How marvellous that the Anglican Primates went to Freddy Mercury's birthplace (Zanzibar) for their special Eucharist. Do hope they remembered him fondly!

"Conspicuously absent from Sunday's service was Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola"

How sad, at such a significant locus and as the second centenary of the abolition of the slave trade (the Hull-London march passes through here) looms close. I hope he found somewhere congenial to worship.

Is the Bishop of Maryland now in broken communion with the Archbishop of Ghana or would the "end" of "our personal relationship" not necessarily prevent him from sharing in Holy Communion at the same table?

The Gospel according to Freddy: "I want to break free - I want to break free from your lies, you're so self-satisfied, I don't need you..."?

It seems unfortunate that Titusonenine sees fit to publish what is (to me) private correspondence. Mind you, if the quality of their editorial control is such as is represented by the inability correctly to attribute a letter in the 'Times'.....

And Freddy Mercury was a Zoroastrian, and had a Zoroastrian funeral.

Apologies to ++Peter Abuja. Reuters carries a report that he was ill, and I'm sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.

It is interesting to contrast the pinched, whiney tone of most responses to the bp. of Maryland's letter, posted to the Titusonenine site, with the generally thoughtful, literate tenor of responses emailed to Thinking Anglicans. Self-congratulation is seldom a virtue, nevertheless, the contrast speaks volumes.

I just love the ABC's much quoted phrase "I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great saviour" and that ABC rightly sees that applies to each and every soul. I would up the ante a bit and modify it a bit to "we are all great sinners and God is a gracious redeemer who anointed Jesus as a great saviour".

I have found myself contemplating Isaiah 50 in the last few days. Partly as a response to the rejection to the idea that God might choose to redeem the feminine; but also as a response to the idea that God is incapable of redeeming certain elements as they are "too sinful".

I particularly love Isaiah 50:1-2 "This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?"

God is capable of ransoming and redeeming every single soul that has ever walked on this planet, no matter how high or how low, how large or small, masculine or feminine. The epitimisation of Zion is an affirmation of this ability, the embracement of Edom a rejection of faith in God's power and graciousness.

Do not rail against or attempt to deceive the faithful Holy one instead "...return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always." (see Hosea 11:12-12:6)

Remember the sinner on the cross who had not time to "prove" his repentance nor take part in communion yet was still acknowledged by Jesus as being destined to be with him in grace with God.

The bishop of Maryland wrote:

"Since becoming Archbishop, you have changed and I do not feel I know you anymore."

Now, where have I heard that sentiment before?

Right on, Lapinbizarre! I do wish, though, that there was a way to keep the door open from the inclusive side and not feel that we were being taken advantage of or forced into a kind of hypocrisy that the Bp. of MD refers to in his letter.

"Williams stressed the importance of sharing Holy Communion, a key rite of the church, but at least one archbishop, Rwanda's Emmanuel Kolini, was seen passing the plate on Sunday during the lengthy service in English and Swahili."

Typical of secular journalists to misread this action: Emmanuel has obviously signed up to the cathedral's planned giving scheme!

I agree with the Bishop of Maryland...NO, must sometime, after years of "concerns," after slandering, boycotting and demoralizing/demeaning others at the Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion...finally, we must mean, NO! Not maybe, but, simply NO DICE your Grace because we're going to take a pass on playing "pretend" with you!

Mil gracias for all the former healthy intentions/interactions of friendship but you've now gone over a line of DISCRIMINATION where I can not/will not go.

No, but I/we will leave the "door open and the light burning" as well as save you a place at the alter rail when you're ready to enter the OPEN place that The Episcopal Church in Maryland is...the Godly and inclusive of LGBT people, their families and their friends house of Christian worship place that doesn't shun, fear or hate their fellow Anglicans and human beings.

What a most beautiful and moving picture of Archbishop Sentamu at the slavery monument...just wonderful. We must keep the prayers up as they face a crunch day tomorrow and hope Akinola can say of Williams what John the Baptist said of the Lord...He must increase and I must decrease.

I think +Bob Ihloff did the right thing in rescinding his invitation. But how did the letter find its way onto TitusOneNine? And why do the commenters on that blog feel compelled to be so mean-spirited?

The timing of the letter I would feel isn't +Maryland's fault. Arrangements must be made, plane tickets returned etc... All this takes time. It fair to give +Acrofi that time.

