Looking Towards Lambeth Conference 2008

I've been thinking a lot about the Anglican Communion lately, what with the Lambeth Conference coming up. I had one of those moments when I wondered how it came to be that I couldn't even think about the Anglican Communion without homosexuality popping into my head. In a moment of clarity, the pairing of homosexuality and the Anglican Communion seemed nonsensical, like discussing pickles and hardware in the same breath.

My daydreaming aside, context matters. In "Turning Away from Jesus: Gay Rights and the War for the Episcopal Church, " the lead article of Garret Keizer the June 2008 edition of Harper's Magazine, provides an accessible overview of why Anglican Communion and homosexuality are so often in the same sentence these days . The result is a series of incredible moments, words I'm still pondering, the kinds of things that I wish I had thought of saying, the kinds of moments that are worth listening to, such as:

At its most recent meeting last March, the Episcopal House of Bishops passed a resolution urging Congress to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would have outlawed the practice of water boarding. The bishops might just as well have passed a courtesy resolution thanking the caterers for the cheese.

"Episcopalians disagree about everything from stem-cell research to abortion to who should be president to Iraq... And then as humbly as possible we find our way to the communion rail and kneel and receive the Body and Blood of Christ and find our unity there..." Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire

[Bishop Orombi of Uganda] speaks... my heart paraphrases: I changed everything for you. I would not even be recognizable to my own ancestors. I changed my language, my family structures, my gods. And I am glad for this change. It was a great gift. But now you choose to change what I changed for, and you do not so much as ask me how that might make me feel?

Money determines what we don't talk about... A church that was as 'inclusive' as progressives wanted it to be, and as 'biblically based' as the self-appointed guardians of orthodoxy want it to be would rectify the situation described by Bishop Stacy Sauls of Lexington, KY..."The problem is that the most isolated places need the priests with the greatest skills. But the system works so that the priests with the greatest skills go almost always to the places that are well-resourced already."

That's only a taste. His thoughtful engagement of many different Anglican folks provides a example of the Communion's potential. Keizer lets no one--no one--off the hook, and yet he still seems to treat people with empathy.

I finished the article feeling shamed, as well I should be.

I recommend it.