Make Rowan the first Anglican Pope!

No - honestly. OK so I have some ideas for his first few ex cathedra pronouncements which he might not agree with but it might just be worth a shot...

You see, I've been awol from the blogs for a while (going from 1 parish with 3 churches to 7 parishes with 9 churches will do that to you) and in catching up on Rowan's Pentecost Puke and the fallout I stumbled across another post from Fr Ed. Now I don't often find much to agree with in these posts, I just read the blog when I feel abnormally calm to fire myself up a bit. The piece I've linked to concerns the need to introduce marriage annulment to the Church of England, and Anglican Communion as a whole. (Can you see where I'm going? Of course you can!)

Now, FrEd gives us four reasons for this bit of RCizing of the Church. I'm editing the quotage so follow the link above if you want the lot.

"Firstly the process of annulment means that every case is thoroughly examined which means that mistakes are unlikely to be made. [Has this guy never looked at the history of the church that ordained him?] This also ensures that couples understand the gravity of what is at stake and are forced to face up to what went wrong."

"Secondly the process ensures that each case is judged on its merits according to church teaching as opposed to societal opinion. This means that only those marriages which really were flawed become eligible"

"Thirdly annulment takes seriously the state of holy matrimony... if the Church is satisfied that the marriage entered into was not a sacramental reality then the person is freed to marry according to the faith. See then that annulment does not allow for divorce but is a means of recognising when a marriage was not really a marriage at all in the true Christian sense."

"Fourthly annulment is something that can bring healing and wholeness to the recipient. Rather than ignoring the past and leaving people living with guilt... people can start to rebuild their lives and experience the freedom and joy of forgiveness."

So, if we make Rowan the Anglican Pope he so clearly desires to be, and we think of the Communion as a marriage (which it isn't, but some would seek to make it analogous to that) then I'm prepared to concede that FrEd might have a point.

The AC has met point the first already. There's been precious little else talked about for too long.

Point the second - the AC is the very definition of disfunctional and failed if we try (as Rowan seems determined to do) to describe it as the 'one church' that mimics the 'one flesh' of marriage.

On to number three: We should take seriously the idea of the one institutional church and all that means (even if it would only be a federal arrangement.) The AC is in no way that sort of organisation. It is not and has never been the 'sacramental reality.'

Lastly, if we went for the annulment of the AC marriage we might be able to rebuild, witness to those among whom we live and with whom we share our lives.

Of course, this presupposes that Rowan would issue the annulment and that the AC does, in reality, reflect the idea of Christian marriage WHICH IT DOES NOT YOU BEARDED IDIOT!

Ahem.

Please could we have our Anglican Communion back? Pretty please?

IGMC

Uganda: the Authorised Version (or who my neighbour isn't)

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

He said unto him, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?”

And he answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

And he said unto him, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”

But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

And Jesus answering said, “A certain man went down from Kampala to Entebbe, and fell among the police and law makers, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and held him, pending the arrival of the hurry-up wagon so that they might cast him into prison, and hang him; for he had dared to love another man. And by chance there came down a certain Archbishop of Canterbury that way: and when he saw him, he said ‘attempts to publicly influence either the local church or political opinion in Uganda would be divisive and counter productive, yea it would be seen as white colonialism’ and he passed by on the other side.

“And likewise a Pastor named Rick Warren and his friends, who had counselled the law makers of that land against homosexuals, when they were at the place, came and looked on him. Pastor Rick was deeply moved and said, ‘It is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations’, and they passed by on the other side.

“And on the morrow when he was hanged, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Archbishop and the pastors, though they had known that this would come to pass.

“Which now of these two, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the police and the law makers?”

And the lawyer said, “Not one of them.”

Then said Jesus unto him, “Well done, even you can spot a hypocrite.”

Jesus wept.