Time to Listen
Reading Father Rick Lord's comments on the Anglican Primates' Meeting, I am reminded that we are supposed to be listening to each other, and particularly to the experiences of gay and lesbian Christians.Rick begins by remarking (my emphases):
"All week long I've been struggling to write a post on this blog about events unfolding at the Anglican Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I am encouraged by every attempt the Primates are making to hold the Anglican Communion together and equally discouraged by pronouncements about 'impaired communion' and the astonishingly prideful (in my opinion) walk out of seven primates yesterday from a scheduled Eucharist. I wonder if Jesus envisioned his followers using the Eucharist as a form of protest? I have to agree with Jim Naughton [Director of Communications at the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC] who is quoted in an AP release as saying:
'Imagine if every believer, everywhere insisted on knowing the views of every other worshiper in a church on all the hot-button issues of our time before they would agree to go to Eucharist. When you don't attend a Eucharist because you disagree with the views of the people who are attending with you, you make it seem that the Eucharist is about you. It is not about you. It is about God.'
Here on the ground, in the daily grace and grind of the human condition, we are about to begin the season of Lent, a season that calls us to return, to come to grips with the genuine state of affairs within our hearts, to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. We will confront the hard truths of our pride and mortality."
Rick goes on to reflect on the Transfiguration, on who we should really be listening to, and on what it might mean if we did.
Read his article in full here.
Thanks to Kathryn for pointing me to Rick's reflection, and for her own perspective, as one who has presided at the Eucharist today.
Rick concludes:
"So I continue to pray for our leaders, our bishops and primates, that they will indeed be enlightened by God's special grace. May they listen to God's beloved Son and recognize him in one another with the eyes of faith and the eyes of love. Pray God, that I can do the same."
Labels: Anglican Communion, Church, Theology
posted by Chris @ 7:07 pm
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