tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post918011359507126659..comments2024-02-13T11:11:28.246+00:00Comments on Bishop Alan’s Blog: Hitting the wall or breaking through?Bishop Alan Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-86029902329367630902008-08-01T15:00:00.000+01:002008-08-01T15:00:00.000+01:00Thanks, Ann. the process you describe has happened...Thanks, Ann. the process you describe has happened in the main very readily and charitably at this conerence. I wish we could bottle up the spirit of indaba and get some round the more contested parts of the communion for healing...Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-59902409497991413112008-08-01T14:21:00.000+01:002008-08-01T14:21:00.000+01:00I hope the "product" of this Lambeth is relationsh...I hope the "product" of this Lambeth is relationships and the ability to talk with each other about hard things and realize we won't die. A resolution of how the Communion will act on one thing or another is not possible and will break us apart -- it is not a bad thing to live and work together without resolution - walking by faith and not by sight.Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287169546184325690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-67994220637343993502008-08-01T11:00:00.000+01:002008-08-01T11:00:00.000+01:00Thanks you, Erika, for giving some signposts to th...Thanks you, Erika, for giving some signposts to the area in which we can live together.<BR/><BR/>I think we all have to be clearer, perhaps, and more courageous in living out our own discipleship in the place to which we are called, among the people we serve. It is ironic, but no less useful for all that, to see how secular emploiyment tribunals are beginning to mark out in the UK the places in which our employment practices are unjust; it's driving a culture change that could radically improve the ways we treat people internally, to our great benefit and God's glory.<BR/><BR/>I think the challenge for each of us is to seek God's judgment on ourselves (not the other lot) at the place of judgment. Many of the lobbyists are very good at their own strengths, and lousy on their own shortcomings. As that turns round here in relationship to one another and to God, we are becoing slightly different people, and that is changing the way we approach the simple "what should we do?" questions.<BR/><BR/>I share your awe at the precariousness of the whole way of working, but what was so depressing about yesterday afternoon was the sense of many people talking past each other, that has been transcended by indaba. Mayve it's that kind of process rather than detailed plans which will be the legacy of this Lambeth.Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-64962053516217225632008-08-01T09:56:00.000+01:002008-08-01T09:56:00.000+01:00I am so very touched by your reports, I can only r...I am so very touched by your reports, I can only read them with bated breath. This is all so very encouraging! <BR/><BR/>But the ultimate integrity of the process depends on the integrity of the individual participants and on what happens from now on.<BR/><BR/>If our own liberal bishops could be a little more courageous and act on their beliefs, we might get to a place where they say: We will not yet authorise same sex blessings and we will not yet be able to accept openly partnered gay priests, although we would like to. We recognise the tender shoots in some African countries and we will do everything in our power to support them. We also recognise the danger some Africans find themselves in because of this issue, and we will not do anything to make the situation worse for them.<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, we will from now on be more active in this process and more outspoken. When someone like Davis Mac-Iyalla is attacked in Africa and the Archbishop signs an open letter to GAFCON about it merely asking them to tone down the rhetoric because that, too, endangers lives, we will not just nod privately but we will sign the letter.<BR/><BR/>When a gay youth worker is denied a job because his bishop does not believe his assurances of celibacy we will point out, clearly, that this man has been following church guidelines and that his treatment was wrong.<BR/><BR/>When an African bishop makes anti gay remarks that dehumanise homosexuals, or when he tries to tighten the anti gay laws in his country, we will speak out loudly and audibly, so that our own lgbt people can see that the compromise we are striking is a genuine one.<BR/><BR/>I think that all except those on the extreme spectrums could live with that for now.<BR/>But it does depend on not only privately supporting lgbt people but being seen to do so publicly and possibly at some personal cost – at least the same personal cost currently being born by lgbts in the West, if not by those in Africa and parts of Asia, and by those African bishops who now return home from Lambeth to possible sanctions from their Archbishops for having attended at all, and by those African bishops who return to accusations of having listened at all.Erika Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01812376497361267014noreply@blogger.com