Finding the Center

I’ve been reading a variety of press reports and commentary about the recent events in New Orleans. The media mostly mean well, but they miss the mark. They’re either looking for a good headline or trying to report on “who won.” Those closer to both the church and the process have noted that the members of the House of Bishops, regardless of their theology, were nearly unanimous in their conviction that they wished to remain within the Episcopal Church. The hard work was developing a statement whose language created a sufficiently large tent that everyone could stand under it. So in a very real sense, everyone who was there for the drafting of the statement won. It is regrettable that several bishops chose to leave before this happened, apparently having no interest in the sort of reasoned dialogue for which the primates had called.

Similarly, Rowan Williams and those primates who were in New Orleans also may well have recognized that finding a way to keep the Anglican Communion whole was just as important a task for them. For one thing, other provinces will shortly need to face the same issues which the General Convention confronted in 2003. So it is just as important that the those provinces find amicable ways of dealing with their differences, both individually and collectively. Whether some primates will choose to mimic the small American minority and not be at the table for that discussion remains to be seen.

One of my fellow bloggers, the Anglican Scotist, had an interesting reflection on the House of Bishops (HoB) statement. He says,

“…[S]ome Anglican conservatives will not be able to see the HoB document for what it actually is: a compromise that is part of a process. "Compromise" is not a category they are willing to recognize, because for separatists, reconciliation with an Episcopal Church that has not turned 180 degrees is not a real possibility. But for moderate provinces who took Windsor et al sincerely and seriously, compromise is a welcome development: it means the process of reconciliation can go forward.” You can read the rest here.

There are echoes of that sentiment in part of the statement that the Joint Standing Committee issued yesterday. It said in part,

The Anglican Communion is a family of 44 autonomous churches. There is no central body which can pass judgement or issue directions for the life of the Communion. At the same time, however, it is the responsibility of the Instruments of Communion to enable conversation and discernment between the provinces and churches, and it was in this spirit that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the members of the Joint Standing Committee have approached this meeting.

You can read the rest of the statement on the Diocesan web site here.

Ironically, the American church may be best positioned to model this sort of working toward compromise. Its governance borrows hugely from our American Constitution. There are separations of power and checks and balances in both our church canons and our national government. Winston Churchill called American democracy the worst form of government ever, except for all the others that have been tried. However messy the process is, there is perhaps something in our unique governing structure that will allow us to survive this tension, emerge stronger, and model a way forward that the other provinces can follow.