The Anglican Primates (archbishops acting as national church leaders) at their recent meeting in Tanzania demanded that the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, stop blessing same-sex marriages. My post here.

Last week the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (sort of the U.S. primate) gave her response. Katharine Jefferts Schori told staff at the national headquarters

. . . the Episcopal Church is called to ensure that the conversation about the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church continues in the Communion. “It is part of our mission as a church,” she said. “This conversation that has been going on for at least 40 years is not going away. God keeps bringing it back to us.” Jefferts Schori said that she understands that some people feel that the primates’ recommendations are a “hard and bitter pill for many of us to talk about swallowing.” But, she said, worldwide attitudes about the inclusion of gay and lesbian people are changing and “I don’t expect that to end.” “We’re being asked to pause in the journey. We are not being asked to go back,” she said. “Time and history are with this Church.”

Full article from the Episcopal Church website, includes a link to the audio of the address. (More below.)

There are several angles to this story. The one that strikes me this morning is the irony. For decades liberal Christians have called on us to listen attentively and respectfully to third-world voices, to treat the third-world peoples as partners, not as wards or dependents. Well and good. But notice how the first-world mostly white Episcopal Church leadership reacts when the overwhelming majority of Anglican leaders, who are from the third-world, speak. The Episcopal leadership is, in effect, saying to the third-world primates: 'no, you must listen to us, we are more sophisticated theologically, we are farther along on God's journey than you are and so have greater insight into God's will, but don't despair, we will lead you into God's good future.' Sounds like a colonialist mindset to me.