Sitting on the Porch
February 17, 2007

As North American orthodox Anglicans sit and stand on the virtual porch, nervous and irritable, waiting for news that will affect us deeply, pacing, yarning, squabbling, spinning out theories, I’m going to toss out my own bit of speculation. It’s an optimistic speculation: I have in reserve a really, really horrible speculation, grim as a frost giant, but I’ll save that one. This is a long one. But we have a while until the press conference, so set a spell. Here comes a thousand words of raw speculation.

A very long time ago, I had an algebra teacher who would say to a kid stuck on a problem, “You’re too close to the blackboard.” Tells you that was a while back, eh? But Miss Spafford was right: being too close to a problem can distort your perception. And those of us who have been in one way or another involved in TEC’s long delinquency are maybe way too close. I think we are seeing one solution to one problem, when there well may be several problems and several solutions. A stroll through the through the comments on Stand Firm and Titusonenine shows that there’s a lot of anger directed toward TEC, or at least its institutionalized and self-perpetuating current management. Nor is that anger unreasonable. Anger is the emotional analog of pain, a siren that warns of a wrong done, to yourself or to someone you love. People who have watched TEC’s slow drift toward becoming the New Age NeoPagan Inclusive Affirming Church, have watched their parish erode from within, who have watched the young families who should be the rising generation of the church go instead to Willow Creek, who have battled revisionist bishops intent on imposing their “prophetic vision” everywhere, are not unreasonably angry. We’ve all developed a unified wish: TEC out and something else, In.

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