Gatherings: Around the House

These, from Louie Crew's Anglican Pages:

Michele Cox:

I think I've pinpointed my own issue with the choices the ABC has been making. He said, "As a bishop I have to keep people around the table in discussion on this."

The thing is, as a host - which is the metaphor underlying this part of the conversation - I have two relevant responsibilities:

1. Encourage civil behavior among my guests - if you are all guests in my house, you are all expected to be civil and respectful toward one another.

2. Should that fail, and should some guest(s) say of other(s) "I'm sorry, Michele, it's them or me!" my answer must be "I'm really, really sorry to hear that: I know we will miss you."

There really is no other way to deal with that sort of social blackmail. And that is where I think the ABC is falling down on his hostly duties - not in saying that out loud, but in making it clear that should he be forced to it, that is the only answer he can give.

And Louie himself, in response to Rowan Williams:

The Archbishop of Canterbury is in Toronto, where he gave an interview earlier today. Here's a clip that caught my attention. He was asked to explain why he was once an advocate for the normalization (my word) of homosexuality in the life of the Church, and now seems to be taking a contrary position. The heart of his response:

"It's partly an evolution of different kinds of responsibility in the Church. As a theologian and as a teacher for many years naturally I had the liberty to raise certain questions and to express personal opinions on the matter. As a bishop I have to keep people around the table in discussion on this."

Sez Louie:

I constantly hear people say that being a parent means that they cannot take the risks they took when they were single, that being a priest means that they cannot take the risks they took when they were lay and had not vowed to obey their bishop, that being a bishop means that they cannot take the risks they took when....

It is all too easy to mask cowardice as a sacrifice of personal conviction for a "greater good." Color me unimpressed.

Had my own father not constantly taken risks, I might have grown up to be equally fearful. Watching him take risks, even when those risks frightened or embarrassed me, taught me that the world does not fall apart when one stands alone with conviction. The power of that witness increases with the risks that attend it.

Amen.