Bishop Iker's Convention Address
If you have not already done so, please, PLEASE, watch and listen to it now. It is marvelous. As I listened I could not help thinking that I was hearing the voice of Athanasius (albeit a rather polite Athanasius). He speaks plainly and clearly. And he speaks the truth.
The video may be found here at Anglican TV. The written text may be found here.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 4:24 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, that was long.
The address itself illustrates a lot of the tensions between standing for what one honestly believes is faithful to the Church, and loving those who disagree and even "persecute." There was a lot of rhetoric that tended to read other viewpoints as necessarily coming from human motives, malicious, etc. and there was a sense of wanting to push a decision as the only right thing to do. And there is, perhaps, just a hint of bitterness about Schori's letter and certain "letters to the editor."
To be fair, though, that was balanced in the address by a truly admirable generosity in stressing the importance of making sure that parishes which disagreed would be allowed to follow their conscience unmolested. This is a fine witness in light of TEC's excessive anxiety about letting anyone leave, as if we couldn't all still be Anglicans.
"Bishops and councils have erred" - Luther would have agreed. Honestly, I was surprised to hear this coming from Iker. I applaud the affirmation that Anglicans do not have a curia and a pope, and I applaud the clear conviction that this is a good thing.
Overall, I am seeing a genuine effort to be passionate while avoiding the worst inflammatory rhetoric. It's almost like Civil War state's rights arguments without the war! Interesting.
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