Poon and Conflict Within

Thinking Anglicans is once again documenting the disagreements between the leaders of the self-styled Global Anglican Future conference and others in the Global South consortium. It appears the Gaffers have invited themselves to the Holy Land for a pre-Lambeth caucus without checking with the Anglican Primate of that Holy Land; who, it appears, has suggested that meeting after Lambeth might be better.

Meanwhile, Michael Poon's initial question, "What's all this then?" has been "slapped down" by an unnamed Primate and his amanuensis (the telltale trail of metadata seems still to be a type of forensic evidence some in the Global South are not yet skilled in erasing).

This back and forth all seems to me to be the consequence of people taking upon themselves the mantle of judgment; the habit of being judgmental soon comes to be applied within the group as much as outside the group. It is a bad habit, wherever directed other than towards ones own behavior. This is why Jesus said to love rather than to judge. It is a teaching simple to say but hard to practice.

Meanwhile, this effort to end the "paralysis" in the Anglican Communion has instead produced tremors and jitters rather than useful motion. Incompetent and self-appointed physicians have no right to peddle their nostrums — and the rest of Anglicanism would be foolish to swallow their treatments: ineffective at best, and toxic at their worst.

Tobias Haller BSG