YET AGAIN, IT'S HUMAN RIGHTS, STUPID

Poor Archbishop of Canterbury. He was desperate to avoid the issue of human rights, particularly those for homosexuals. He wanted so much to shift the focus to themes of unity in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Not to be. The present Lambeth Conference, opening today, is, once again, overshadowed by the issue of homosexuality. It has been this way for twenty-four years, since anti-human rights prelates pushed through the anti-homosexual RESOLUTION 1.10 in 1998 condemning homosexuality and same-sex marriage. 

Unfortunately, the archbishop himself contributed to the present state of affairs when he pointedly refused to invite the legal spouses of (four) homosexual bishops from America. That guaranteed the issue of homosexuality would be front and center as it is. (All four spouses are actually in attendance but not officially.)

Then, apparently at the last minute in the run-up to the Conference, anti-homosexual reactionary bishops tried to press through a "reaffirmation" of 1998's Resolution 1.10 as the rule in the Anglican Communion. American bishops fired back and the organizers of the Conference revised the "Calls" to recognize differences of opinion on homosexuality. This has only raised the visibility of the issue in the Conference. The revised Calls stresses the validity of different views on homosexuality (this is a defeat for the anti-homosexual-rights reactionaries). Find this HERE , p. 15, 2.3. 

Those who are trying to impose conformity of an anti-human rights agenda in the Anglican Communion will not succeed because the Communion is actually a loose collection of forty-two independent provinces. Each province rules itself. One province cannot impose its will on others. The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a pope, but only a figurehead with no power over the provinces outside of his own.

The Lambeth Conference officially opens today, 28 July. Some 650 bishops from around the world are in attendance. The three most reactionary primates on the issue of rights for homosexuals are boycotting the Conference. The non-Anglican Anglican Church in North America, of which the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is a part, will not be a part of the Lambeth Conference because they are not in the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury invited the ACNA to send observers but Foley Beach, head of ACNA, shot back that none would attend since the meeting included partnered homosexual bishops.

This brings us back to the schism in South Carolina. If anyone ever had any doubt about the direct cause of the split, one should have it no longer. It is now, as it has always been, about human rights, stupid. And so, as parishes in South Carolina return to the Episcopal Church, the people in the congregations should not be fooled about the differences between the Episcopal and the "Anglican" dioceses. The Episcopal Church is in favor of human rights for all people, that is, the equality and inclusion of homosexuals, women, and everyone else once marginalized or excluded in the past. The "Anglican" diocese was created to keep homosexuals, and women, from having equality and inclusion. It is there to continue the white male power structures of the past.

And so, everything old is new again. The Anglican Communion in the world, and in South Carolina, is now wrestling with what to do about equal rights for all people. This is a decades-old struggle that just does not want to go away. At any rate, the Diocese of South Carolina has taken its stand boldly and clearly. It champions equal rights and inclusion of all of God's children. This is the right side of history. 

See THIS ARTICLE for a summary of the American bishops' actions.

Here is an ARTICLE on the organizers' backtracking.

Another ARTICLE about American bishops and gay rights.

Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, of the Diocese of South Carolina, is attending the Conference. Find an article about her HERE .