Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire posted a final summing up of GC09 from his vantage point at his blog Canterbury Tales from the Fringe.
This Convention had an unexpected -- and wonderful -- effect on me. The marginalization I have felt from my own House of Bishops since Lambeth seems to have disappeared. Finally, after months of feeling "cut out of the herd" by Lambeth, I once again feel restored to the community of bishops. Perhaps it was my own doing, I don't know. But whatever distance I felt, now seems mostly healed. And for that I am very grateful.
One brother bishop noted in private that my blog was still called "Canterbury Tales from the Fringe," and wondered if that was not out of date now. While I had simply decided to continue the same blog, rather than establish a new one, I now wonder if at some level I had still felt "on the fringe." Because that is no longer the case, if I decide to blog again (I'm sure I will), it will be under a different name. I, along with my gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters, are moving into full participation in the Body of Christ. There is no sweeter result of General Convention than this one.
Please read Bishop Gene's entire post. I regret that he was not able to participate in the African Indaba process at Lambeth, as he did at the convention in Anaheim, because I believe that he would have made an enormous positive contribution. Although he was barred from the meetings at Lambeth, the Anglican Communion came no closer to unity because of it.
Of the meeting of 25 bishops who stayed up late in the night, Bishop Gene says:
NEVER in my six years as a bishop have I experienced the holy speaking and holy listening I experienced that night.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks to David@Montreal for sending me the link.
The "bishop who rose and proposed "discharging" the resolution (in effect, NOT voting on it and making it "go away")" was our baby bishop Sean Rowe. I am furious with him. And all the bishops who wish TEC were like Africa where they could run the show according to their own desires. Sorry, boys, but the laity and clergy have a say too in TEC. We need to be watchful and keep those power seekers in check.
ReplyDeletePiskie, I'm sorry to hear that. Here's what you wrote in the comments to my post announcing Sean Rowe's election as bishop:
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mimi, for the prayers. Sean is a great kid. Very dynamic. Full of ideas. Needs leavening. Has never been outside the diocese except for seminary and conventions. He is very popular, especially among the young. I'm not sure that is a qualification for leadership in a diocese which is quite elderly. Attracting youth while keeping the older folks who pay the bills will be a major challenge. We need all the prayers we can get.
The matter wasn't going away, but young Bp. Rowe alarmed not a few folks for a spell with his maneuver.
+Gene is wonderful but perhaps naive. I am reminded of indications that some of the Bishops who voted for ++KJS went home to moan about how her election was (or should be) the end of TEC. So the fact that some who voted to discharge and then turned around to vote in favor MAY have had an agenda other than the Holy Spirit's -- one hopes not.
ReplyDeleteWell, I watched that vote. Immediately after 'discharge' vote was taken and lost, several bishops left the room.
ReplyDeleteSusankay, Bishop Gene tends to see the good in every situation. Maybe he is naive, but God will bless him for seeing the good.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could be right.
Susan S., do you know the names of the bishops who walked out?
Now Mimi, I didn't say it quite that way... they left the room. This was the vote on the development and collecting of materials for SSBs. I can't remember the number. Was it DO56?
ReplyDeleteThe session was running over time. They had voted to extend to have the roll call vote on the discharge, so it was going over. Then when the discharge was defeated, they had to vote to extend the session another 10 minutes to vote on the measure. That was just an 'all for, all against voice vote. Then the bishops left. I didn't recognize any of them, but all bishops look alike to me, except for a few ;- )
Well, no naming names, then. They all look alike to me, too, with the exception of a few. It's the purple shirts....
ReplyDeleteI can say this as a fat woman and get away with it... it ain't the purple shirts, honey!
ReplyDeleteOh and I just read thru my post about the leaving people. It could be misleading. The vote to extend the meeting was voice vote, but the vote for the measure was roll call.
ReplyDeleteDo we know who those 25 or so bishops were?
ReplyDeleteMore on Bishops at FoJ.
IT, I don't know who the bishops were.
ReplyDeleteMy bishop voted against it.
ReplyDeleteThe clergy vote was split, but our lay deputies, including one I thought of as a brother, voted against it - solid block.
The vast majority of humans are, I have come to believe, unreasoning animals. We are better than they.
Voted against D025, I should clarify. I didn't have the heart to follow, after that. Brothers and sisters betrayed, not just me, but others they knew were depending on them.
ReplyDeleteWe face a world unbalanced against justice and compassion, vast numbers in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, even in North and South America. We are the few and we'd better get proud, or we'll be wiped out. God helps those who help themselves.
We serve no good by smiling and "seeing the good in everything" like Gene does. We have to be innocent as doves and wise as serpents, not blind as bats. The great majority of our "brethren" love us as wild animals love us - if we feed them, don't threaten them, are useful to them - and that's it. They'll turn and tear us apart, otherwise.
Unlike wild animals, though, they have the brains to justify it to themselves.
Mark, I'm sure that it hurts for the people you counted on betray you. I can't know what it's like personally, because I'm not gay or lesbian. Nothing much will change in my diocese because the two resolutions passed, and I'm sorry about that. We'll go on as before for a while, but I do have hope for the future. The trend is in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that because Bishop Gene sees the good that he will stop working for justice and compassion for all. I must say that I admire that in him. We can't all be like him, but he takes the better part. His graceful and loving response is a witness to many as a model of a person who lives out the Gospel.
Gene Robinson may have taken the better part but not the easier part. His goal is not just to have the church and the world mouth the words of equality but to feel it in their hearts. His goal is also not to remove the opponents from the church but to cause them to turn. Removing the opponents from the church would still leave them in the world and to remove them from the world...?
