Thursday, 24 April 2008

Divisive or Reconciling?

A conference was convened in New York City by the General Theological Seminary at the Desmond Tutu Center, April 10-12, 2008 and sponsored by the seminaries of the Episcopal Church and the seminaries of the Anglican Church of Canada. The title was An Anglican Covenant: Divisive or Reconciling?

News reports on this:

Church Times Covenant will protect male power, says critic
Episcopal News Service Anglican covenant conference draws international group, elicits varied viewpoints

Photographs are here.

Audio and Full Texts of Conference Papers
PDF files and MP3 files of the sessions can be found in this archive.

Go there for the links, but here is a list of the speakers to whet your appetite:

First Keynote Address:

  • The Case for an Anglican Covenant the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies.

First Panel:

  • The Kenotic Role of Leadership in a Covenanted Relationship, the Very Rev. Joseph Britton, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.
  • The Covenant as a Sign of Problems with Authority, The Rev. Dr. Ellen Wondra Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.
  • A Fine Thing, but is it Anglican?, The Rev. Canon Dr. David Neelands , Trinity College, University of Toronto.
  • Whose Covenant? The Anglican Covenant, the People of God and History from Below, Dr. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Second Keynote Address:

  • cov-e-nant n 1. a solemn agreement . . . A ‘global south’ perspective on Anglicans, solemnity and agreement, Canon Dr. Jenny Plane Te Paa, St. John’s Theological College, Auckland.

Second Panel:

  • St. Andrew’s Covenant: A Conversation in Process, The Rev. Dr. A. Katharine Grieb, Virginia Theological Seminary.
  • The Proposed Anglican Covenant: Instrument of Oppression and Exclusion or Instrument of Inclusion and Justice?, The Rev. Dr. Leander Harding, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.
  • The Covenant, the Quadrilateral, and Balance, The Rev. Dr. Robert Hughes, School of Theology, University of the South.
  • The Consitutionality of an Anglican Covenant, The Rt. Rev. Joe Morris Doss, President, At the Threshold.

Third Panel:

  • The Lambeth Conference 2008 and the Anglican Covenant: Juridical or Missiological Imperatives?, The Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, Episcopal Divinity School.
  • Communion, Federation, or Sect?, The Very Rev. Dr. John Kevern, Bexley Hall.
  • Vernacular Particularity vs. Global Universalism: A Pivotal Issue for the Anglican Covenant, The Rev. Dr. Richard Leggett, Vancouver School of Theology.
  • The Covenant and Ecumenical Opportunity, The Rev. Canon Dr. J. Robert Wright, read by the Rev. Dr. Ellen Sloan, Chaplain, General Theological Seminary.

Fourth Panel:

  • Forbearance and Reconciliation: An Anglican Covenant in a Season of Judgment, The Rev. Dr. Christopher Seitz, Wycliffe College.
  • Covenant: Ecclesiological Implications of a Latent Metaphor, The Rev. Canon Dr. Paul Jennings, Montreal Diocesan Theological College.
  • The Fullness of the Stature of Christ: The Anglican Covenant in Ecumenical Ecclesiological Perspective, Dr. Nathan Jennings, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.
  • Mission and Reconciliation in the Anglican Covenant, The Rev. Dr. Titus L. Presler, General Theological Seminary.

Third Keynote Address:

  • Boundaries Old and Boundaries New: Views from the Edge of the Anglican Communion, the Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, Deputy Secretary General of the Anglican Communion.
Posted by Simon Sarmiento on Thursday, 24 April 2008 at 11:13am BST | TrackBack
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Comments

Dr. J. Robert Wright's lecture is a real gem. Unfortunately, because of a physical injury, he had someone else deliver it for him. Dr. Wright has more experience ecumenically bar none.

Posted by: John Henry on Friday, 25 April 2008 at 1:16am BST

I don't suppose it will cut any ice with those who are not sympathetic in the first place, but Jenny Plane Te Paa's address is quietly spectacular in its concentration on the really important matters of being Christian. Worth listening to rather than just reading.

Posted by: Robin Drake on Saturday, 26 April 2008 at 4:42am BST

Gomez talking about Anglican trust is a fuzzy juicy peach of a contradiction.

Gomez' pre-existing conflicts of interest as a right wing bishop - who is already more wholesome and correct by self-serving definitions than anybody else who is not conservative - preemptively disqualifies him from fostering the trust he says is the point.

Gomez cannot evoke my increased trust by defining my believer's equality and my pilgrimage, ahead of the covenant committee meeting, as nothing but Abomination and anathema.

When I see Gomez taking an active global role to advocate for the human rights of Nigerian queer folks - better yet, lets say, Jamaican queer folks? - just to take one hot button example, then I may reconsider how trustworthy he is as a conservative bishop. Whatever has Gomez ever done for Jamaican human rights in Carribbean queer communities of color? If he cannot comprehend a secular-cultural struggle for basic safety and equal citizenship, what wholesomeness does he bear up, campaigning among us?

This sort of me-best and me-first and church business as usual conservative campaign rhetoric may still fly high in the West Indies, though I wonder if even at home Gomez is never questioned? No, this preachment is not the golden key to trust in our various global Anglican villages.

Posted by: drdanfee on Saturday, 26 April 2008 at 6:22pm BST

"If he cannot comprehend a secular-cultural struggle for basic safety and equal citizenship, what wholesomeness does he bear up, campaigning among us" Dr.Danfee

Dead ducks...at least on some Caribbean islands queerfolk are called patos...it works fine for describing the violence against lgbt in Jamaica where +Gomez is suggesting people start being nice to one another...silly queer me, nice seems so mild when people are being victimized, abused and murder helter skelter in the Promise wishing Province of the West Indies...it's time for Drexel Gomez to resign and retire...it doesn't matter what comes first the chicken or the egg on his face.

Posted by: Leonardo Ricardo on Sunday, 27 April 2008 at 6:56am BST

"people are being victimized, abused and murder helter skelter"

Now, Leonardo, you know better then that. Our conservative friends are continually reminding us that such violence is rare, that it is not related in any way to rhetoric that calls us subhuman, that we're all just being hysterical suggesting we actually have anything to fear. I mean, after all, we're leading the heathen hoardes that are as we speak poised to bring down good traditional family worshipping Christian culture, we've even infiltrated the Church. Anytime we claim to have been attacked, it's obviously made up, I mean, no-one ever gets attacked for being gay, especially not in good Chriastian places like Jamiaca and Nigeria. What could we possibly have to fear?

Posted by: Ford Elms on Tuesday, 29 April 2008 at 12:46pm BST
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