Kendall Harmon on GC2009 (VI): Listen to the Deafening Silence (E)—Ecumenical Considerations

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Because the blog went caput this series was not able to be finished. But did you notice how almost no aspect of the ecumenical dimensions of our decisions came into play, esepcially in the two highly publicized decisions?

Filed under: * Anglican - EpiscopalSexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)Same-sex blessings* By Kendall* Religion News & CommentaryEcumenical Relations

14 Comments
Posted July 28, 2009 at 6:25 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Stefano wrote:

Would there be a place to collect it in the Anglican Digest? I think that ++RW made some allusion to those questions but he was a week late and a few pounds short of what was already started by a “mere” Diocesan Theologian.

July 28, 6:32 pm | [comment link]
2. Milton Finch wrote:

Can you all rephrase the article?  Ecumenical dimensions of what and by whom?  Thanks!

July 28, 7:01 pm | [comment link]
3. Ralph wrote:

Well, yes.

When SR and others claim that they’ve done their theology (whatever that phrase means), it would seem that “Doctrine of the Church” has been skipped over. After all, it gets in the way.

I think we need to see a clear, articulate, and thorough (yet parsimonious) manifesto of their so-called theology, along with their own attempt to falsify it in the classic manner, and their own responses to the falsifications. However, I honestly doubt that any of them is up to the academic challenge.

July 28, 7:03 pm | [comment link]
4. Milton Finch wrote:

Ralph,
Was that to me or an answer to the original post?  Thanks!

July 28, 7:15 pm | [comment link]
5. Ralph wrote:

#4, To the question of the OP. Yours got posted while I was still typing.

This all reminds me of what happens when amateurs “do theology” like at a badly-mentored EfM session. The Integrity “theology” is the kind of excrement that results. Again, I’d challenge anyone who is up to it to “do” the theology in the classic scholastic manner. They won’t because 1) they don’t have any real theologians; and 2) their arguments vaporize when subjected to an all-around falsification. Not one of them has held up to scrutiny, or else the ecumenical patriarchs would also be on board.

I suspect that a few of them realize that.

As much as KJS might want to think that she is a patriarch, she lacks certain equipment for that, namely, authority and power.

July 28, 7:35 pm | [comment link]
6. Milton Finch wrote:

Thanks, Ralph.  I am with you, by the way.

July 28, 7:39 pm | [comment link]
7. Katherine wrote:

Dr. Harmon, if General Convention had no concern for what it was doing to relations in the Anglican Communion, why should we be surprised that it had also no concern for other Christian bodies?

July 28, 8:17 pm | [comment link]
8. Karen B. wrote:

Kendall, if I read the GC09 Legislative table correctly, there were only 5 resolutions on ecumenical relations, and 1 of those was a duplicate.  So 4 resolutions out of 450…, means Gen Con spent less than 1% of its time on ecumenical issues.

By contrast there were dozens of LGBT-related resolutions in many different categories, at least 10 -12 resolutions related to environmental advocacy, and at least 53 other political or economic advocacy related resolutions.

Pretty easy to see where TEC’s priorities lie.

July 28, 8:41 pm | [comment link]
9. Fr. Dale wrote:

OK, so I’ll take a guess at what Dr. Harmon was referring to.
TEC in general and Integrity in particular suffer from myopia and tunnel vision. The former limits their ability to use the history of the church to guide their theology and the latter limits their ability to value the church universal and profit from corrective feedback. They have become an agenda driven rationalizing secular and humanistic organization.

July 28, 8:49 pm | [comment link]
10. TomRightmyer wrote:

I’ve done ecumenical work in three dioceses over 43 years mostly on local and diocesan levels.  Episcopalians will agree to ecumenical statements but it is difficult for any of us in any church to see beyond our local and parochial concerns. But we need to keep trying because Jesus’ wants his church to be one in the Spirit.

July 28, 9:18 pm | [comment link]
11. Brian from T19 wrote:

I would think that if GC can not even attempt to work on intradenominational issues, ecumenical ones would be far removed from their view.

July 28, 10:47 pm | [comment link]
12. Matthew A (formerly mousestalker) wrote:

Both the leader of the House of Deputies and the Presiding Bishop are former Roman Catholics, I believe. Certainly the Presiding Bishops statements would lead one to think that she regards her former denomination with some disdain.

Somehow ecumenism does not seem to be a priority within the Episcopal Church.

That is one of the major differences between 815 and Cantuar right now.

July 29, 4:16 am | [comment link]
13. NoVA Scout wrote:

The Archbishop of Canterbury certainly put ecumenical considerations precisely at the center of the discussion.  If these aspects of the actions of the GC were largely ignored in Anaheim (although Bishop Johnston of Virginia, for example, did address them and I would like to think he was not unique), they are much more difficult to disregard after the Archbishop’s statement.

July 29, 4:54 am | [comment link]
14. Ken Peck wrote:

As someone has observed, TEC doesn’t do theology; it does politics.

General Convention as currently constituted and operates isn’t conducive to doing theology. Neither is one way “listening”, “dialog” and “conversation”.

Theology is the study of God; the study of fallen man is anthropology and sociology.

July 29, 6:44 am | [comment link]
Registered members must log in to comment.




Next entry (above): Update on Yesterday's South Carolina Standing Committee Meeting with the Bishop and Deans

Previous entry (below): Northern Michigan Committee 'saddened' at lack of support for bishop-elect

Return to blog homepage

Return to Mobile view (headlines)