Center Aisle June 17, 2006

Center Aisle is an opinion journal offered by the Diocese of Virginia as a gift to General Convention. We offer analysis and opinions from a variety of sources that reflect the transformational center of our church.

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The middle is not the midpoint on a line between two extremes. In the life of faith, the great bulk of people are at the center, and that center is faith in the Risen Christ. The Pastoral Address to the 210th Annual Council of the Diocese of Virginia, 2005, the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee
Can We Talk?

Don’t worry about getting lost in those mind-boggling debates over Church and Communion structure. There’s good news about Windsor: It’s really about relationships, conversations and process – in other words, about how we Anglicans talk to one another.

That’s the essence of much of what the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has said in conversations following his testimony to Committee 26 this week.

How does the archbishop rate our consultation with the Communion on Gene Robinson? Weak. He’s right. We regret that and need to do better. And we will, thanks to the Communion listening process that’s about to get under way. Local conversations throughout the 38 Provinces will be monitored and shared.

But don’t expect a summing up next week – or next year. On one topic before the Communion, a proposed Anglican Covenant, the secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council has predicted that discussions could go on for six to eight years.

Too long? Not when the conversation is as rich as we expect it to be.

Center Aisle is published by the Diocese of Virginia; Publisher:Peter James Lee; Editor: Ed Jones, St. George's, Fredericksburg; Editorial Writer: The Rev. John Ohmer, St. James', Leesburg; Editorial Writer: The Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Missioner to Sudan; Staff Writer: Susan Daughtry Fawcett; Cartoonist: Mike Kerr, Diocesan Treasurer, St. Clare's, Richmond; Researcher: The Rev. Holly Antolini, St. Paul's, Richmond; Design/Production Print/Web: John Dixon, Michael Pipkin, Leo Campos; Coordinator: Patrick Getlein