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"But It Shall Not Be So Among You": Some Reflections Towards the Reception of the Windsor Report within ECUSA
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Grieb, A Katherine
What could such language mean? It is the great privilege of members of the Anglican Communion to recognize the moral authority of the urgent appeals of other members of the Anglican Communion, precisely because of the "bonds of affection" that exist between us and among us. Within the framework of the Anglican Communion, to say that an urgent appeal from a significant majority of the Communion to one of its members "has only moral authority" is to deny the bonds of affection that we say we have for one another. This does not mean that after intense study, fervent prayer, widespread consultation, and a clear restatement of commitment to the Anglican Communion, a diocese or province may not feel bound in conscience to take action contrary to the advice and counsel offered it. But this action should never be done lightly or in a dismissive way, so as to endanger the bonds of affection that are the most precious treasure of the Anglican Communion's life together.
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The Windsor Report wisely adopted the approach of Paul towards the conflicts of the early churches; it might have been otherwise. The Report could have chosen to speak in the strident tone of the Apocalypse, defining the church over against the whore of Babylon and issuing the appeal, "Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins!" (Rev. 18:4). Or, in reverse logic, it could have demonized those who have left in the language of 1 John: "They went out from us but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us" (2:19). These rhetorical strategies require only enough commitment to the church to form temporary coalitions of like-minded members. By contrast, Paul's theology of the cross describes a costly discipleship that requires much more of the body of Christ. It is considerably more difficult to live by "speaking the truth in love" as the author of Ephesians (4:15) suggests, than to adopt either of these two polemical approaches to the Communion's culture wars.
The Windsor Report has given us all the great gift of defining a vision of the Anglican Communion worth striving for. And it has challenged ECUSA to examine our staying power. Let us not be like the seed that falls on rocky ground and springs up quickly since it has no depth of root; then when tribulation and testing comes, it withers and falls away (Mark 4:5-6). Who knows whether God cannot scatter these unlikely seeds to bring forth a harvest of thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or even a hundredfold.
A. KATHERINE GRIEB*
* A. Katherine Grieb is Associate Professor of New Testament at the Virginia Theological Seminary.
Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Fall 2005
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