Canon Kearon…um…"revises” the WCG Report

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy

The title is also from SFIF, including the "um." That kind of thing shows up a lot at the children's site. I suppose it's their attempt to be conversational, or folksy. However, I was taught in Toastmasters that these sort of verbal ...s are a part of poor public speaking that make the speaker look stupid. I know Fr. Matt isn't stupid, so maybe he's just adopting a SFIF idiom. I would say that in written form these verbal nothings are even worse than in oral presentations, but maybe readers have a different take. I do know that the grownups at Toastmasters do try to get their members to stop this kind of verbal nonsense. ed.


Here is a section from the transcript of Canon Kearon's words regarding the findings of the Windsor Continuation Group:

They looked at the moratoria, which were announced in the Windsor Report and see what the state of those was. . . .

With respect to the authorization of public rites of same sex blessings, they accepted, that by and large, that moratorium had held, but they recognized there was a few bits, flakey bits around. Some dioceses had gone ahead and tried to sort of use mmm language that was not that clear in what they were trying to do. I think that is what they said about it.

The third one, they said, the question of interventions had not ceased. In fact, they said they reckoned it had gotten worse.


Interesting. This is from the Windsor Continuation Group report presented at Lambeth:

The question of the moratoria

* The Windsor Report sets out requests for three moratoria in relation to the public Rites of Blessing of same sex unions, the consecration to the episcopate of those living in partnered gay relationships and the cessation of cross border interventions.
* There have been different interpretations of the sense in which "moratorium" was used in the Windsor Report. Our understanding is that moratorium refers to both future actions and is also retrospective: that is that it requires the cessation of activity. This necessarily applies to practices that may have already been authorised as well as proposed for authorisation in the future.
* The request for moratorium applies in this way to the complete cessation of (a) the celebration of blessings for same-sex unions, (b) consecrations of those living in openly gay relationships, and (c) all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction.
* The three moratoria have been requested several times: Windsor (2004); Dromantine (2005); Dar es Salaam (2007) and the requests have been less than wholeheartedly embraced on all sides.
* The failure to respond presents us with a situation where if the three moratoria are not observed, the Communion is likely to fracture. The patterns of action currently embraced with the continued blessings of same-sex unions and of interventions could lead to irreparable damage.
* The call for the three moratoria on these issues relates to their controversial nature. This poses the serious question of what response should be made to those who act contrary to the moratorium during the Covenant process and who should make a response.

I would love to hear Canon Kearon explain how the WCG's words: "the patterns of action currently embraced with the continued blessings of same-sex unions and of interventions could lead to irreparable damage..." can be rightly paraphrased as, "With respect to the authorization of public rites of same sex blessings, they accepted, that by and large, that moratorium had held, but they recognized there was a few bits, flakey bits around."

Thanks to an alert reader.