February 4, 2016

Anglican Cuisinart

I hope most people can at this point see that the recent Primates' gathering (or meeting, depending on who is speaking) was not a great success. There is little agreement on what it accomplished, who was actually there and for what parts of the meeting, what those who were there agreed to, and what it all ultimately means. I think it hard to argue that it has improved relations, or settled anything. Things were at a low simmer of discontent before, but now the pot has boiled over and there is pasta hanging from the ceiling.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

2 comments:

Mary Clara said...

Tobias, I quite agree. And as I commented over at Episcopal Cafe (responding to your remarks there), perhaps it's time we turned to the Pastafarians for help. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, though relatively new, must have had a good deal of experience in dealing with this sort of mess and might be prepared to advise us. So far as I'm aware the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have yet to initiate even the most informal level of ecumenical dialogue with the followers of the FSM; this could be an opportune moment for such an approach.

I am being irreverent, perhaps, but not facetious! One aspect of the problem is the need for certain people to get over themselves, which I think the Pastafarians have done pretty well.

John Julian said...

Great icon of the broken compass rose!

The whole Primates' thing was actually an application of secular MBA tactics in an ecclesiastical setting. The process was also not designed to work well with such powerfully inimical parties—a reconciliation meeting (oops, "gathering") between the NAACP and the Ku Klux Klan doesn't hold much promise of success.

The thing to do is simply to go on doing what one is doing—with the assurance that whatever is of the Spirit will emerge ultimately (i.e., The Gamaliel Solution!). (At least I cannot think of any organizational ploy that holds any promise.