I am currently in Germany, near Bonn, teaching a course on late antiquity. Late Roman history in Germany, you wonder? Actually, there’s quite a bit here to explore for those of us with an interest in early Christianity and the later Roman Empire.
Alas, responsibilities still do not permit me to write at length–but I thought readers might be intrigued by the above photo, taken from the back of the Bonn Münster. The huge heads represent two Diocletianic martyrs, Cassius and Florentius, whose relics lie beneath the church. The story of the Theban Legion may be largely legendary, but it has left its traces all along the Rhineland, from St. Victor in Xanten to St. Gereon of Köln, not to mention the highly-improbable-but-still-widely-venerated St. Ursula in Köln.
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As I was waiting at the airport for my flight to Germany, I encountered a friend from a nearby parish who was on her way to . . . GAFCON! Perhaps the coincidence was part of what snapped me out of my blogger’s block. I hope to have a chance to chat with her when I get home and get a first-hand account.
Meantime, I fear that any comment I make on it or the approaching fiasco at Lambeth will too brief or uninformed to make it worth the reader’s while. I only note that, according to Fr. Robert Hart at The Continuum, at least one bishop at GAFCON is reported to have said, in defense of the “ordination” of women, that “it is not a sin to be a woman.”
Sigh. Is it really necessary to point out yet again how foolish this is? One of the reasons I became so discouraged with writing is because it seems that so many people are incapable of seeing the basic illogic in so much of what passes for “orthodoxy” in Anglicanism these days. Whether it is revisionists crying ‘donatism’ or “orthodox” evangelicals defending WO, all seem caught up in slogans that will not hold up on examination or circles of contradiction from which they cannot break free.
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Meanwhile, there seem to still be those who believe that there is some sort of future for “orthodox” Anglicans in ECUSA. William Tighe has brought to my attention another effort to make this case, as well as the gentle but clear repudiation of any such illusions by Fr Al Kimel. Whatever the faults of GAFCON, they seem to understand that much, at least.
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Enough. I have exams to grade and a trip to Aachen for which to prepare. Bis später . . .
