What proved to be the most reported issue from Lambeth was exuality. A resolution with pastoral sensitivity was amended to death in favor of a mean spirited, judgmental and condemning text. I understand the Gospel imperative to be one of acceptance in the body of Christ. While the Church cannot accept promiscuity in anyone, this resolution illustrates that one more time the church is preoccupied with whom to exclude. Underlying this issue are two themes: first is the crisis over how we interpret the scriptures and the second is our fixation on the subject of sex. Dorothy Sayers categorized sin in two ways. First are the warm and disreputable sins such as gluttony and lust, and second are the cold and reputable sins such as greed, pride and envy. We in the northern countries of Europe and North America have tended to be fixated on sex in a kind of voyeuristic manner. The spirit of Anglicanism has always been open to honest inquiry and the possibility of ongoing revelation. New insights and unfolding understandings are basic to our response to the scriptures as we continue to value reason and tradition. This is not a watering down of the faith as some would charge, it is an approach that takes our faith very seriously in our contemporary world. Let us not be too sure about our own personal ability to have a complete understanding of the scriptures. Twenty years ago at our diocesan convention a resolution came forward on the subject of sexuality. In reading the minutes of the fourteenth annual convention I note this comment: "Bishop Wyatt reminded convention that during the debate.. .on this resolution..., several speakers had referred to the "plain meaning of scripture". He gave a strong warning about the danger in the attitude implied by such a statement. He went on to say that "the church collectively nterprets scripture, not the individual member.
Let us be honest--if the church leaders in Jerusalem had not listened to St. Paul, the mission to the gentiles would not have taken place and most of us would not be here today. As another example, let me read from a Lambeth resolution: "A further evil which we have had to deal with is of such a kind that it cannot be spoken of without repugnance. No one who values the purity of home life can contemplate without grave misgiving the existence of an evil which jeopardizes that purity; no one who treasures the Christian ideal of marriage can condone the existence of habits which subvert some of the essential elements of that ideal."
This Lambeth resolution from ninety years ago at the 1908 Lambeth Conference is speaking to the subject of birth control. That was the outrage ninety years ago. Can you imagine such a position being taken by the Anglican Communion today? To me, this once again illustrates the revelatory character of our faith--inspired by the One who makes all things new.
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