Anglican Futility Players
David Virtue on Pointless Dialogue
For the background to this story, see Louis Tarsitano’s “Primates in Portugal” in this issue.
A strange quiet seems to have fallen upon the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican world in the wake of the Primates’ Meeting in Oporto. The primates’ message, which many expected would be a sizzler for the Episcopal Church, fizzled as well as sizzled. The primates issued a warning to the Episcopal Church, but gave it a year’s grace period to get in line, though what they would do if it didn’t was left unsaid.
The Episcopal bishops met a short time later and, to the surprise of some, issued no response whatever. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold said at the end of their meeting that the Episcopal Church will not come into line with Lambeth’s sexuality resolution. That, he said, would be “unrealistic.” No conservative bishop was heard to say that, unrealistic or not, it was necessary.
An Odd Silence
So this odd sort of silence has descended, as conservative Episcopalians wait for some sign of what orthodox and Evangelical prelates overseas and at home will do or say, and what leadership they will give, if any.
In light of Griswold’s comments, and the continuing approval of homosexuality in many Episcopal dioceses—many ordaining openly homosexual men and women, some even letting them “marry”—will foreign primates still grant the year’s grace, or will they act sooner? Will they act if this summer’s General Convention approves of homosexuality in some way? Will they ever act? If they act, what, exactly, will they do? And will like-minded Episcopal bishops support them?
These are only a few of the questions that come to mind. They remain unanswered, and in the current vacuum, there is the usual amount of (largely futile) scurrying around among conservatives and liberals alike.
Beginning already, for example, is a feverish build-up to the General Convention in July—as if this were going to change anything. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has proposed that the “blessing” of homosexual relationships be left to each bishop and diocese to decide. The plain fact is that, even if the convention rejects this proposal for “local option,” the blessing of homosexual relationships will in fact continue to be left to each bishop and diocese as, unofficially, it has been for a number of years.
In other words, the expectation that the convention will not approve same-sex blessing rites is quite irrelevant. Same-sex union ceremonies, which have been occurring in the Episcopal Church for a good while, will keep occurring. Not only Bishop Griswold, but also the president of the homosexual lobby Integrity, Fr. Michael Hopkins, have recently assured us that there is no going back on the homosexualist agenda.
Both are supported in this by the president of the House of Deputies, Pamela Chinnis, who will not recuse herself from chairing any discussions on homosexuality at the General Convention this July in Denver, even though she has clearly “outed” her pro-homosexual preferences by opposing Griswold’s call for a Year of Jubilee (let’s not talk about sex) to ease tensions at the national level. Tensions remain and sex is on the agenda.
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