Andrew Gerns: Appreciatin' Stuff

Gerns writes:

The conventional wisdom is wrong. At least about the Lambeth Conference...

In other words, we have a legitimate series of problems and impasses, that need to be addressed concretely. But instead of building on what we do best as a Communion, and in the Episcopal Church, we have tended to focus on fixing specific symptoms through the use of interest group politics. That is building solutions based on our weakness.

What is it that Anglicans do best?

We worship. We know how to find God in beauty and in the rhythm of day, week, and year. We meet Jesus in word, sacrament .
We are comprehensive. We are tolerant of a certain variety of approaches. We experience the personal costs and spiritual power that being comprehensive brings.
We think. Prayer Book spirituality requires us to be thoughtful because it is not given to handing out snappy answers to complex questions.
We are incarnational. We know that God's whole self in found in the whole person Jesus, and that he lives, and we take seriously the images of being the vine of Christ, the body of Christ and take seriously being ambassadors of reconciliation.
We are mission oriented. The other thing that Anglicans do well besides worship is that we work. We are very effective at organizing and raising money to address real problems ranging from AIDS to alcoholism to homeless to hunger to disaster relief.
We create partnerships. Even with all the division, invasions and upset, there have never been more Anglican partnerships between dioceses than there are today.
We are Biblical. We are not Biblicists, but we delve deeply into what God teaches us in Scripture and we attempt to live that out.
We are traditional. We know that we stand on a past that has been both rich and imperfect, both a blessing and sinful. In bringing forward what the Church has taught and experienced, and in attempting to make that tradition live in the present, we bring forward the teachings of Christ and his redeeming to the present and into the future.

I could go on. But here is what I think our opportunity is:

If the gathered Bishops can build on the positive core, what binds us and draws us together as Anglican Christians; if they can use the stage that Williams and the design team have set for them and allow themselves to appreciate what we have, imagine what we might become, and proclaim what we should be, and then go home and help the rest of us do what must be done, then perhaps, perhaps, this conference next month could be quite revolutionary.

Will it solve all our problems? No. Will it "fix" every pinch? Probably not. Will it prevent those who want to go their own way and form their own Anglican future from doing so? Not if they are determined to make their solution their problem.

But for the rest of us, if we want to build on who we are, what we do best, and stay focused on what Christ is calling us to be, there is always hope.

Lambeth's design is not perfect. The Windsor Report and the need decide whom to invite has gotten in the way. I don't expect earth-shattering results to happen in the first week, month or year after the event. Change of this kind tends not to show itself for a while. If they are doing what I believe they are, it is a very big risk.

But I think +Katharine was on to something when she said to never underestimate the power of tea parties to create change.