It would've been nice to keep the door open on some level. I wished this letter would've remained private. An explanation could've been less personal (at least if being made public) and we could have just got the bare bones (the public that is).
At least with a door open we could still have some influence and hopefully effect some change for GL people in Ghana. What now?
I remmber the old adage, When people stop talking they usually start shooting.

Bob

Until we get the provenance on that +Maryland letter (a couple of folks asked for it on T19---ack, I had to scroll through the comments to know that!---but none thus far has been provided), I'd say it's a little unfair to compare Bp. Ihloff to Bp. Scott-Joynt. +S-J *meant* to make a BIG PUBLIC STINK (and did so), whereas +Ihloff may just have had his private correspondence made public, against his will.

That said, I have to agree w/ Raspberry Rabbit---at least as far as the *timing*: the bishop of Maryland SHOULD HAVE counted to the 10 (and waited for the end of the Primates Meeting, for heaven's sake), before dispatching such a missive (even if private).

"Wise as serpents, gentle as doves" (that, and isn't it better to "kill 'em with KINDNESS"??? ;-/)

Leonardo,

I disagree. As I will be telling the Bishop of Maryland, it should have been up to Abp Kolini to decide whether to come or not. We lost the opportunity for engagement with him. And, with the bitterness this will produce, we will lose that opportunity for some time.

Additionally, there's a power dynamic here. The US continues to colonize Africa culturally and economically. Nationally, we are in a more powerful position than the Africans. By disinviting Abp Akrofi, we have reinforced that power dynamic. Jesus, the one we follow, acted to level differences in power rather than to reinforce them.

It should have been up to Abp Kolini to decide not to come to Maryland. It should have been up to Marylanders to decide whether or not to receive Communion with him. Their refusal to do so might very well have brought home the point how much his actions hurt us.

Martin Reynolds' poignant remark above reminded me of this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/27/ngay27.xml

What is lacking still is the construction of a Christian gay theology. The Bible would be a main resource in this (cf. the writings of Robin Scroggs and Walter Wink). It is very easy to criticize the shameful Christian record on treatment of gays and to correct the lethal myths in the light of contemporary biology, psychology etc. But the task of building up the affirmative side of the argument honestly and coherently is far more difficult. Perhaps such theology can only be born out of a gay Christian culture, and perhaps such a culture can only thrive in liberal churches such as ECUSA.

Yesterday I actually worshipped together, at the wonderful community of St Alban’s in Tokyo, with a parishioner from the secessionist Potomac Falls parish, a man brought to Christ by reading C S Lewis's "Mere Christianity". I saw that loyalty to the pastor was a major factor in the secession (he did not seem to know the name of Bishop Lee), and a shared perception that the ECUSA "has been moving inch by inch to heresy", and that the new Presiding Bishop with her "strange background" is evidence of this. He told me that the split was very painful to him and agreed with me that we should hope for its healing.

Well, as Bishop Jefferts Schori said in Cuba: "It's always good to hear different points of view".

I hate intolerance and intolerants ! ......

seeker - you hate JC? He was not tolerant of all nor of sin nor of unrepentance nor of unbelief - look at what he said if you do not believe me

anyway, Rowan Williams is sitting on the fence while the AC burns.....thanks to TEC for lighting the fire in 2003

NP,
Maybe it's time for you to start reading what Jesus said, and more specifically, to whom He said it. Indeed He wasn't tolerant. He wasn't tolerant of people who were convinced of their own righteousness because ther lived by the letter of the Law and put aside compassion and love. He said "Love God, love your neighbour" not "love the ones who obey". And your ardent desire that the Church will split says a lot.

But NP: surely you should be grateful that TEC has given ConsEvs within the Anglican Church such excellent reason to expose the hypocrisy, faithlessness and general lack of Christianity of those who - accurately or otherwise - may be described as 'liberal'? Otherwise you might have had to wait an age for a good reason to create a purified church.

So lament not: rejoice, for the infidels of TEC (plus IC, AffCath etc etc) mean you will have your church of the elect up and running within months, freed from the burden of us 'liberal' deadbeats - who will, of course, continue looking after the unprofitable bits.

A postscript: 2003 is incorrect chronology. We 'liberals' abandoned the gospel long before that, at least in this diocese. I have it on good authority that a prosperous ConsEv congregation told this diocese to dance according to its tune or face UDI pre-2001, which suggests we were a hopeless bunch of apostates before +Gene ever got near the purple. Or maybe it was revealed to them in prophecy?

