I really don't want the Episcopal Church to be edged out of the Anglican Communion. I'm not going to repeat all the details here, but you should look at Episcopal Cafe and the online stories at EpiscopalLife to see just how this is being reported and the responses that are beginning to come in. And the responses are an interesting set of contradictions. Robert Pigott, who interviewed a number of people at St. Thomas' Parish last Sunday for the BBC, reports yesterday's developments with the headline: U.S. Anglicans Reject Gay Bishops. Jim Naughton in the Diocese of Washington says "he got it all wrong." Yet EpiscopalLife begins its coverage saying:

After nearly a full day of deliberations, the House of Bishops on September 25 agreed overwhelmingly by voice vote to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

Now is that "rejecting gay Bishops"? You'll have to read and judge for yourself.

My comment on Episcopal Cafe and my blog entry at SoulJournal.net say most of what I'm thinking right now.

Watching us maneuver as a church around the threats to church unity has made it clear to me that there is something worse, however, that can happen—We can continue to think we're being the Church, while putting an asterisk on the ‘we'* that qualifies who it applies to and in what limited situations. When we do so, I fear we're buying participation in the Anglican Communion at the risk of ceasing authentically to be the Body of Christ*.

*Some restrictions may apply.

Affirming the ‘civil rights' of gays and lesbians does not buy straight Christians moral capital that we can then cash in by denying that they are FULLY a part of the church, simply because they are human beings loved by God, baptized, and gathered regularly around Christ's table. If being gay and lesbian doesn't disqualify us from being fully part of the Body of Christ, then it can't be trotted out later to disqualify a member of the Body from eligibility to be considered for ordination, or again later to disqualify a legitimately ordained priest from being consecrated a Bishop if so elected according to the canons of the church.

We cannot ourselves claim to be the Church and then try to affirm and exclude gays and lesbians simultaneously.

The bottom line for me is that full members of the Body of Christ are full members—ALL of us or NONE of us. The Reign of God does not list asterisks by anyone's name.