Dar Es Salaam Communique, RIP

Born February 19, 2007.  Died March 20, 2007, aged but 29 days.  It was never robust, poor thing.

The House of Bishops rejection of the Communique should, maybe, be read as a sort of smirking Dada effort, an intentionally absurdist violation of meaning and form.  I’ll highlight three aspects that are especially absurd:

What is important to us is that The Episcopal Church is a constituent member of a family of Churches, all of whom share a common mother in the Church of England. That membership gives us the great privilege and unique opportunity of sharing in the family's work of alleviating human suffering in all parts of the world.

So the work of the Church is to alleviate human suffering, not to announce the good news of the Risen Lord.  May as well replace those theology degrees with a Masters in Social Work.

Most important of all it is spiritually unsound. The pastoral scheme encourages one of the worst tendencies of our Western culture, which is to break relationships when we find them difficult instead of doing the hard work necessary to repair them and be instruments of reconciliation. The real cultural phenomenon that threatens the spiritual life of our people, including marriage and family life, is the ease with which we choose to break our relationships and the vows that established them rather than seek the transformative power of the Gospel in them. We cannot accept what would be injurious to this Church and could well lead to its permanent division.

How a House of Bishops containing divorced men can say this without laughing is - what shall we say?  Incomprehensible?  Hypocritical?  The jaw flaps, the mind boggles. 

And, contrary to the way the Anglican Communion Network and the American Anglican Council have represented us, we proclaim a Gospel that welcomes diversity of thought and encourages free and open theological debate as a way of seeking God's truth.

The major, italicized, independent clause here is pretty close to an outright lie (see, Mark Lawrence); the dependent clause may be prelude to an open declaration of war against the Network.

Interesting that there’s no mention of the Anglican Covenant.

If ++Rowan Williams’ policy toward TEC has been essentially pastoral, hoping that there were enough shreds to weave together a passably Christian garment, then his policy has come to its end.  TEC has defined itself, and now those faithful bishops who are willing to resist TEC’s delinquency will need some support.  I expect that a purge will begin shortly, maybe even before Easter, possibly targeting Network Bishops for having “abandoned the Doctrine and Discipline.”  TEC in its death throes will be neither gracious nor kind.  I really hope there’s a plan B.

Comments

[Karen B.]

looks like the purge is already gathering momentum. Kendall's got a post about a pending ecclesiastical trial against Bishop Cox.

http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/?p=18404

Lord have mercy. One wonders about the status of the complaint against Smith of Connecticut, etc. etc. etc.

[Craig Goodrich]

Remember the old joke about Nietzsche?

"Dar es Salaam is dead" -- ECUSA HoB.
"The ECUSA HoB is dead" -- the Communion.

This is only the end of the beginning. Have faith. ECUSA in fact died in any meaningful sense over a quarter century ago; this has all just been pulling off the intravenous tubes one by one as the corpse rots.