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So Anglican primates of the "global south" have issued a series of statements regarding the churches in the U.S., Canada and even the U.K. (Yeah, and you thought the Brits had been too clever to get dragged into this mess.) The statements make it clear that ecclesial boundaries and the Anglican Communion's historic "bonds of affection" are now meaningless. For my non-Anglican readers, the essential conflict boils down to an argument over sexual ethics. (Well, that's the presenting problem...as you'll see, it's actually about power.) The Episcopal Church U.S.A. has consecrated an openly gay man living in a committed relationship and one diocese in Canada has approved the blessing of same-sex unions. Archbishop Peter Akinola (Akinoying) is meanwhile pushing to criminalize homosexuality in his home country of Nigeria. He wants gays thrown in jail, you see. Love the "sinner", eh? The Church of England's crime seems to be not scourging the countryside of homosexuals...or perhaps the more insidious crime of opening the door to women bishops. That's another battle - some of the southern primates don't recognize the recently elected leader of the U.S. church because she lacks what they consider a key episcopal body part. (What role the male member plays in church governance is yet to be determined.) I don't know how they could not recognize her...her picture has been all over church media for months now. "Oh, you're the new Presiding Bishop!" Anyhow, the recent statement basically boils down to, "We're going to create a new Anglican province in North America, one that agrees with us about those dirty homos and women, and name our own bishop to represent it." It's like showing up to the U.N. and saying, "We don't like your president/prime minister. We're naming a new one for you." See also, George W. Bush. So what can the affected churches (the actual, canonically instituted and ecclesiastically legal churches) do? Unlike many of the countries from which the challenge arises, Canada and the U.S. don't have strong-arm militias or goon squads that can intimidate and bully a start-up church that tries to establish a foothold on our turf - neither are our churches in that business (unlike Archbishop Akinoying, who warned Nigerian Muslims that they weren't the only ones who could be violent...sigh). How do we respond when fellow Anglicans come to our doorstep and claim that they, not we, are the "real" Anglicans? We need to start making the same kind of noise. We need to start telling the world, not to mention our own members and neighbours, that the Anglican Church in our neck of the woods is a truly welcoming church. We need to start proclaiming the Good News - that humans of all sorts are loved by God. As Terrence said, "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto", or "I am human, nothing that is human is alien to me." Christ, too, was human so there is nothing human that is alien to Christ. Sorry, Akinoying, but that includes women and gay people, too. |
