IN OTHER WORDS . . .

You still aren't pure enough to be part of the family. If you haven't seen it, here's an open letter from our friend ++Peter Akinola (along with my thoughts in bold):

CAPA - An Open Letter to the Episcopal Church USA

We, the Primates of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), meeting in Kampala on 21st - 22nd June, have followed with great interest your meeting of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA in Columbus (Because we want to see if you are willing to follow our rules). We have been especially concerned by the development of your response to The Windsor Report, which has been reported to us quite extensively. This is something for which we have earnestly prayed. We are, however, saddened that the reports to date of your elections (My God, you elected a woman!) and actions suggest that you are unable to embrace the essential recommendations of the Windsor Report and the 2005 Primates Communiqué necessary for the healing of our divisions (You still have not capitulated to our interpretation of Windsor as a mandatory requirement). At the same time, we welcome the various expressions of affection for the life and work of the Anglican Communion.

We have been moved by your generosity as you have rededicated yourselves to meet the needs of the poor throughout the world, especially through your commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (Thanks for your money).

We have observed the commitment shown by your church to the full participation of people in same gender sexual relationships in civic life, church life and leadership. We have noted the many affirmations of this throughout the Convention (We see you struggling with this issue in an effort to treat and include lgbt people as fully human and included in the full embrace of Christ's love). As you know, our Churches cannot reconcile this with the teaching on marriage set out in the Holy
Scriptures (Um ... which teaching would that be? Multiple wives? Wife and concubine(s)? Buying a wife? Claiming a wife through the use of a nose ring?) and repeatedly affirmed throughout the Anglican Communion. All four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion advised you against taking and continuing these commitments and actions prior to your General Convention in 2003 (Yet you still refuse to submit to the outside authority of our biblically pure and exclusionary organizations).

At our meeting in Kampala we have committed ourselves to study very carefully all of your various actions and statements (We will look very carefully and determinedly for those texts which can continue to be used to marginalize those people we find icky). When we meet with other Primates from the Global South in September, we shall present our concerted pastoral and structural response (We will let you know in September exactly where and how you have continued to fail our purity test).

We assure all those Scripturally faithful dioceses and congregations alienated and marginalised within your Provincial structure that we have heard their cries (We are more than willing to move into conservative dioceses and conservative parishes within liberal dioceses to offer ecclesial asylum, despite the fact that Windsor also specifically prohibits diocesan boundary crossing, because, you know, we have religious purity on our side and Windsor really wasn't meant for us anyway).

In Christ,

The Most Rev. Peter Akinola, on behalf of CAPA
Chairman, CAPA

GC06 worked on alot of issues. I wasn't there, but my sense from reading reports of those who were was that everything was done with all due respect, seriousness, and an effort to keep the conversation going. That effort seemed to be ignored by +Iker et al as their group was both absent from the UTO Ingathering Eucharist and walked out immediately before +Gene Robinson's testimony at the A161 hearing (both reported by Jake); as well as +Iker and his diocese, Ft. Worth, appealing to Canterbury for asylum (reported by Mark Harris). It's hard to listen (another WR recommendation, btw, for those who are keeping track) when you've turned your back on someone.

The liberals are all in a snit because they think that B033 sold out and re-marginalized lgbt people. The conservatives are all in a snit because GC06 apparently didn't take Windsor seriously and capitulate to the doctrine of exclusion. In short, nobody is happy.

The tongue-in-cheek saying amongst referees is this: If you pissed them all off, it must have been a good day. I don't know if this has been "a good day" or not, but it just might behoove all of us to slow down, breathe, realize we are all struggling with the issues, and keep talking with each other. After all, the game always ends when one person decides to take his toys home.