‽istis wonders if we can disagree well (weekending February 11th 2023)
This weekending, ‽istis has been pondering conflict and conflict resolution – including matters of life and terrible, tragic death across the world; how we might discern right from wrong; what is sinful and what is holy; how a process of disagreement can be managed; who rules what is in, what is out – what is included and who is excluded.
Three main news items have preoccupied ‽istis this week – leading to much pondering and wondering:
a) The impact of the earthquake spanning an area that it was once decided to divide into parts, into ‘nation states’ called Türkiye and Syria: where these human-made borders, disputes, (un)civil conflict and the related consequences for local government, for infrastructure and for access to aid seems to be hampering the utterly essential help, and is probably contributing to the toll of death, rising every day…
b) Ukraine and Russia: where it has been nearly a year since the start of the Russian Special Military Operation aka: invasion; aka: war; aka: failure to pursue national regional strategic goals through peaceful, co-operative, mutually beneficial means or through international institutions; aka: the murder, slaughter, death of people on both sides who,
o if we look at the colour of blood that has seeped into the soil (whether that is considered home or ‘foreign’), or has seeped through bandages applied in vain, in a bunker, in a tank or beside a ruined building
o if we see the anguish and tears on the faces of their partners, parents, their children
o when we think about their shared extraordinary capacity as people to laugh and love and wish and dream and hope,
would seem to have far more in common than divides them…
c) The Church of England’s General Synod 2023: specifically the debate on Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 8th) regarding the report commissioned by the Bishops (some 6 years+ in the making and waiting)[i]: ‘Living in Love and Faith’[ii] – which ‘sets out to inspire people to think more deeply about what it means to be human and to live in love and faith with one another. It tackles the tough questions and the divisions among Christians about what it means to be holy in a society in which understandings and practices of gender, sexuality and marriage continue to change.’
And these ponderings and wonderings are a little delayed because ‽istis has spent nearly as much time as those in the debating chamber - watching and listening to the proceedings; considering the process, the procedures and the arrangements in place to manage the debate and to lead to a decision:
And in all this, along with· Motion to accept report, proposed
· Opposition heard
· Debate of tabled proposed amendments to the motion (which included the potential removal of ‘Q’ in LGBTQ(sometimes I, sometimes A)+; the potential removal of ‘+’; the potential changing of the word ‘welcome’ to ‘note’; the nature of an apology, etc.)
· Three-ish minute speeches by proposers of the amendments; ‘resistance’ or not by the Bishop of London; 25 members standing or indicating that they wish to stand so a further debate can proceed; speeches by someone ‘for’ the amendment, someone ‘against’ the amendment; testing the wish of Synod to proceed to voting on the amendment; 40 members standing, or not; voting (as a whole or in ‘Houses’ of Bishops, Clergy and laity); and plenty of Points of Order…
· Voting on a finally agreed motion
· the ice-breaking references to relative strengths of bladders and the need for comfort breaks;
· the perhaps slightly risqué references to what clergy may get up to in bed or on the living room floor;
· the absolute heartfelt points about matters of exclusion/inclusion, one’s very identity, conscience, who someone may love;
· the potential to name as holy ‘what we along with the universal Church down the ages – and is still the predominant view throughout the world - have always before now called sin’;[iii]
· a reminder of the potential implications: persecution and death for some across the world;
· the fundamental issues of authority, the influence of ‘culture’ and the very role of Scripture, and/or the tradition as it has been passed down/inherited, and/or ‘reason evidenced in the vast work done over the last 6 years so bravely by so many’[iv], and the development of doctrine – all up for discussion;
· the prospect schism and the fracturing of unity among the Provinces of the Anglican Communion;
· etc, etc…
perhaps, possibly, maybe a process was demonstrated whereby people of sincere and utter conviction about the ‘rightness’ of their view (believing that they have God on their side, even), with ‘deep irreconcilable differences that are between us’, could ‘disagree well’?
The (some-might-say-angels-dancing-on-the-heads-of-pins-level-of-elaborateness) carefully-crafted, clear and agreed procedures were applied with rigour (overseen by a generous, skillful and seemingly effective ‘chairperson’ and a bewigged lawyer and advisers); voices were heard; no obvious insults were thrown; no fists were thrown; no violence threatened; no bombs were prepped…
These proceedings of the General Synod, and the extensive work (and no doubt prayer) underpinning them, was presented as a process of ‘discernment’ – humans seeking the will of the Divine: ‘So let us decide as we each conclude the Lord desires’ (Archbishop Justin Welby); an elaborate democratic process perhaps to find a way forward given the apparent direct absence of the unequivocal, universally heard and understood voice of God – or, some might say, just the absence of God or a God/god/Gods/god/Divine/divine (whether ‘He’, ‘She’[v] or ‘They’).
So, pondering whether perhaps Occam might nowadays pare away the very need to posit an omni-present, omniscient Being altogether[vi], and having also listened to the reports of Zelensky’s address to the British Parliament, ‽istis felt compelled to re-‘Tweet’ the following (first posted during the recent Anglican Communion’s ‘Lambeth Conference’ in 2022[vii]):
‘Go on, I dare you, Lord... hi-jack the PA; make a pronouncement; set the record straight (or not straight)...
Oh, and meanwhile might the barrels of the assault weapons turn to liquorice? the bombs party-pop with glitter? https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2019/12/pistis-reclaims-advent-weekending.html’
And ‽istis is left wondering who, if anyone, is perhaps the most deluded:
· the ‘fors’, the ‘againts’, the proposers and rejectors, the amenders and the resisters
· the democrats, the autocrats
· the generals, the presidents, the grieving relatives on every side
· the arms-procurers and traders, the peace-marchers and pacifists
· the nationalists, the globalists
· the ‘ordinary person in the street or on the proverbial Clapham omnibus’, the ‘elite’
· the ‘hes’, the ‘shes’, the ‘theys’
· the believers, the unbelievers
· the sacred ones, the profaners
· the religious, the humanists
· the zero-sum-gainers, the win-winners
· those who comprise one of two types of people in the world: the ones who think that there are two types of people in the world and the ones who… oh...
or, of course, possibly, maybe even ‽istis‽
© ‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i] Full recorded coverage available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_gcI5hYyc4
[ii] https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/living-love-and-faith/living-love-and-faith-book
[iii] Vaughan Roberts, speech starts at c. 26’ in to proceedings… with apologies for any errors in transcription.
[iv] Archbishop of Canterbury – opening remarks (having just come from Westminster Hall having listened to Ukraine’s President Zelensky
[v] See a side/linked debate on the potential gender of God that spilled over in to the media again this week: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11722729/God-non-gendered-Church-England-services.html and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iuSNd6-Jv4
[vi] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Occams-razor
[vii] References include: https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/lambeth-conference-2022-more-news-and-comment/
