedly this is at first glance a harsh-sounding punishment & I was personally rather angry when I first read the decision. However, upon further analysis, I see far more reason for at least some level of satisfaction. Contrary to popular conception, TEC has indeed not been "suspended" from the Anglican Communion, (not that the Primates have authority to "suspend" any province anyway). And although the "consequences" levied on TEC may sound grievous, in some ways they amount to "a strongly worded letter, a strong talking to and a slap on the wrist" as I've characterized it recently. The recommended (and not even officially mandated) withdrawals of Episcopal representatives from ecumenical, interfaith & doctrine-related boards directly effects roughly only five people in the entire Episcopal Church! Two of those people, Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut and House of Deputies President Gay Clark Jennings have written about it in their own respective letters. Although most Episcopalians fail to realize it, TEC representatives were removed from the same boards in 2010 and allowed back in 2012. Nonetheless, during that time the Episcopal Church continued to thrive and the missing representatives (while their perspectives were missed and could have benefitted their committees heartily) did not result in major effects across the Episcopal and Anglican worlds. We got through it just fine before, and we'll get through just fine again. 

(4) Finally, dear friends, we continue to have a very bright future looking forward. Personally, I am deeply honored to be a member of a church that is willing to go to the mat to protect my rights as an LGBT person and the rights of millions like me across the globe. We are so blessed also to have the support of our beloved siblings in the Churches of Canada and Brazil, along with so many others across our worldwide Communion. And I cannot possibly say enough about the incredible, wise, Godly leadership of my friend and Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry. In the wake of the decision, some have made the reactionary suggestion that TEC withdraw or suspend its financial support in the provinces that have most opposed TEC's position in the Anglican Communion. This is an unwise and un-Christlike move to be sure, and would result in only increased animosity rather than increased fellowship and Communion across the great boundaries with which we continue to struggle. Instead, we are called to love more deeply, more strongly than ever before, calling on the help of the Holy Spirit at all times. When our three-year suspension is over, I know that TEC will not have changed its mind on being a prophetic and inclusive church, nor will the more conservative provinces change their mind on supporting theological orthodoxy as they see it. That is ok. With God's help we will move forward together into a world we cannot yet see.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely

more than we can ask or imagine:  Glory to him from

generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus

for ever and ever.  Amen.   Ephesians 3:20,21

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