| Can I just say , having been named by Timothy Sherratt , that I am not ' spinning ' the ' invitation to express regret ' into a much firmer command than it is . I would ask that he read Oliver O'Donovan 's very careful remarks on the subject in his posted piece . ECUSA leadership has been asked not to regret that some were hurt , but to regret that the bonds of affection were breached , in other words that they ought not to have done what they did . So far they have not done this and the Primates will not be fooled by some of the fudgy language they are coming up with . I am also very concerned that Timothy Sherratt uses the emotive and inaccurate language about ' shabby treatment of the orthodox ' and ' the Network has been hung out to dry by the Commission ' . I do n't think Drexel Gomes , Bernard Malango , Josiah Fearon and I -- to look no further -- would have signed a document that did that . Neither I nor my colleagues are labelling anyone as cartoon fundamentalists . Many of the USA orthodox are close friends of mine . It is precisely because of that that I am aware how much all kinds of issues get bundled up together in the USA ( as they do here , but the bundles are often different ) , and how that bundling affects all kinds of things in the debate . It was widely noted , for instance , that in the Presidential Election several states managed to get a question about gay marriages into the polling booths at the same time . I do wish the orthodox in the USA would realise that what the Commission was doing , which was all it could do granted the state of play ( would that we had had doctrinal discipline in the Anglican Communion these many decades , but we have to start where we are , not where we are n't ) , was to investigate the ways forward granted that ECUSA and Canada had ignored Lambeth , ACC , Primates and ABC . If that was what we had to investigate , we could not also ignore the fact that invasive episcopal actions are likewise , AT THAT LEVEL not at the level of moral culpability ! , infringements not only of repeated calls from Lambeth and the rest , but of the canons of all four of the great ecumenical councils ( Nicaea , Constantinople , Ephesus , Chalcedon ) . I am very grateful for Ephraim Radner 's comments which seem wise and well judged . And I do think that if the dissenting parishes are to have their voices heard , as they must do , they must present -- and I have asked for this information -- a detailed account of what exactly is happening . At the moment I hear a confused noise of people withholding funds , of invading bishops , of parishes and clergy threatened with suspension or deposition , of ECUSA bishops acting against parishes exactly as they do not wish the Anglican Communion to act against them , and so on . If the true picture is to emerge we need the details of who is doing what when and where . The question of how to live with bishops with whom you have major theological disagreements is not new . Anglican evangelicals , to look no further , have been doing it for generations . Only in the very recent past has there emerged this new mood of non-payment of parish contributions and the like . I am well aware of my call to ' hang on ' being open to the charge of unreality . My counter-charge is that I believe we are being called at the moment to a time of painful and patient prayer . The world will not fall in , the Kingdom will not disappear , if orthodox believers in ECUSA and elsewhere hold on to this pain in the presence of God and the power of the Spirit until at least the Primates have said whatever they are going to say in February . I would like this all over and done with too -- believe me , I would , I have other work to attend to ! -- but just because we live in a culture which can drop smart bombs on people at a moment 's notice that is no excuse to avoid the gospel call for patience . Meanwhile those of us in a position to do so are , believe me , working literally night and day to find the best way forward for the truth of the gospel and the call to that holiness and integrity of life and witness which alone will confront the principalities and powers with the news that Jesus is Lord . Tom Wright Homosexuality , Scripture and Church 2 [ 536 ] Posted by : Tom Wright Friday 10 February 2006 - 10:55pm A key to this is the mistaken belief that the only form of homosexual practice known in the C1 , and hence available for comment by Paul or other early Christians , was the debased relationships associated with paganism . That view , though widespread , needs more detailed refutation than I can provide here , but a quick read through one of the shortest and easiest of Plato s dialogues , The Symposium , indicates that there was just as full a range of homosexual practice available in the ancient world as in the modern , including one-to-one stable , loving partnerships . One might also consider the first-century evidence for homosexual weddings , for instance that of Nero himself . . . As for lesbians , one of the remarkable things about Romans 1 is precisely that lesbian behaviour is mentioned first . Like the question of why Elijah is mentioned before Moses in the Markan account of the transfiguration , this one admits of various interpretations , but it can hardly be said that lesbianism goes unmentioned . |