Jesus was tolerant of sinners, but intolerant of sin. "Neither do I condemn you ... but go and sin no more."

Ah, but is sin merely breaking the Law or is it a defect in us? That's the thing, you see. "Go and sin no more" to the woman taken in adultery, but "How can you escape the wrath to come" to the Pharisees who thought that, by strict obedience to the Law, they were holier than everybody else. Technically, they weren't sinning, since they were obeying the Law, yet they were not offered the option of going and sinning no more, maybe because they couldn't/wouldn't acknowledge their own sin except in some "we're all sinners" sort of way. No where do I hear this today?

"Additionally, there's a power dynamic here. The US continues to colonize Africa culturally and economically. Nationally, we are in a more powerful position than the Africans. By disinviting Abp Akrofi, we have reinforced that power dynamic. Jesus, the one we follow, acted to level differences in power rather than to reinforce them." Weiwen

I won't speak for Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit or the State Department...but the 2000+ years of "playing pretend" with people who discriminate against LGBT Christians/Muslims and others must end by saying "no"...sorry, I love you or I hope to love you "better" but no.

The "facilitating" of hate must stop and ignoring fear/hate is simply a sin of omission in my opinion. A sin against fellow Christians and millions of fellow human beings.

The "carrot" must be yanked from the stick...the honeypot covered over...it's time for TRUTH and TRUST in God as opposed to arrogant fiction, promoting selfrighteousness, looking the otherway and PRETENDING "it's ALL o.k."...it's time to say NO MORE to endorsing crimes of hate against LGBT people by the direct actions of irresponsible religious leaders no matter if the "abomination lie" is directed against LGBT Christians is preached from the PULPIT or legislated on the ground in a country known for corruption, deception and outcasting.

Nigeria, Uganda, Rawanda and others must reachout for help/guidance from their terrorfilled, badly wounded countries...imposing more fear/hate and bloodshed in Nigeria with legislation against LGBT people, their families, their friends is plain WRONG especially if Anglican +Akinola thinks its right! Nigeria or Uganda and the other outposts of hatemongering against LGBT Christians must be stopped in their bloody tracks.

Silence still equals death for millions of LGBT people and I thank the Bishop of Maryland for throwing ice cold water on encouraging deceit...no means no, it's a boundry that any codependent "sick" person realizes must be a basic in recovery...no more playing pretend...pretend is deadly.

The God that I knows expects me to say no, yes, maybe and/or I'll think about...my God also expects me to change my mind and apologize if I've been wrong.

Jesus was tolerant of sinners, but intolerant of sin. "Neither do I condemn you ... but go and sin no more."

But not a single "go and sin no more" in the healing of the paralytic, not in Matthew, not in Luke, not in Mark.

Also the woman who anoints Jesus in the house of Simon (Luke 7:47) - Just forgiveness. Unearned, undeserved, unconditional. Just like God's love.

Leonardo,

"I won't speak for Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit or the State Department...but the 2000+ years of "playing pretend" with people who discriminate against LGBT Christians/Muslims and others must end by saying "no"...sorry, I love you or I hope to love you "better" but no."

Leonard, good point. But, let's imagine this scenario. Ihloff invites Akrofi to come. They celebrate Eucharist. Several gay couples turn up, and receive Communion with Akrofi. After the service, they confront Akrofi, saying - look at our faithful witness and the fidelity in our relationships, are you sure you are doing the right thing by walking apart? We are not willing to walk apart from you because you are our brother in Christ. But you should be ashamed of yourself.

With what actually happened, Akrofi can, with some justification, cloak himself in righteous anger, continue to walk apart, and have no incentive to change his mind. You should know this - those with personal relationships with LGBT people are more likely to have neutral or positive attitudes towards them, or at least to question their assumptions. Ihloff had a personal relationship with Akrofi, which means that his Diocese and all its people, gay and straight, have a personal relationship to Akrofi as well. He cut that off with what reads almost like the same contempt they are showing us.

Now, if he had been invading the Diocese of Maryland to exercise episcopal authority in contravention to the Windsor Report, Ihloff would have been more justified.

Ford

- we were warned about wolves disguised as sheep and we were not told to tolerate and respect them.

- I think St Paul would take a much harsher line than I do on TEC (since he spoke on church discipline, we know his views and attitude)..... you could lecture him on not being loving, judging and his own sinfulness if he were here but do you think you would persuade him?