The Greatest Danger

Go read "Living Together For Mission," the Bishop’s Address to the 109th Convention of the Diocese of Lexington, by the Rt. Rev. Stacy F. Sauls, Feb. 18, 2005.  I know almost nothing about Bishop Sauls, but he sounds like my kind of overseer.  Here are some excerpts:

We are now at a point in which the controversy around homosexuality has occupied
an enormous amount of my time as your bishop, and a great deal of our time as a
diocese. I pledge to you that I will do
everything in my power to make that less the case. It is time that this issue cease to distract
us from mission. We must not succumb to
the ungodly forces of polarization. The
situation is what it is, and either we can live with that or we can’t.  *  *  *

So long as I can help it, the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Lexington will
be marked by freedom of thought and expression. Just as we all wish to seek God in a church that allows us to think for
ourselves, so we must respect the right of others to do the same. 

The nature of our new humanity in Christ is
not that we have to be right. It is that
we need each other to help correct our errors as we seek God’s truth. It is not necessary to have all the answers
to all the questions. It is only
necessary to be seeking them.

The
Episcopal Church, as long as I can help it, will be safe for those who seek
because it is in seeking, after all, that we find. It is not necessary to agree with the bishop
or anyone else to belong here. It is
only necessary to seek. 

The greatest danger to our
Anglican heritage that we face is not from those in error. It is from those who have no need to seek
truth because they are content with the truth they think they already possess,
as if truth is something subject to personal possession.  ….

(Emphasis added, paragraphing edited.)

Some traditionalists apparently think that Bishop Sauls is a liberal revisionist who runs roughshod over sacred Anglican doctrines.  But I found the following passage to be a key to his thinking:

… I have insisted that in this Diocese we will be
governed by the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church,
including its constitution and canons. The reason is not that I am a lawyer, although that helps. It is that it is the best way to guard
everyone’s integrity, liberal and conservative alike, the integrity of
individuals and the integrity of the diocesan community. 

Since the first time I met with the clergy as
their bishop, I have insisted that there will be no marriage of a same sex
couple and no rite for the public blessing of a same sex union even though the
latter is something I believe consistent with if not required by the
Gospel. But I don’t get to decide on my
own what the Gospel requires. That is
something we do together. 

I took a vow,
as all clergy have, to be governed by the doctrine, discipline, and worship of
the Episcopal Church, which do not permit those actions. There are some people in our Diocese who like
that I am so governed in the case of same sex blessings, and others who do
not. Nevertheless, my personal
understanding must yield to the community’s understanding because it is through
our ordered life in community that the Holy Spirit leads us, challenges us, and
strengthens us.

(Emphasis added, paragraphing edited; hat tip to TItusOneNine.)