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Spiritual Context of the Windsor Report, The
Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Charleston, Steven
Emotionally, of course, we find countless ways to live in denial of that sacred reality. We prepare vast legal briefs of scriptural interpretation and theological opinion to justify our own behavior. Over the centuries, these extremes of our self-righteousness have permitted us to carry out some of the worst atrocities against humanity known to history. Our holy wars, crusades, and pogroms have decimated people in the millions in the name of our religion.
In less volatile ways, we have attempted a bypass around forgiveness by seeking a political resolution to our disagreements. The Windsor Report arises from this impulse. It is the product of a process of arbitration.
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But in what ways does it express forgiveness?
If we place the Windsor Report in the context of a forgiveness in which there can be no dividing lines, then the question is not only "How can I forgive them?" but also "How can they forgive me?" Standing in such a vulnerable space is far more difficult than maneuvering for political advantage. It means that we have to publicly acknowledge that we are no different from those with whom we disagree.
We are far more comfortable in equating reconciliation with judgment between those who are "right" and those who are "wrong." We want to settle that distinction before we forgive. We want to be proven right so that the process of forgiveness can be a one-way street. A great deal of the ongoing debate over the Windsor Report is a process of seeking the high ground rather than seeking the common ground that forgiveness demands.
The process of reconciliation that Jesus embodies demands a deeper form of emotional response because it takes us out of the polarity of being right or wrong. It places us all in the position of needing forgiveness. In fact, it forces us to stop thinking in the polarities we invent (liberal or conservative/African or Western). There are no polarities in the circle of forgiveness. Consequently, success is not measured by who is justified, but by who is willing to live justly with the other. The forgiveness process is not intended to validate righteousness but to protect against righteousness. It is not designed to teach others about the errors of their ways, but to help us learn about errors of our own.
The Context of Discernment
The lessons to be learned from the Windsor Report began when a group of people were afraid that their community would fall apart. The people were the first disciples and the community was the early church. Facing the crisis of the absence of Jesus, they worried about how they would continue to understand what to do in a hostile world. Jesus gave them the answer by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor who would continue to teach them all they needed to know. In so doing, he set in motion a process that continues to this day.
The lessons to be learned from the Windsor Report are in the process of discernment. While each of us may pretend that we know all that we need to know about the will of God on any given issue, the presence of the Holy Spirit overturns that arrogance. Our certainty is made hollow by the fact that Jesus felt it necessary to give us the Spirit in the first place. The Spirit was a communal gift. This third person of the Trinity was not given to just one of us, or even to one special group of us, but to all of us.
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