Tuesday, July 14, 2009

"All the Sacraments to All the Baptized"

I wake up this Bastille Day morning to the news that the Episcopal Church will continue to ordain gay clergy.  The notorious resolution B033 which was intended to stop further consecrations of lgbt bishops (it never said so explicitly, but everyone knew what "manner of life" meant, and it  didn't mean right wing bishops with multiple divorces) that was strongarmed through the last General Convention in the closing minutes is no more.  Resolution D025, which effectively repeals that resolution, sailed through both houses by 2 to 1 margins.

The great Mad One of Newcastle has a splendid editorial on the demise of B033, and urges us Yanks to take heart, and reminds us that we will ultimately win this thing.

The ball is in the court of the rest of the Anglican Communion.  If they want to throw us out, so be it, but I don't think that is very likely.  Homos just aren't the communion breaker for most of the rest of the world, that they are for Nigeria, the Southern Cone, and the very loud and well-financed right wing clergy cabal that started this whole unpleasantness.
The schismatics will soon turn on each other.  The Anglo Catholic woman haters in lace won't travel far with the fire-breathing Evangelical Bible thumpers.   The splits over women's ordination are already starting.  The homos are the only thing that holds them together.  They need us as enemies.  Expect them to continue firing shots at us long after they've left the hall.
The schismatics don't even pretend to stand for anything positive.  They are the religious wing of all those who fear the future and are fueled by nothing but resentment.  They are part of that mind-set that believes enfranchisement is a zero-sum game; "whenever someone gets something, it means that I've lost something."

Which is the church that really offers hope to a bleeding world torn apart by greed, ambition, fanaticism and bigotry?  The one that requires that you to pass a 10 page examination and a blood test, or the one where even the homos are welcome to the party so it must have room for you? 


This news together with Bastille Day makes it worth my while to post L' Hymne a l'amour again.

6 comments:

Rick+ said...

     It's a good day, huh Doug?

     Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. - Matthew 11:28

     All, all, all, all... All!

Counterlight said...

Vive l'Eglise Americain!

What's "Episcopal" in French, all you Francophones out there?

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

l'Eglise Americaine...

Dont' think there is an equivalent ;=)

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

I suppost one could say Épiscopal - but that would probably n o t sound French.

June Butler said...

Counterlight, I am so happy this Bastille Day, that I am about to burst. Whatever the consequences, the two houses of the Episcopal Church did the right thing in voting for justice for all the baptized. Honestly, I was shocked by the lop-sided vote in the HOB. I believe that, despite his intentions, Rowan Williams helped make it happen there.

Thanks so much for the lovely song by ma chère Edith.

Lapinbizarre said...

I suspect that the passive-aggressive reindeer games Williams played with the American bishops at Lambeth and at his GC appearance last week, contrasted with the free pass he has given to the African and South American interventionist primates, has pissed-off a sufficient number of "moderate" TEC bishops to produce the unexpectedly large, two to one, majority for overturning B033. I also suspect that the bishops intended to leave no wriggle-room for Williams to try in future to play one faction against the other. Our bishop (Henderson) who proposed B033 three years ago, yesterday moved the successful amendment to D025 and then voted in favor of it.

Also, never forget that Williams still needs TEC's money.