I'm suffering from speech and sermon fatigue from attempting to read sermons and addresses by the bishops attending the Global South Gathering. I need a rest, however, I offer you these nuggets from the gathering.
The day started with Archbishop Robert Duncan presiding at Holy Communion. In his homily, he reminded us that we, who are “deeply, truly and permanently loved” are truly free. We do not “go our own way” to find freedom, but we come to Jesus, the bread of life.
From the list of attendees in Singapore:
The Episcopal Church – Communion Partners Representatives
the Rt. Rev. JOhn Howe, Central Florida
the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, South Carolina
Church of England
all three stuck in London
The Lead at the Episcopal Café gives good coverage of the meeting.
Over at Baby Blue's, "re-asserter" imaginative wishful-thinking continues to achieve the status of fact. One poster writes, quite incorrectly, of R Williams, "I believe he had intended to attend. The present inability to fly out of England doubtless impacted his ability to attend", to which the indefatigably shameless RobRoy adds "I am glad that he couldn't attend. Perhaps, the good Lord caused the volcano to erupt so as to thwart his attendance, so he couldn't undermine the Singapore meeting like he did at the ACC meeting." Pretty much exactly what I said about Orombi a couple of days back, except that I had more sense than to believe it.
ReplyDeleteRichard Elena, the sole NZ "representative" to the Singapore shindig, is the bishop who got the last Lambeth conference off to a flying start when he sent emails lying that the opening sermon of the Conference ended with a "Buddhist chant" (the "chant" was actually a Sinhalese invocation of the Trinity). Guess the lie was his ticket to Singapore? Incidentally, I see that neither Bishop Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo, source of that "Buddhist chant", nor any other representative of the Church of Ceylon, is listed as attending. Sri Lanka insufficiently "Global South"? As, it seems, is Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of South Africa.
The extent to which Singapore attendance is so blatantly rigged reminds me of the comment of the Victorian MP Henry Labouchere, that "I don't object to Gladstone always having the ace of trumps up his sleeve, but merely to his claim that the Almighty put it there."
What a shame that "the Good Lord" caused so many others to suffer just to keep Rowan away from Singapore.
ReplyDeleteHas anybody actually seen Orombi in the last 3 years?!?
ReplyDeleteFor all we know, he passed away and someone is speaking for him in the tone he used to speak, not wanting the majority to elect a new Archbishop because the new one would be more left leaning.