January 20, 2009
A friend has asked me what I think of Bishop Iker’s comments at the recent ‘Mere Anglicanism’ conference in South Carolina. His speech can be read here: http://www.fwepiscopal.org/bishop/bishop.html
My (all too brief) response is as follows:
“This is the same old stuff dressed up in somewhat intellectually respectable clothing. Iker chooses to contrast 'sentimentality' (bonds of affection) with 'Truth' and then worries about who gets to define truth when there are problems. His claim that the consecration of a partnered gay man is against the Vincentian canon (http://www.orthodoxyouth.org/romans/print/16vincent.htm) is a recognition that there is something new going on with the recognition of GLBT people as human without necessarily being sinful by virtue of their disposition. In this he is right and would doubtless have opposed Galileo on the same basis, as he suggests that the ordination of women is a problem. This seems to me a discredited argument.
If we (or he) would try on differentiating between the poles of doctrine and relationship (instead of sentimentality and truth) and using some of the work on polarities of recent years (http://www.equalvoice.com/polrty_map_wrksht.pdf) he might find a more helpful and possible faithful way forward.
What do you think?”
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