Monday, February 19, 2007

All Tanzania All The Time: Monday, February 19th

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Yes, we had a wonderful weekend away. Thanks to all who sent good wishes. And now. back to our regularly scheduled programing: "As the Anglican World Turns."
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When last we left our passel of primates the efforts of the schismatics to spin "Seven Petulant Primates Skip Church" into "Schism Splits Anglican Communion" came to naught as bloggers and press quickly noted fourteen of 'em ditched in Dromantine so actually progress is being made!
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The much predicted Booting of our Presiding Bishop failed to materialize. Many reports of "intense listening" behind closed doors as the primates met over the weekend. Rumor is they actually talked about something OTHER than the Windsor Report ... and what a good thing THAT is. A field trip to Zanzibar is reported to have been moving experience with only Akinola AWOL from this one. (And let me just note how several of the primates in attendance declining to receive communion strikes me as SOOOOOOOOO familiar as many of us in the Episcopal Church spent years with a handful of holdouts against women's ordination who refused to receive if a woman was involved. And life went on. And the church didn't split. And eventually most of them came around.)
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And now for today's news:
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The first piece I read this morning was Ruth Gledhill's Schori triumphs in Dar as new Anglican queen with this rather astonishing lead:
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So far from being excluded from the Primates' Meeting in Dar es Salaam, I can break the news that TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has been elected onto the all-important policy-making Standing Committee. 'Next thing you know, Benedict will be reversing Apostolicae Curae,' said one observer. There will be much speculation about how this came about. (Schori's election that is.) ... In fact the SC contains a good balance from both wings of the Church. It looks like schism might have been postponed for now. As Jim Naughton points out, not too much should perhaps be read into this because Bishop Jefferts Schori was elected by the Americas. But still, given all the calls for her not to be admitted in the first place, to outsiders it looks like a pretty dramatic turn-around.
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For once I agree with Sister Ruth, although I'm a little flummoxed by her choice of an ending for her piece: "particularly recommending" study of the last two verses of Rudyard Kipling's "The Female of the Species" ...
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So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice — which no woman understands.
And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern — shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her species is more deadly than the Male.
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No internalized misogyny in evidence here. Nope. Not a trace. No idea what you're talking about.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plus the racism of Indian "braves and squaws."

Josh Thomas

Unknown said...

For crying out loud, its KIPLING ... what did you expect?