#ECGC Danger of 'spiritual earwax' at Anaheim

Three years ago, when much of our new media environment was in its infancy, I blogged GenCon from my living room in Surrey. This time, given the advances that have been made, it seemed inappropriate to do that. Had it not clashed with General Synod in York this weekend, I would have tried to attend. I must ask Rowan Williams how to bilocate when I see him at York on Sunday. Lacking such saintly attributes in my own person, I've asked one of those attending, Sue Carter, to file a report. She has sent this, below. Sue is Professor of Journalism at the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, a former broadcast reporter, and newly ordained in The Episcopal Church, serving as a priest associate at St Michael’s in Lansing, Michigan.

Sue Carter's dispatch from Anaheim

Mission. Identity. Ubuntu. These are the three concepts underpinning the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Anaheim, California. Much thought has gone into keeping these themes at the forefront.

Such preparations are not surprising given the rough ride within the Anglican Communion the last half-decade.

It is testament, though, to the desire not only to hang together, but to move the discussion away from the dividing issues surrounding gays and lesbians in the Church to concerns about economy and impoverishment.

Sex seems less important when savings have tanked and people are starving. That’s not to suggest that the crucial matters of inclusion – not only of LGBT people, but Hispanics as well – are being ignored. Indeed they are not.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was very express in his meditation at the Thursday Eucharist that he clearly hoped that in the coming days there would not be decisions that would “push us further apart.”

Archbishop Williams, an invited guest to the triennial convention did, however, acknowledge that decisions regarding the consecration of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions have been costly for some.

There is impatience, he said, a sense of harassment and compromise; of being devalued. To that he added, “I’m sorry; this has been hard and will not get much easier, I suspect.

But it is something for which many of us genuinely are grateful to you and to God.” Difficult words for those who hope that an inclusive church will be fully embracing.

After the Eucharist, some one hundred delegates and supporters sported Integrity t-shirts reading “Here I Am. Send Me” gathered outside the convention center to sing and take pictures in a gesture of solidarity.

Given his position, Archbishop Williams still scheduled time for a visit yesterday with eight men and women, gay and lesbian, for a private meeting. One of the attendees told me later that all, including the archbishop used the gathering to share stories rather than statistics. Both sides were surprised, even struck, by the powerful narratives, and resolved to allow room for the gospel to flourish. The attendee added that both the archbishop and the eight have to watch out for “spiritual earwax” however. “It can be deadly.”

One of the convention daily newsletters, Center Aisle, remarked in an editorial that the archbishop has transitioned from his position as Primate of Wales.

Calling it a sign of strength rather than weakness, the paper noted that a “onetime ‘liberal’ on matters of human sexuality has become a seeker of unity, a crafter of consensus.” Clearly two perspectives on the archbishop.

Wednesday night, Archbishop Williams addressed more than a thousand deputies, bishops and others at a forum, “Christian Faithfulness in the Global Economic Crisis.” His remarks centered on the economic crisis, “of Biblical scale,” he noted, on shared responsibility for the debacle, and on the greed that brought us to this point.

Hewing to the convention’s foci of mission, identity and ubuntu he underscored the crisis in truthfulness – the need to quit lying to ourselves about the cost of Western profits to much of the rest of the world. “We have lied to ourselves,” he said, “about the possibility of limitless material growth in a limited world.” One answer: churches can be trusted vehicles to do much on the local level to rebuild the economy and give dignity. Faith-based agents of change in cities, rural areas, and lesser developed countries alike. I

n her own sermon the day before, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori used the interesting medical analogy of a heart transplant to talk about a re-energized mission of the church – or else. “We are in cardiac crisis if we think we can close the doors, and swing our incense and sing our hymns, and all will be right with the world.”

And part of that mission, that abundant life that will come from a transplant, will give life to the world, she continued.

It was the presiding bishop’s remarks at the convention opening on Tuesday that have apparently roiled elsewhere, but caused barely a ripple here. In telling the more than one hundred bishops and eight-hundred deputies collected, that “business as usual” was not going to get the job done, she added that that it was a “great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”

In a gathering dedicated to stressing the cause of unity, the “individualistic focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy…that heresy is one reason for the theme of this convention.”

The people here got it, and I don’t sense any particular distress because of her remarks challenging that salvation depends on an individual reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. The tapestry I see being woven is one of community and shared interests, of inclusion and reaching out. It remains to be seen if everyone gets stitched in.

To follow #ecgh, to give it its Twitter tag, try the official page of the General Covention of The Episcopal Church.

Comments

[David Palmer]

"The tapestry I see being woven is one of community and shared interests, of inclusion and reaching out. It remains to be seen if everyone gets stitched in"

Is this meant to be a serious comment - perhaps she is hoping for the time when no more orthodox remain in the TEC?

[Ned]

What does the Presiding Bishop mean by “great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals"? Where is it written - in the Bible or the Church Fathers?