Under the Ecclesiatical Bus

Brother Causticus notes with gratitude the prayers of his readers for his safe return and, although his party of hopeful moderates clearly did not arrive at the Primates Meeting in time to have any visible effect, he does aver, not without a small bit of parochial pride, that his own office - to provide the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church with ample escort through a prickly thicket of purple shirts - proved wholly unnecessary, as she came armed with dignity and grace exceeding any protection BC could have mustered in even a double-verged stance. If Our Kate is possessed of a flawed Christology, as her critics suppose, that can be clarified or corrected, unlike, BC observes pointedly, a seemingly congenital predilection for grandiloquent posturing that afflicts so many in pointy headgear.

Which, of course, leads BC to consider the recent Communique from the Primates and its accompanying Schedule. While we await a ruling from the Communion Sub-Committee tasked with defining - in accordance with Scripture, Tradition, and Reason - whether that latter document shall be referred to as a "sked-yool" or a "shed-jool", BC, with an uplifted eyebrow, observes with some astonishment that the Episcopal Church is asked to submit itself to extraprovinical supervision by Primates to be named later and utterly repudiate the inclusion in its life and ministry of those committed to mutually uplifting same-sex unions.

BC has been accused of nuanced prolixity that admits to no easy labelling of his thoughts on all things Anglican and, indeed, has taken some quiet delight in perplexing those who would seek to do so, but time has come to speak plainly on these points, to wit:

• The American church is blessed with more than ample bishops to dither through its own affairs in a wholly ineffectual manner and has no need of foreign bishops behaving badly on its shores, as the native supply of purpled hubris suffices.
  
  
• While BC desires Christian harmony the wide world round, he is not willing to barter the lives of those he loves who have been examples of grace, charity, and a commitment to follow Christ at whatever cost and throw them under the ecclesiastical bus of power and control for the sake of a "unity" founded upon a common commitment to exclusion.

Making these public pronouncements, BC realizes, will no doubt result in his standing invitation to the Anglican Communion Vergers Conference being rescinded. This is not the sacrifice it seems, dear readers, as, for the most part, the sessions consisted of vergers from other parts of the Communion drinking BC's Scotch and, thereby emboldened, pointedly criticizing the American manner of holding the verge, then complaining loudly when the liquor was gone. All in all, Carnival in Rio next year seems more salubrious.

BC has seen much - far too much - in the past few days to continue countenancing an effete muddle to a middle of split differences and grammatical niceties. The Gospels remind us of the One who sojourned in the wilderness and emerged full of the Holy Ghost and power. If wander for a season we must, then let us begin, trusting our God to lead us through to the place He intends for us, that place bearing witness to the Christ who offered Himself unreservedly for the reconciliation of the whole world.