When the world is in meltdown

This weekend is taken up with our annual Diocesan Meeting or Synod. The Eucharist last night seemed only moderately well-attended both by clergy and laity. We seem to have forgotten about the opportunity to invite community and other church leaders, the liturgy was very clergy dominated and even (as far as I could tell) those laity who were allowed to administer Communion were trainee priests.
The Bishop's address was dry, and he looked tired...poor man
The agenda is dominated by formality with only (it would seem) a slight departure into the controversial to discuss GAFCON (so called Global Anglican Futures Conference...a body that declares itself to be the new fount of orthodoxy).
The Bishop did press us about water issues, and the global financial crisis, but where were the community leaders to hear it?
It will all be over tomorrow evening. PTL!

An end to terror

In the last week or so the African National Congress, and in particular Nelson Mandela were removed from the US's Terror Watch List (see here).
No doubt Dr Mandela was pleased with this birthday present, but it raises the question of what such lists are all about. They are of course propaganda, and don't serve much useful purpose at all.
The US list has (apparently) nearly 1,000,000 people on it.
One only has to see some of the names on the list, (here)which includes US senators, serving military officers, and any number of people who have opposed President Bush on issues great and small. See the American Civil Liberties Union counter here
The Anglican Church's GAFCON conference (reaction to gay issues and women's ordination) which recenty met (against that Bishop's wishes) in the city of Jerusalem...also had a (much smaller) hit list.
Security were instructed to not allow certain people entry under any circumstances (see here), that list, too, is propagandist and political!

The GAFCON Con

I have been slow to comment on the so called "Global Anglican Future's Conference" (GAFCON), as Anglicans Online observed last week, one may just as well let the dust settle until we can really see what has happened.
Perhaps the most trenchant criticisms are those which suggest that a group met which (allegedly) represented an enormous number of the poorest Anglican Christians, and made no comment about poverty issues, and the health crisis on the African continent. Indeed a number of commentators have suggested that despite the continued insistence that it is the AfricanChurches whose noses are most put of joint by all this, the sort of realignment that GAFCON is promoting will actually serve the interests of rich disaffected Anglicans in North America, Australia and the UK.
Twas ever so
Some interesting reflections here
What is the Bishop of Rochester up to?
What is the Archbishop of Sydney up to?
What is the Archbishop of Canterbury up to?