President's Report
Elsewhere in this issue, you will find Katie Sherrod's commentary on the recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England. It's an excellent--and alarming--summary of what actually happened. Do note the absence of the language of warfare, victory, and defeat, in marked contrast to the press releases and other statements coming from the American Anglican Council.
While I have heard that any change in the make
up of the ACC must be ratified by the appropriate body of each Province of the Communion, I suspect (though do not know) that there will be an attempt to prevent any action of our General Convention from being considered valid. OK, maybe I'm a bit paranoid--but such would be totally consistent with previous behaviors of those who have so vigorously opposed our confirmation of Gene Robinson's election and our simple recognition that in fact the blessing of same-sex couples does take place in Episcopal churches.
By the time you read this, legislation making
same-sex marriage the law in all provinces of Canada will probably be in effect, making Canada the fourth nation to legalize it, along with Belgium, the Netherlands, and (perhaps most strikingly) Spain, a predominantly Roman Catholic country. I'm reading Tom Friedman's current bestseller, The World is Flat , and I suspect that the flattening of the earth he describes is very much involved in this particular phenomenon.
Friedman sees the global playing field leveled
by the convergence of sophisticated technologies for global communication, the emergence of large numbers of managers, consultants, designers, and CEOs who are comfortable working in the horizontal collaborative style these technologies enable, and the entry into the world marketplace of three billion people from China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia. There's a lot of fascinating information about globalization in the first part of the book (my bookmark is at page 204, with 265 to go), but the point that I can relate to the current struggle in the churches over homosexuality is that top-down, authoritarian exercise of power doesn't work anymore. When knowledge is very public, very accessible to anyone who can type "Google" into a computer, people won't just sit there --they will act. Innovation happens all over the place, not just behind closed doors in the company lab. People aren't waiting for permission; they act on the knowledge they have, and their desire to shape their own lives.
Many of us have been saying for a long time
that the furor over the General Convention actions is not about sexuality, but about power and authority. Friedman's book helped me make the connection between the cry of perceived "erosion of marriage and family values" and what is happening all over the globe.
Of course "traditional family values" are threat
ened! Those "values" enshrine a totally authoritarian, totally masculine ownership hierarchy . When the whole world--including most of the so-called Third World-is moving rapidly into collaborative ways of working that have a lot of room for individual initiative, why would we be surprised that those at the top of the pyramid react defensively and angrily? Power is hardly ever relinquished easily and gently.
There are interesting days ahead, sisters and
brothers. It is more important than ever that we ground our lives and our work in prayer, so that we may continue to listen for God's guidance and receive God's strength. This "flat world" is moving so fast that it's sometimes hard to glimpse God at work--but rest assured that She is working, doing new things.
Peace,
Elizabeth Morris Downie