I've just returned from Tanzania where I was able to observe at closer-than-usual quarters the behaviour of David Anderson, Chris Sugden and Martyn Minns. They were plotting in their upstairs room all the way through the Primates meeting. Plotting what, I can't tell you, except I could guess that these statements were being prepared in the course of a week when few of their dire predictions and desires for the Communion were coming true.

If you issue a tranche of self-important statements that are linked on TA and published on various web sites run by extreme conservatives who seem to be barely Anglican any longer, of course the impression given is that something significant is being said by important people.

Changing Attitude could just as easily announce that we have set up a Lambeth 1.10 and Windsor Report Compliance Office, which will monitor each Province's acts of compliance and non-compliance with respect every single paragraph of 1.10 and Windsor.

I find the utter lack of honesty and integrity displayed by the authors of these various statements, press releases, pastoral letters and the Bishop of Winchester's interview baffling and utterly abhorrent to a gay Anglican who is 100% committed to prayer, love, truth and integrity.

These people have returned from the Primates meeting determined to wage war on TEC. They are doing so because they didn't get their own way in Tanzania. How you counter the tactics of people who profess to be Christians but are blatantly dishonest?

The attack on TEC is also an attack on all LGBT in the Church (except of course, those who offer themselves for reparative therapy or find a way of denying who they really are).

If the conservatives can adopt dogmatic positions, so of course, can we. We LGBT Anglicans are never going away. We will never cease to be called into ministry in the Church by God, some to be ordained, some consecrated as bishops. The conservatives will never prevent God from blessing our love and relationships. We will never stop until the Church welcomes us fully and unconditionally and agrees to authorise rites of blessing.

Meanwhile, we continue to work from inside the Church, visibly and invisibly, and therein lies much of the fear of the conservatives. They know who some of us are, but they have no idea just how many we are in every Province of the Communion. One day we will be fully visible, and the worst fears of the conservatives will have been shown to be groundless. The Church will survive, Lambeth 1.10 doomed to the dust of history, God's loving faithfulness to all his LGBT people finally bearing rich fruit.

Colin --

Of course they are waging war on TEC & they will continue to do so -- nothing that TEC does will satisfy them -- they will keep increasing their demands (as Archbishops Akinola & Nzimbi have apparently already done to the COE).

We are not dealing with people of good will.

TEC will be the scapegoat as long as it remains in the WWAC.

Colin, you ask what we can do.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;* do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;* for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12)

In my mind the hubris of those in the conservative camp is unbelievable. Still, the only way through all this is to continue to speak the truth in love. While those who are almost pstchopathically on the far right will never come around, I do believe that, in the long run, most people will.

The hard part is that we are pretty far ahead of many people in the world who will only come around after meeting and knowing gay and lesbian people, seeing them in ministry, and having their hearts captured by the love and faithfulness so present in their lives and ministries.

To paraphrase Bono, we must not become the monster in order to break the monster.

So, let us be even more proactive in getting the message out. Perhaps we need to go to Africa, to evangelize those who will listen. Support those who are not closed minded. This battle is not won at General Convention or at Lambeth, but in the hearts and minds of faithful Christians.

Well as the old saw goes: There are lies, and damn lies, and then there is statistics.

A statistical definitional - gee there is that self-serving realignment definition thing, once again? - and then a counting - error that might be over-inflating the good bishops' data?

Uniformly defining, and uniformly counting (based on that error in definition?)- without real world inquiry because your starting categories or definitions have trumped the real world? - all members inside Windsor and/or Network Dioceses as threatened or imperiled network believers. In fact we know at least anecdotally that progressive or disagreeing believers do exist inside these dioceses and parishes, including Bishop Duncan's own diocese. That should make us pause and take the statistics with a grain of salt. But of course most of the time in the good bishop's head, the Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburg simply do not count, do they? Only when everybody has the bother of showing up in civil courts which observe other, more careful counting rules?

Prior Aelred, I know they are waging war on TEC & nothing that TEC does will satisfy them. I know we are not dealing with people of good will. I know TEC is being made a scapegoat.

Thomas, I agree the hubris of those in the conservative camp is unbelievable. I agree we need to be even more proactive in getting the message out. I agree this battle will be won not at General Convention or at Lambeth, but in the hearts and minds of faithful Christians.

But having begun to learn from LGBT Anglicans in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania, I know that the answer is not that we can simply go to Africa and evangelise those who will listen. The wisdom of African LGBT leaders is teaching me that my western practices and ideas have to defer to their own local, personal knowledge. If I fail to honour their knowledge and wisdom, I will be making the same grandiose errors as the imperialist westerners who first gave many African countries their Victorian penal codes and theology of same-sex attraction and the grandiose, prejudiced, imperialist bishops who now pronounce agaisnt LGBT people.