Another walk on the wild side

Some of you may have heard that there is a big meeting of Bishops going on in London called the Lambeth Conference.

There is a bit of a hoo-ha because not everyone agrees on everything, especially around human sexuality, and there is some upset from this side of the pond about how that is being handled.

We can get back to that. The Lambeth Conference meets every 10 years in London and all the Bishops in the Anglican Communion are invited.

The Anglican Communion? I hear you cry. The Episcopal Church has sister and brother Churches all around the world and we are Anglicans because we all started in one place - the Church of England. We are called different things around the world - some, like us, are Episcopalian, others are Anglican.

Just to be super-confusing there are a couple of groups in the USA which use the word “Anglican” - this is a long and complicated story. Suffice to say the Episcopal Church is “in communion” with the Worldwide

Anglican Communion, that is we have the blue checkmark of authenticity as the official Anglican church in the USA.

Confused? Don’t worry - it takes a while to wrap your head around all this.

The Bishops all go to England and meet at Lambeth Palace which is the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In some places in the Anglican Church the AofC can say what is to be done or not - but not in the Episcopal Church. Some here see him as a figurehead, some as a gathering point and others as largely irrelevant.

So what about the hoo-ha. Well, first it is a shame that we are getting pulled into it because there are lots of interesting things around Evangelism and Anglican Identity which are on the agenda. Whoever did what, why, where and when at the end of the day the Lambeth Conference is like Christimas dinne

r with all the relatives. There are those you agree with and those you don’t, some drive you totally crazy but you are also tied together by something bigger than the sum of your differences.

I do not mean to belittle the very real hurt and danger experienced by LGTBQ folk in many areas of the Anglican Church (most especially in places like Uganda). Neither do I want to take away from the fact that the Lambeth agenda has changed at the last minute to include a conversation around sexuality which is highly divisive and can be hurtful. All of this is true.

I do wonder whether the motive for the change is more benign than it appears, but time will tell.

The question the Episcopal Church will have to ask itself (again) is whether taking the pain of being a liberal voice at the table is something which we wish to continue doing. The last time things nearly blew apart compromise was reached, not a compromise about what we believe but about how we relate to our wider Church family.

Lambeth is a challenge, it always has been, It pulls together men and women from so many places and cultures with so many expectations and beliefs that there are going to be frictions. Learning to live in the discomfort of disagreement instead of cutting off from people is important for all of us but if that is just too damaging I understand that there are times when we have to leave the table. I hope this is not one of them.

The opinions expressed above are not universal, some folk at Redeemer will not agree with this analysis. Feel free to comment. As usual, abusive replies will not be tolerated.

We fight for justice, freedom and peace.

It is sometimes difficult to know how to respond to national news items without fanning flames of division. This month we have had so many things going on nationally. There were terrible shootings, the January 6th enquiry and now the overturning of Rowe vs. Wade. How do we deal with these big areas of public policy and decision?

One of the things which stuck with me from the hearings was the amount of people who said they would not break their constitutional oath. This might seem like an obvious thing but it also came at a personal cost for each of them. Jobs were lost, lives disrupted and fear was all around, Yet, people stuck by something which was more important than partisanship - they stuck by the Constitution which is the bedrock of American freedom.

Whilst the Constitution came after America declared its independence, its very opening declares interdependence, “We the people….” Interdependence is something which we find difficult because we are led to believe that self-actualization and self-fulfilment are the zenith of human experience.

If we go back to the Bible we will see that interdependence was always, always a theme. Community and family are at the center of life. I don’t want to romaticize things, you only have to look at the first chapter of Isaiah to see how fed up God seems to be with the people’s lack of ability to even look after the vulnerable. In Jesus' time there was the same problem. The elite feasted whilst the poor begged for a crust of bread.

But Jesus still presented a way of life based in a community in which each person was of equal value. Even the widow, the poorest of the poor, had her mite offering blessed because of its generosity. She gave all she had, Jesus tells his disciples.

There is no simple sermon or blog post to sort out everything which is happening around us. As a nation we value independence both nationally and individually. However, when that independence begins to rob us of our vision of interdependence we end up with a crumbling edifice. In Jesus day the Temple had become too big, too corrupt, too blind to people.

For Christians our baptismal vows are our constitution. It is where we make promises, where we turn “I” into “We”. We are asked:

Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the Prayers?

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

“I will with God’s help,” we reply. These promises are profoundly uncomfortable as they cut across the individualism all around us and make us a part of something much larger, much more daring and, ultimately, much more fulfilling.

In these times we would do well to return to these promises frequently. Are we willing to truly stand up for what we believe and for these promises which we have promised to keep? When we puzzle over these complex issues, are we asking how our responses are answering all of the questions - loving, proclaiming, serving, seeking dignity and justice. We will find ourselves with difficult decisions and more questions than answers. We will still disagree but with an understanding that that is what human beings do in order to truly learn to be around each other.

We have problems. We know that. Children should be safe to go to school. Our system of government should be safeguarded and amended only by Constitutional paths. Some will feel that Rowe vs. Wade went too far but what we now have in a free-for-all States’ legislation war will cause suffering all around.

Refuse to give in to the voices which demand your loyalty over your loyalty to the promises you made when you became a Christian or when you affirmed your baptism in confirmation. That is hard, it means risk in an angry world. It means that we will have to admit we are wrong from time to time. It is a risk we have to take because we said yes to all these things.We renew our “yes” at least once a year.

Sit with God, sit with these vows. Into this place bring the hard stuff and listen.

Picnic Time

The Pentecost Picnic is after the main service on Sunday June 5th. We have an international theme - please bring finger foods. Perhaps you can think of something from your ancestors country of origin. Perhaps you have a favorite recipe or you can just stick with what you know. This will be in the Admin Parish Hall.