"Exercising Restraint" in New Orleans

The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church has issued its long-awaited statement in response to the communique issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in their February 2007 meeting in Tanzania.

I am saddened, encouraged and skeptical all at the same time. Saddened because I believe that the steps taken by the Episcopal Church in recent years have been steps in the right direction. As Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has said, however, "actions believed in good faith to be ‘prophetic’ in their radicalism are likely to have costly consequences," and prophetic actions are seldom viewed by others as such in their contemporary contexts.

I am encouraged because, though the bishops' statement may appear to some a step backward, it is very much an expression of the commitment of this province of the Anglican Communion to enter more fully into the "listening process" initiated by the Windsor Report and the Primates' Meeting. One must recognize when discerning God's will in community, which has been a hallmark of Anglican tradition and polity, that sometimes the answer is neither "yes" or "no," but "wait." I think it is very important that the Episcopal Church remain part of the Anglican Communion, to safeguard the catholicity of the Anglican tradition. To that end, my experience of the Episcopal Church tells me that we should be willing to wait.

I am skeptical because I do not believe that those factions most disaffected by the actions of the Episcopal Church at General Convention 2003 and following will much care to change their positions. At its heart, this conflict is not, as I see it, centered on biblical authority (or more accurately, who can claim biblical authority) and it is not about the influence of "declining American morality" on the rest of the Communion. This conflict is about power. The movements by certain- shall we say "elements"?- within the Communion since GC 2003 have taken unprecedented and decidely un-Anglican steps toward centralizing authority in the hands of a few within the Communion, rather than allowing the autonomous provinces to govern their own affairs.

I fervently hope that I am wrong regarding this last point. Wouldn't it be a wonderful turn of events for those primates to recall their "irregularly consecrated" bishops back to their new home provinces? The bishops of the Episcopal Church have extended the olive branch on our behalf. It's time for those that called for these actions, who may or may not have believed that we would actually take them, to put their mitres where their mouths are.

From left, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Mississippi Bishop Duncan Gray III, Louisiana Bishop Charles E. Jenkins, and New York Suffragan Bishop Catherine Roskam, address media at a news conference during the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans.

Photograph by Matthew Davies, courtesy of Episcopal Life Online

Here we go again...

So today concludes my first full week as a graduate student at Boston University School of Theology. Now, by "first full week" I mean two days of class, and three days of doing a fat lot of nothing. Since I just got my last syllabus yesterday, and one of my classes hasn't actually started yet, I don't feel quite like the fat, lazy slacker that I probably should, but I do have this lovely sinking feeling that I have gotten myself into something that might be undoing.

Sitting in class did, however, feel very right. It's the first time in about 2 to 2 1/2 years that I have really felt like I was at a place in life that was where I was supposed to be. Then I came home and looked at my assignments, and looked at the application deadlines for my PhD programs, and my heart sank again. As a student in the Master of Sacred Theology (STM) program, I am going to be called upon to do quite a bit more work in some of my courses than the other students. I don't begrudge the extra work; in the end it will be worth it. But 16 credit hours, plus extra course requirements, along with 12 hours of work per week (I hope, I still haven't been able to get in touch with my boss about my schedule) is probably going to lead to a nervous breakdown. I have the distinct feeling that I am about to crawl into a hole and not emerge until classes are over. At least I won't be spending money.

On a mostly unrelated note, Wednesday chapel services are going to be interesting. The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church have entered into "Interim Eucharistic Sharing" (whatever that means). I think I came to the BU School of Theology not a moment too soon. We've got some liturgical work to do with the next generation of UMC ministers... ;^)