Although I know that the beginning of the Church Year was a month ago on the First Sunday of Advent, I am making a series of New Year's Resolutions that were prompted by a very unlikely source, at least for me, an essay, What I Have Learned These Past Five Years: Reflections in Advent, 2008, by the Revd Dr. Ephraim Radner, Senior Fellow at the Anglican Communion Institute and Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College in Toronto. I recommend the essay and here are the resolutions that arose out of my reading it:
- I won't insist, or even expect, to have my own way.
- I won't make disagreements in the church battlegrounds.
- I won't be so foolish as to think that I and those who agree with me have the solution to the church's problems.
- I won't demonize those with whom I disagree.
- I will be patient, trusting that God will handle everything in God's own time.
I pray that with God's help I will be able to keep these resolutions,
I am thankful for Dr. Radner, even though I have not often agreed with him in the past. Reading his essay reminded me that God can speak to me through the most unlikely people.
5 comments:
I think I may appropriate your resolutions for myself!
Happy New Year...
"in God's own time"-guess even masculine pronouns are a bit too much for such a gay church.
Is masculinity a suitable attribute for God? God is spirit - no gender there.
Yes, invisible, untouchable, inaudible-or we could simply say not there and save time and be more accurate.
But your central point is accurate: things that don't have bodies/don't exist can't be either male or female.
Chris got it right. It isn't about gay or straight but about the witness of Scripture and of the Anglican tradition that God cannot be confined in gender-specific pronouns.
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