Monday 4 February 2008

So Sydney really isn't going to Lambeth...

Among other things, ordinations are a celebration of the Church's unity. The laying on of hands is a continuation of an apostolic succession which unmistakably reminds us that we're all in this journey of faith together. Irrespective of whatever separation we may be currently experiencing as a result of time and space, in the kingdom which is both Now and Yet-To-Come we are one people.

Yet last Saturday +Jensen chose the occasion of an ordination service to announce Sydney won't be attending Lambeth this July. So much for unity: his message to the new Deacons is unmistakable: "Your allegiance is to Sydney and Sydney's dogma. Forget about any vision of the church which transcends either of these."

The machine's press release couldn't have been terser: read it for yourself if you're interested.

In response I'll be just as brief: +Jensen's timing is rude. Just sheer bloody rude. And ignorant.

3 comments:

Brian R said...

Let's face it, you cannot expect any better from the Jensenites.

Doorman-Priest said...

Do you think anyone will notice? Perhaps that's why he mentioned it. There's nothing worse than making a gesture that no-one sees.

Alcibiades said...

You're quite right DP, from a global perspective few people will notice, and it's certain none will care. But from inside the Sydney machine it's hard to view things from the broader perspective.

This non-attendance will be presented locally as a tremendous stand of Lutheran proportions, and the average pew-warmer will be encouraged to see it in terms of "us vs them" - the end result will be further breaking of bonds with Anglicans outside of Sydney, and a firming of the axiomatic truism that there are no Anglican Christians outside of Sydney. Local clergy will be still more easily controlled by the threat of there being nowhere else to go if you don't toe the party line, women called to ordination even further isolated from the world beyond, and if you're gay... forget it, hwatever "it" might happen to be. The answer's no.

In short it's just a further retreat into cultdom - not that we weren't pretty far down that path already.

If I was a bishop from your end of the world, however, I'd probably be quite relieved. Who in their right mind wants to spend a week getting lectured by a bunch of whacko neo-puritans in business suits