God save our meetings

An admittedly quick reaction to Canon Kearon's (of the Anglican Communion Office) responses to questions from The Episcopal Church's Executive Council. One of his answers to the questions of how is it that The Episcopal Church has been removed or demoted from positions on a couple of Anglican Communion bodies included this: “The viability of our meetings are at stake".

The viability of our meetings are at stake.

As a priest of the Church, I am certainly familiar with meetings. Meetings are real, and (sometimes) important, and even places where the Gospel of Christ can be proclaimed, lived out and shared. And yet I cannot help but see this choice presented by Canon Kearon: the ongoing, institutionalized nicety of pleasant meetings - intra-Anglican and ecumenical - versus a faithful, prayerful desire to proclaim the amazing, challenging, even uncomfortable inclusiveness of the Good News of God in Christ. Our Patron Saint Paul writes to us this Sunday that in Christ, "there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male and female".... (Galatians 3:28). The Episcopal Church has been faithfully exploring the consequences of Paul's first century proclamation for decades, now coming to an understanding that God's call to faithful Christian life - and ordained ministry - includes those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.

The siren call of how it has always been, of how we have consistently understood things - of the viability of our important meetings - can be strong. May we be open instead to that Spirit that is even now leading us to St. Paul's magnificent vision.