Friday 5 February 2010

A Frame's Defiant Stand in Half

There is agreement, I would guess, and I shall, among the four, the four that uphold the spirit of central Communion Anglicanism, that the current implementation of the Covenant is flawed, now we have identified or labelled the Standing Committee as that of the ACC, in this implementing process that is so confused and liable now to engendering such further distrust amongst churches as to demand rethinking and many an essay and ongoing comment after comment. That is what the newly renamed Anglican Church Itch (ACI) keeps doing, that we, or it, have argued in our, its, our, their, paper, The Anglican Communion Covenant: Where Here do go from There? (31/01/2010).

It, we, they, have not said, let us begin again just because it seems we have not achieved things our way yet. Such would be too obvious and disastrous and ask too much of the Archbishop of Anglicanism in his Palace at Lambeth Walk. No, we are not asking him to do that Covenant walk again. Even though large tracts of Anglicanism and many old and famous Churches have fallen or may fall into the grip of the liberals and all the odious apparatus of revisionist rule, we shall not flag or fail. After all, Bishop Mountain will still be present, his flagpole erect and flag not at half mast, and we can continue to climb. We shall go on, and on, to the end, and we shall fight in the Primates Meeting and the Lambeth Conference, even though we are but four lowly and inconsequential clerics with a dog or is it a website. No, we have suggested a practical plan ahead to try to push our objectives. For, if I may speak personally, and after all I will anyway, and do, and have: we shall fight in the choirs and choir practices, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the belfry, we shall defend our Anglicanism, whatever the cost may be. An alternative is simply to sit back and watch things unfold according to whatever dynamics are now in play with the ACC's Standing Committee that ought to Sit. As things are cannot be right, and so we shall have to fight them in the pews, we shall fight at the entrances, we shall fight in the graveyards and in the car parks. Few liberal leaders or progressive information sources in the Tyranny of Episcopalian Congregations have lost an opportunity to attack or diminish the Covenant and its supporters. No, they have not. We have had to be vigilant about the nature of their attack in its apparent support, so that now in our support we have made an apparent attack back against the process. But against them we shall not be diminished. We shall fight well beyond if necessary: in the approach roads and the lanes; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, our Anglican Communion were subjugated by the U Boat tactics of the Americas, then our Communion beyond the seas, armed and guarded by elements of the Global South, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the African World, with all its fundamentalism and plight, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old, although of course we don't want Gaff Con in charge if ever they do, and would have to involve us four in some more of our scheming.

3 comments:

Priscilla said...

Adrian, your translation was most helpful to me as I tried to parse meaning, ANY meaning, from this ever-growing essay.

My take away of what Radner is saying (thanks to your excellent translation!):

It probably wasn't a good idea for the GAFCONites and the FOCAs to leave in a huff before I got my way. Now I am isolated and realizing that I am virtually alone in my demands, and so was Anis.

We have to use the side door of the Southern Cone now to force everyone who disagrees with us (which truly seems to be everybody) to do what we tell them to do. Or else.

And liberals are mean and icky but I will gently pretend to criticize the far-right kooks I hobnob with too so I can retain my stylized middle position as I try to jerk the church farther and farther to the right with verbosity and what I think of as subtle word shenanigans.

Those bloggers are mean but since I am superior in every way I can dismiss them all by burying them in words. I have to be careful though because my innate angry conservative tends to show through when I do this.

Anonymous said...

" even though we are but four lowly and inconsequential clerics with a dog or is it a website..."

How would you describe yourself?

Pluralist (Adrian Worsfold) said...

_How would you describe yourself?_

Woof.