Pray for the Bishops

This week’s House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans is the sort of occasion that usually prompts blog editors to pen sharp summaries of who has done what to whom, what’s really going on, and why the outcome should be such-and-such. I wrote mine. I won’t be posting it, because it wouldn’t help.

None of the parties to the current mess in the Episcopal Church has behaved particularly well. It is especially sad that the “unhelpfulness” has increased as a direct function of the strength of the parties’ convictions—both nationally and internationally. The fundamental truth lost in the process is that God’s will for this church is far more important than our own individual positions. There has been far too much talking, and not enough listening.

While Bishop Gene Robinson was initially at the epicenter of all this, he has, in many ways, become less of a focus. What folks are generally arguing about now are power issues that don’t have much to do with the original issue. Today’s New York Times has one of the more rational recent analyses here.

The current edition of the web site for the Diocese of New Hampshire has an interesting reflection by Bishop Robinson that goes to the central issue with which the bishops and the Archbishop must deal in the coming work. It is the work of reconciliation. You can read it in its entirety here.

He writes (in part),

“Reconciliation is hard work. It requires give and take from both sides. No “solution” is apt to be totally acceptable to both sides – that’s why it’s called “compromise.” We are working for a resolution that is acceptable and workable, and that preserves the integrity of all the parties to it. The way forward is not yet clear …It is my fervent prayer – and I hope it will be yours too – that a way forward will be found which will preserve the integrity of our Communion and its “big umbrella” approach to the life of faith which allows, even encourages, difference of opinion within the essentials of the Faith. Join me, please, in prayer for our Church as it struggles to live out the Gospel in these difficult times.”

Amen.