Many hours of talking today.
In the morning we tackled a paper by the Theology Committee that attempted to present the arguments for and against same gender marriage side by side. Theologians from both the conservative side and the liberal side were on hand to make their case and answer questions. The reception was less than thrilling. One bishop pointed out that there was nothing new in the arguments, stuff we have heard 20 years ago. Still, I guess that it is a good thing that we are still at the table exchanging views.
Henry Parsley, the retiring Bishop of Alabama, closed with a plea for "Comprehension for the sake of truth, not compromise for the sake of peace." I thought that was quotable.
After lunch we had a discussion about the Episcopal Identity Project and their report called, "At One Table." This is the result of many years study about how clergy and congregations perceive themselves, and what they consider to be the most important aspects of their identity. We focused this afternoon on two theological areas which congregations especially did not rank highly, "incarnation" and "salvation." The HOB has been criticized for not giving enough time over to theological conversation, so we had lots of opportunity to do that today, although, as you might expect, a couple of hours was not enough time to go as deeply as some would like.
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portrait
Kirk Smith, V Bishop of Arizona
About Me
- Bishop Kirk Smith
- The Rt. Rev. Kirk Stevan Smith, Ph,D., is the Fifth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona.
Welcome to Arizona Bishop!
Hello Everyone,
My name is Kirk Stevan Smith, and I am the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Arizona.
I have created this blog to better communicate with those in this Diocese as well as other interested Episcopalians throughout the country.
I invite you to leave your comments and thoughts.
In the days to come, I hope to be adding more features and sites of interest.
+Kirk
My name is Kirk Stevan Smith, and I am the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Arizona.
I have created this blog to better communicate with those in this Diocese as well as other interested Episcopalians throughout the country.
I invite you to leave your comments and thoughts.
In the days to come, I hope to be adding more features and sites of interest.
+Kirk
5 comments:
snore....our girl's b-day far more interesting!!
The quote is from Hooker.
+Kirk, Glad you are blogging this. I hope that these conversations will not only happen, but that in some ways they'll become public. We need the benefit of our bishops and their teaching office at this moment in our history. Anyway, sounds like a good set of issues to take on.
Ann, it's surely in the collect for Hooker, but do we know that it's in his works? I'd love to see the context. Lots of stuff gets attributed to Hooker that he never said.
Pax,
Scott+
What I should have said:
It's from the collect for Richard Hooker in Lesser Feasts & Fasts.
"...Still, I guess that it is a good thing that we are still at the table exchanging views."
Good for who?
Certainly not gay men and lesbians. The continued dithering of the bishops is simply not helpful, and it contributes to their increasing irrelevance.
We need justice now. Right now. Not in another 40 years.
In a more positive vein, I think it's great that you are blogging this. Makes the HoB appear more transparent. Good on you.
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