An Openly Gay Bishop in the Church of England?

I was intrigued to see this headline on the "Thinking Anglicans" blog:

"Southwark episcopal election makes news."

OK, what kind of news.... let's see here... a story in the London papers that there is an OPENLY GAY cleric nominated to be the Bishop of Southwark?? You can read the story in the Sunday Telegraph HERE.

And, adding to the "Oh, My, God" nature of this announcement... the openly-gay cleric is none other than Dr. Jeffrey John... the same openly-gay cleric who had to stand down for consideration in 2003 as the Bishop of Reading. ++Rowan Williams was involved in that decision. Now, seven years later, here's Pope Rowan giving his approval for Dr. John's nomination for the Bishop of Southwark.

Let me be clear: I am thrilled about this development, and am quite aware of the stir this is going to cause in the Church of England... and the Anglican Communion, as communal as it is at this time. If memory serves me, Dr. John's withdrawal came at or about the same time that New Hampshire gave the thumbs up to Gene Robinson. In fact, that was part of the "issue" the Archbishop was having about +Gene ("Well, I told my gay man he couldn't be a bishop for the good of the Anglican Communion. Where do you get off approving this man and not showing 'gracious restraint'?") Conservatives rallied to get Dr. John's name scratched off the list and the Archbishop relented. Now, as liberals in the CoE rejoice, I'm sure conservatives will be turning their eyes toward Africa for help. Sound familiar?

This news about Southwark raises a number of questions for me.

• When did ++Rowan Williams decide to travel along the road to Damascus and have this conversion experience... if that's even what happened? Seriously, he has been such a bully and jerk toward the Episcopal Church in the States about our ethic of inclusion, I have to wonder what happened?


• Is ++Rowan going to rethink the decision to put the Episcopal Church in "time out" on all the standing committees?


• Is this a signal that ++Rowan has resigned himself to the understanding that the schismatics will not back down on their anti-Christian behavior?


• Did ++Rowan need the Episcopal Church to lead him to this promised land? I mean, why else would Dr. Jeffrey John now become an acceptable candidate for the episcopate?

Perhaps there is something to the "new Pentecost" the Archbishop talked about this spring. Perhaps this is the workings of the Holy Spirit finally blowing some sense into the brain of the fuzzy-faced Welsh man. I have to believe that God is at work here because I really can not make heads nor tails of what has changed in the worldview of the Archbishop. I have all kinds of suspicions: the continued resignations of the more conservative voices on the standing committees, even with the punitive actions toward the Episcopal Church, might be a factor. Or maybe it's that they've waited the Biblically perfect number--seven years--before bringing Dr. John's name back into the mix. Or maybe the Archbishop began seeing the err of his recent ways and how much needless hurt he has caused with his words and inactions.

Whatever has happened... or happens in the early part of this coming week... we all here on this side of the pond should rejoice and be glad in this news. And I will hold the Archbishop and the Church of England in my prayers because they're gonna need it!

God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year....