ReplyDeleteI doubt he sees _only_ the good in everyone which would be a mark of a blind person. We are all a mix of good and ill and I think Robinson's aim is to cultivate the good and cure the ill both in himself and in others.
Ah Erp, I didn't say Bishop Gene saw only the good. He's a realist, but you're right - his goal is to change hearts. I changed my mind first, but the biggie was the change of heart. That's when the love began to flow.
ReplyDeleteDid you notice how Bp Gene flung the holy water around at the Integrity service? He had a huge grin on his face. I got a big splash, much to BP's amusemenet (I was on the aisle) and one of our SD friends asked with a wicked smile whether it sizzled.
ReplyDeleteIT, I noticed. And he knows that a big splash of holy water is the way to get the atheists on the inside. It never fails, so be on guard.
ReplyDeleteSorry Mimi, I was responding both to Mark's comment and to yours.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow atheist of IT, I should probably avoid holy water (I'm a low church atheist anyway).
His goal is also not to remove the opponents from the church but to cause them to turn.
ReplyDeleteThen he's wasting his time and ours on nonsensical pie-in-the-sky.
They. Will. Not. Change.
Mark, I changed, and at a fairly advanced age. Those who voted against the resolutions are not all haters. Change is possible.
ReplyDeleteThen, when they change, let them come back! For now, no.
ReplyDeleteYou changed, Mimi, because you are extraordinary. They are not. They don't wish to be.
Hate isn't the only thing that people will cling to - there is ignorance and dogmatism, as well. Most are decent enough, but they will not change and, whatever the good intentions in trying to minister to them, it's best to shake the dust from your feet.
If being in TEC will change them, then being outside it will change them, too, and protect us.
Mark, people do change. Look at the polls on marriage. Some of that change is due to people dying and many in the new generation never having been against it, but, most is due to people changing their minds.
ReplyDeleteSome people may never change, but, many people will. Think of the story behind the person who wrote 'Amazing Grace'. A slave trader who eventually became an outspoken opponent of the slave trade. Think of the Grimke sisters, two daughters of a wealthy South Carolina slave owner, who became abolitionists (they also left the Episcopal church to become Quakers).
Also some people may have voted 'no' knowing the measures would pass but not wanting to explain 'yes' to some faction back in their home diocese. Cowardly perhaps but some might see it as a strategic delay for them to garner support in the diocese before confronting the local opponents.
You've been seemingly betrayed by those you trusted and it hurts to the heart. Bishops are not innately better and never have been. Is there an Integrity chapter in the diocese that you belong to that might be able to talk with the bishop?
Erp, amen.
ReplyDeleteOops! I said "amen" to the words of an atheist. I'll probably go to hell.
Seriously, you give good examples of people who changed.
And Mark, I am not extraordinary. I wonder myself at my change of mind and heart, and I tend to attribute it to grace.
And yet, all I see is polls and a few people who don't seem to realize how unusual they are.
ReplyDeleteStill, as I'm to be dismissed in my concerns, and as a tactical retreat is to be viewed as a victory, I leave you with this thought concerning your efforts to teach the unteachable before I bow out of the whole mess completely.
I hope you won't find yourselves looking at these people later and thinking of Richard III:
"But I may smile,
And I may kill whilst I smile."
Fine.
ReplyDeleteHere is my contribution, and my final attempt to help the poor, confused orthodites understand:
Trying to Explain It.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI think you live in a conservative area so haven't seen the swing over. I live in a liberal area. Twenty years ago most people here considered legal recognition of same-sex unions as weird and wrong. In 1991 the university where I worked argued over providing benefits to "domestic partners" which they provided in 1992 (they had to maintain their own registry). In 2008 though California voted for prop 8, the local area voted against. The protests against it received vigorous support from passing motorists including bus and truck drivers; quite a few were organized by the local churches. Has opposition to same-sex marriage disappeared in the area, no, but it has gone on the ever decreasing defensive.
Grandmere,
Well if 'amen' for an atheist's words condemns the speaker to hell, I wonder what singing hymns set to Vaughan William's arrangements does? Vaughan William was a 'cheerful agnostic' after mellowing down a bit from outspoken atheist in university. BTW do you know about the 'Raging Grannies'? They have been quite supportive of same-sex marriage in my area.
Still, as I'm to be dismissed in my concerns....
ReplyDeleteMark, I am NOT dismissing your concerns, and I don't blame you at all for feeling angry and betrayed, not one bit.
I don't believe that the debate is about gay bishops or same-sex blessings, either. It's about power and control, and the battle is nowhere near over. TEC took steps in the right direction at Anaheim, but there's much more to be done.
Now the question is, "Where do we go from here?" That's the reality. We look at we can do to take further steps toward justice and equality in our church. I don't believe that making a choice to exclude is the way forward. If folks choose to go on their own, that's their choice.
We can't MAKE people understand. We can only try to shed light, which I believe that you did in your post.
I won't give up hope. If Christianity is about anything it is about hope in the face of much that would lead us to despair.
Erp, yes, there's Vaughn Williams, too. It's a minefield out there, but I have confidence in God's saving grace.
ReplyDeleteI have seen videos and pictures of the Raging Grannies. If I was a joiner, I'd join. I don't join anything. I am a member of my church, and I struggled about being formally received, because I already felt that I was a member of the community and did not need the official stamp. Oh, and I belong to the Democratic Party so I can vote.