Yesterday I received my copy of the Fall 2009 edition of the Virginia Seminary Journal. The cover pic is of two members of the Fighting Friars flag football team looking triumphant, I'm guessing after the defeat of the Pittsburgh Kneelers of Trinity School, my seminary. Inside the journal is a Dean's Report that touts the "both/and" nature of VTS. He defines this both/and as a rejection of either/or options.
Let's think about either/or options. For example, there's creedal faith and non-creedal faith. The Dean says that disagreements at VTS stand within the confines of creedal faith. That sounds a bit either/or to me. There's also issues of sexual practice. A few years ago VTS hired a partnered lesbian to teach homiletics. That sounds like a decisive either/or decision on someone who was passed over by another pecusa seminary because of her living arrangement.
Then there's the mother of all either/or issues - heresy or orthodoxy. Sure, be both/and about liturgical practice and social issues where the church has not spoken with a unified voice. But on those issues where the church has spoken forcefully to be both/and is not commendable. To not decide on the issues that are dividing the Anglican Communion may sound oh-so-open-minded, but what it really is is theological and moral cowardliness as well as intellectual sloppiness.
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