Mere Anglicanism 2024: "To disagree and love at the same time"?

 Last week I attended the 2024 Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, South Carolina. I enjoyed listening to the speakers who, for the most part, stuck to the theme of "Speaking the Truth in Love: The Church and the Challenge of the new Morality". There was some drama and controversy and some not so loving words which left everyone with questions about the problems Anglicans in America may face and how they can discuss them openly.

First, let me say something about each speaker's presentation in order .

1) D.A. Carson: "The Scriptures and God's framework for human flourishing".

    He focused on Isaiah chapter 3 and Colossians 3. Isaiah tells us of God's judgement due to rebellion and poor leadership. God takes away "flourishing" but promises hope of a return to Him. In Colossians flourishing is the putting aside of earthly things. We are dead and risen.

2) Carl Trueman: "Who am I? Defining Identity and Self in an Age of Faulty Anthropology".

What does it mean to be human? Who we are is more important than what we are, but it should be the other way around as we are God's creatures who have,

a) rejected our limits and are committed to overturning the limits of the past. 

b) rejected teleology (things move towards an end) because our end should be to glorify God and worship Him forever, but instead we want to decide our own ends.

c) rejected our natural obligations to others. The obvious example is seen in marriage, sexual activity, and child rearing. 

How should the Church respond? By recovering teaching, liturgy, and community.

3) Calvin Robinson: "Critical Theory: Antithetical to the Gospel?" Feminism is the gate through which the attack on patriarchy and heteronormativity enters the Church. "Priestesses" (his term) in the Church of England and the need for equal numbers vs male priests resulted in a liberal Church, a compromised Church, and acceptance of Marxism (which had as one of its goals a revolution against religion). Critical theories are another name for Marxism. 

4) Sam Allberry: "Why our bodies and what we do with them matter"

1 Corinthians 6:13 "13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

In the Bible your body is you. Now we are whatever we want. "We are fearfully and wonderfully made", and the body is for the Lord, and because God dwells in us, our bodies are the temple of God.

5) Rebecca McLaughlin: "Right Thinking: Gospel truths in a culture subscribing to a secular creed",

Many secular claims are Christian based, help people to see that. She talked about her own same-sex attraction, overcoming it and being married with children, and how she faced protestors and tried to work with same sex couples. 

6) Amy Orr Ewing: "Face to Face: speaking the truth in love in relationship".

Conversational evangelism is biblical and historical. 

How to deal with difficult questions? Start with love of the other person. Be clear about where you come from (follower of Jesus), ask empathetic questions to learn what drives them (example: injustice which points to God's imprint on us so we see injustice as wrong), be aware of their trauma, listening, lose your fear of their rage, "the battle is God's" , be proactive, and be persistent in prayer.

7) John Dickson: "Gospel Hospitality in a Fractured World".

Jesus is the epitome of Gospel hospitality. He loved outsiders and ate with sinners. At table fellowship, Jesus expected his grace to transform.  Our fractured world has lost the moral imagination to disagree and love at the same time.

After these talks, there was a panel discussion, and that is where the controversy happened. Instead of being seated on the panel and given a chance to explain how his talk was appropriate to the topic to which he was assigned as planned, Fr. Calvin Robinson was told to not join the panel discussion. Organizers say that he was "disinvited" (Calvin Robinson's term) because he did not address the topic, an explanation that has left many wondering if there was anything else involved. 

I have my suspicions, but looking at my notes, Fr. Robinson did address the topic. I think his conclusions and the use of "trigger" language such as "priestesses" led the Bishop to advise Fr. Miller to disinvite Calvin Robinson, a man who everybody should have known can cause controversy. 

I wanted to see how the panel would interact with Fr. Robinson. I would have liked to have heard an open discussion about the elephant in the room, women's ordination, which remains a source of disunity in the Anglican Church in North America. That would have provided us all with a real life example of "Speaking the Truth in Love" face to face. To have him at the table would show "Gospel hospitality". Alas, it was a missed opportunity to "disagree and love at the same time."

As for Fr. Calvin, he too has a thing or two to learn about "Speaking the Truth in Love". He should have known that the use of the word "priestess" is offensive to female priests and is to some of them regarded as bad as using the "n" word to refer to a black person (I hope he did not understand this beforehand). He will hopefully learn to approach things more carefully as he grows and matures in Christ.

One other criticism of the panel discussion is that one panelist concluded that attending a same sex wedding might be okay if everyone there understood that you were clearly opposed to same sex marriage, and no one on the panel spoke up in opposition to that stance.

I know that the organizers have received this feedback.

I pray they do better next time.