Lambeth: the Generosity of Death and New Life

by Katie Sherrod

Plenty of folks have analyzed what happened at Lambeth. I've done it myself on my blog.

But even as I wrote that analysis I was nagged by the knowledge that I was missing something important, something key to understanding the dynamic of Lambeth. I've finally got it.

It is the Baptismal Covenant.

We - The Episcopal Church - have one. Canada has one in an alternate liturgy. The rest of the Anglican Communion does not.

So what?

So I believe that in the years since the "new" Prayer Book was adopted we have been changed by the baptismal covenant in deep and fundamental ways that, when combined with our church's democratic polity, made a clash of world views between us and the rest of the Anglican Communion inevitable.

All these years of reaffirming the Baptismal Covenant have caused us to recognize that lay people also are "ministers" in the church and that our ministry is to be valued.

Increasingly, lay people are claiming the "ordination" of their baptism - an ordination we share with Jesus himself - and are speaking truth to power in the church.

As a result of all that, we expect our bishops to be accountable to us in ways unheard of in most of the Anglican Communion. We respect them but we also respect our own roles and responsibilities in the church. We expect our bishops to do the same.

This is definitely NOT the case with most Anglican Provinces.

Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, recently made this point in a speech in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. The Episcopal News Service reported:

"Within the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church is the only province with a baptismal covenant, said Anderson. 'Our baptismal covenant brings us to an understanding of the gifts of laity that isn't really understood in the same way by the rest of the communion [In the Book of Common Prayer] the catechism says that the ministers of the church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons - in that order. And so we are called by God to do the work we are given."

The idea that we are all called to this work has given many lay Episcopalians the bold idea that we can change the church. We are empowered by the knowledge that we too ARE the church, that we along with deacons, priests, and bishops are the hands, eyes, feet, and mouth of God in this world. It takes all of us, all the Body of Christ, to keep moving toward the Kindom of God.

Anderson suggested that people forget the triangle model of ministry, with the bishop at the top and the lay people at the bottom. Instead, think of ministry as a circle.

"Lay people should look to clergy and bishops to help - not tell -laity how to discern gifts and carry out ministry," the ENS article said.

That's why, when bishops at Lambeth talked easily of asking our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters to sacrifice their relationships and vocations indefinitely with moratoria on rites for same-sex blessings and the approval of any more honestly gay bishops, many lay Episcopalians bristled.

It's not that we cannot understand talk of sacrifice - Christianity is built on the notion that sacrifice can be holy. But there is a difference between sacrificing oneself for others, and requiring others to sacrifice themselves for your benefit.

There are serious theological and moral implications to bishops seeking to force some of the baptized - LGBT Anglicans - to sacrifice their vocations and loves for what the bishops claim is the benefit of the "majority". It is lay people who must point this out, for in most places, it is often too risky for priests and deacons to do so.

It is lay people who must demand that our bishops not sacrifice our baptismal covenant for an Anglican Covenant.

And with God's help, we will.

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Katie Sherrod is a journalist, was recently Texas Woman of the Year, and is a board member of TCJ. She lives and writes in Ft Worth, TX.