If the Anglican Communion falls apart in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

For those of you who are interested, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops has given assurances that it will conform to resolution B033 passed last year, where we will not give consent to the election of any bishops whose "manner of life" poses a challenge to the wider Communion. They clarified that this includes people living in same-sex relationships.

The general consensus among the more conservative Primates and leaders of Global South churches is that this is not enough. You can read this take posted on the website that falsely claims to speak for all Global South Anglicans. The general consensus among more liberal Episcopalians is that even if we had met the exact requests made at Dar es Salaam, it would not be enough for the conservatives. I believe that moderate Anglican conservatives are far more positive. This is not to say that they're overjoyed that we ordain LGBT people as priests, but they consider our actions to be sufficient.

As an aside, Tobias Haller reminds us that we should not assume that the Episcopal Church as a whole is liberal, or that Gene Robinson's election as bishop was a repudiation of previous, incorrect tradition. He believes that Gene was elected because of his excellent pastoral skills and in spite of his sexual orientation. He also wonders if LGBT people putting up with the church is a manifestation of the Stockholm effect...

And so, we have a problem. We have gone back on our acceptance of LGBT people. But we're still in with most of the Anglican Communion. As an aside, my priest has bet a $20 bottle of wine with a prominent Episcopal layperson (who is actually in seminary now) that Peter Akinola will split and go form his own Anglican-style church.

But back to the problem. I imagine my LGBT sisters and brothers are going through a lot of pain right now. To be honest, I do not like the actions of our HoB. If those most affected by these actions are willing to stay in the church, then I am willing to tolerate them. However, the Evangelical in me wishes we had told the wider Communion, you can't handle the truth, but here it is anyway.

As it is, our actions seem to be enough to placate a majority of provinces (although not Nigeria, by far the largest province). We will remain in conversation with them. But make no mistake, this situation is an injustice.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr

The rest of us might or might not find applicable this piece of advice from a pastor in a different denomination ("priest" would make her Anglican, "pastor" makes her any other Protestant). She speaks of a talk once where a pastor told a feminist theologian at a talk that if she (the pastor) said in the pulpit even a fraction of what the theologian had taught, she would be out in a heartbeat.

The theologian told her that, like the Christians who lied about the Jews hiding in their cellars, she should lie.