The Sudanese Statement: Unity and Honesty

Fisking the Sudanese Bishops' Statement

This is just one in a series of comments about the Statement of the Sudanese Bishops to the Lambeth Conference on the ECS Position on Human Sexuality.

Archbishop Daniel (and the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Sudan?) wrote:

The unity of the Anglican Communion is of profound significance to us as an expression of our unity within the Body of Christ. It is not something we can treat lightly or allow to be fractured easily. Our unity expresses the essential truth of the Gospel that in Christ we are united across different tribes, cultures and nationalities.

The Sudanese bishops spent about three days in Salisbury with U.S. and English bishops with whom they have companion relationship. If they don't treat these relationships "lightly," then why did not he or other Sudanese bishops give the U.S. and U.K. bishops any indication of the rage they apparently were feeling? No, they treated it lightly and they fractured easily. As far as I can discern, the Sudanese bishops gave the U.S. bishops absolutely no indication they were preparing to drop a bombshell at Lambeth.

The Covenant between the dioceses of Missouri and Lui [warning: 4.36MB download] includes this "affirmation" as one of the "Principles of Partnership"
5. Service should be carried out in a spirit of mutual respect and trust.

Respect? Trust?

No, when the bishops of Sudan ask us to "respect the authority of the Bible" as if that were a new thing – a thing we had not already demonstrated over the course of more than two years – they make it clear they have neither respect nor trust.

Furthermore, Archbishop Daniel, you have no sense of unity or truth across different tribes and cultures.

I'll say more about tribes and cultures in a forthcoming post.