"Gracious Restraint"

Dear Friends in Christ -

I just read the following news posting from the Episcopal News Service: "[Episcopal News Service -- Alexandria, Egypt] Anglican leaders meeting in Egypt have affirmed the recommendations of the Windsor Continuation Group and called for the development of a "pastoral council" and the appointment of "pastoral visitors" to assist in healing and reconciliation given the current "situation of tension" in the Anglican Communion.

In a communiqué released on the final day of their February 1-5 meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, the primates are also encouraging all parties in the current controversies to maintain "gracious restraint" with respect to actions that could exacerbate the tensions, such as same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate."

"Gracious restraint." Hmmm. Sounds to me like the leaders ("primates") of our Anglican Communion are asking us to do what my mother tried to teach my brother and I to do: "think before you act," and "consider others before yourself." Sounds to me like the leaders of our Anglican Communion are trying to keep everyone at the table, to get us to work things out together.

For the past couple of days, the little song that's been rolling through my head is
"Father make us one;
Father make us one;
that the world may know
that you sent your Son,
Father make us one."
I had sort of forgotten that the Primates of our Anglican Communion were meeting, but my sub-conscious must have remembered, because I've been humming this song, praying for unity.

I was in a coffee shop today, and as I got to talking with the guy behind the counter, he said, "Are you from that Episcopal church?" When I said that I was, he said, "Isn't the Episcopal church the church that's going through that split?" I felt wounded, and I thought: how sad that that's how people see our denomination - we're the church of folks who can't get along, the church of folks who are fighting so much we're "splitting."

Of course, I took some time to have a longer talk with the coffee shop dude. By the time we finished talking, I think he heard a different message from me than he gets from the media. The message he got from me, through word and example, was that I/we aren't people who "split." At least some of us aren't. We (at least most of us) are people who stay, who are willing to listen and to talk, who have differences that we try to work through together rather than to run away from.

I think that if God was interested in us all agreeing with each other, he would have made us all more alike. He didn't, so I take that as a sign that there's something beautiful and interesting about difference, - and that if we dare to cling to God and to listen more closely to each other, the Father might make us "one" in ways that we have never imagined.

What do you think? I would love to know . . .
Faithfully,
Janet+