Time for Grace?

The Archbishop's Remarks at General Synod indicate that the Network will most likely become a reality in the very new future;

...Now the Primates in their statement in October called on provinces to make adequate provision for episcopal oversight in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury for those in conscience unable to accept certain dispositions made by their provinces. In line with that request from the Primates, I want to say that I remain fully committed to searching for arrangements which will secure a continuing place for all Episcopalians in the life of the Episcopal Church in the United States and I have been involved in working with several parties there towards some sort of shared future and common witness, so far as is possible. It is in that light that I‘ve been following sympathetically the discussions around the setting up of a network within the Episcopal Church of the United States of America engaged in negotiating some of these questions of episcopal oversight...

It appears that the global Conservatives will prevail in the Communion. I am convinced this is the last gasp of a dying worldview. Naively, I thought that Anglicans were safely inoculated against the disease of fundamentalism. Apparently not.

Maybe progressives have been too subtle in preparing for the future of Christendom. Or maybe we let voices that were too strident speak for us?

If Christianity becomes a sect of fanatical fundamentalists, we will eventually engage Islam in a Holy War. We already see evidence for the rise of the righteous army in evangelical America. Can this be the direction of God's will? I cannot believe it.

It seems that confrontation is meeting this sect on ground they know too well. Maybe it is time to be a person of grace. Maybe it is time for prayer, study, fasting and almsgiving. Obviously, I have misunderstood the flow of God's will. It feels as if it is time to let the warrior fade, and call forth the magician.

I recently picked up Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God . I think I'll begin my study with that.


J.


O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith,
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all
of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth
and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.