1. Poor +Pete.
2. It is perfectly legitimate to take the oath of allegiance whilst maintaining Republican views – at least, that was my belief when I took them, even though I wouldn’t describe myself as anything like a republican (in the UK sense) these days.
3. The problem with +Pete’s remarks, as compared to, say, spouting rampant heresy or nonsense, is that they were immediately and directly hurtful to the couple concerned. I don’t think it is wrong to have a higher standard with regard to pastoral care than doctrine (even though, in the long run, maintaining right doctrine is the foremost pastoral task of a Bishop). 1 Timothy 3.2 is also relevant.
4. The Daily Hate-mail is an odious and obnoxious organ, which faithful Christians need to ignore, for the sake of their spiritual health (even if I take great interest in reading some of their columnists, like Peter Hitchens).
~~~
5. Rowan called on the new Synod to have a grown up conversation theologically. He also talked about the ‘realities’ of the situation. One reality of the situation that he did not address is that the US church and the GAFCON churches will not enter into a meaningful covenant together. It is therefore disingenuous of him to plead that we acknowledge a reality whilst not being real himself. Either he takes the high road of calling for more Christian behaviour from everyone (which would carry authority from him), or he takes the pragmatic path of saying ‘this is our bed and we have to lie in it’. Straddling the fence in the way that he does is uncomfortable for him and catastrophic for us.
6. The pragmatic choice facing the church is not, therefore, between ‘division’ and ‘no division’ but rather ‘where shall the division fall?’. Having an honest and direct conversation on that subject would be much more helpful than the frankly abstract and legalistic semi-theological ramblings that we’ve endured so far.
7. There was a distinct whiff of fear being stoked to drive the conversation forwards – if we don’t do this then terrible things will happen (vaguely defined). Fear is the opposite of faith and therefore a good indicator of what it would be a mistake to do.
8. Much of what Rowan said amounted to a plea to trust him. Sorry, no. I revere him and consider him a holy man in all sorts of ways, but on this issue I do not trust his priorities, so the appeal fails.<\/p>\n
All of which makes me a little sad this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Poor +Pete.2. It is perfectly legitimate to take the oath of allegiance whilst maintaining Republican views – at least, that was my belief when I took them, even though I wouldn’t describe myself as anything like a republican (in … Continue reading