I must be slow today, GKC? Come again buddy? LOL
At Lambeth 98, the African/Southern Primates first began to stir, and stretch their orthodox muscles, in a manner quite surprising and (shall we say) uppity, to the minds of much of the liberal Northern bloc, so long dominant in the Communion, and unaccustomed to being opposed by folks straying off the plantations. Primates and others from the African Provinces joined conservative first world bishops is advancing some relatively basic Christian doctrine, in the form of resolutions. The one I’m speaking of, 1.10, I’ll post below.
This form of
lese-majeste aroused the ire of the progressive forces, who began to speak of the Africa prelates as unsophisticated, only slightly removed from animism, or redolent of an Islamic type of fundamentalism. And that they were in effect, being manipulated and bought by the conservative forces, with (as the word famously had it, from one source, not necessarily unbiased) chicken dinners. The implications were deafening. (+Kolini, of Rwanda remarked wryly “We have chicken back home, you know”).
This was the emergence of the Third World, African evangelical prelates as a force. AMIA was to follow.
Resolution 1.10, which passed, by a large margin (hard to partner up with those liberal opponents, after their gaffes), was as follows:
**Resolution 1.10, Human Sexuality
This Conference…
(a) commends to the Church the sub-section report on human sexuality;
(b) in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;
(c) recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
(d) while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
(e) cannot advise the legitimizing or blessing same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;
(f) requests the Primates and the ACC to establish a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion and to share statements and resources among us;
(g) notes the significance of the Kuala Lumpur Statement on Human Sexuality and the concerns expressed in Resolutions IV.26, V.1, V.10, V.23 and V.35 on the authority of Scripture in matters of marriage and sexuality and asks the Primates and the ACC to include them in their monitoring process.
**
Eleven years ago. Radical, isn’t it? Look how far some of them have come, now. I took it you were harking back to those days, of racism, in your remark. If not, it would have fit.
GKC
