God's Grace is Bigger Than Religion.

I haven't commented on The Episcopal Church v. The Anglican Communion issues the past few days. Probably because I am really tired of all the back and forth and wish that as a church we'd get back to the mission of the church. I'm frankly tired of the posturing and bs by supposed "men and women of God."

But, I supposed the Archbishop of Canterbury's address today to the General Synod of the Anglican Communion could be interpreted as a move in the direction of getting all this behind us and allowing the church to focus on mission.

That is why a concern for unity -- for unity (I must repeat this yet again) as a means to living in the truth -- is not about placing the survival of an institution above the demands of conscience. God forbid. It is a question of how we work out, faithfully, attentively, obediently what we need to do and say in order to remain within sight and sound of each other in the fellowship to which Christ has called us. It has never been easy and it isn't now. But it is the call that matters, and that sustains us together in the task.

Tobias Haller, Fr. Jake, and Mark Harris have interesting posts worth reading. Tobias Haller poses a choice that faces the church:

So, it is time for an honest, rather than a wishful, appraisal of the situation. It is either, to my mind, a "weak" communion that is strong on mission, or a hobbled and divided -- and I dare say split -- communion in which the institution is secure and the mission flounders.

I vote for the former. I quoted Barry Taylor last week and repeat it again:

...God's grace is bigger than religion, any religion, including Christianity, and that culturally we are moving towards new understandings about the nature of faith and belief that will take us way beyond religious categorizations in the future.