Kendall Comment #9: Richard Helmer on D025 (from the Lead)

50. Kendall Harmon wrote:

Richard Helmer:

But the centrality of this thread today was revealed to me by a piece of paper that made its way to our deputation table shortly before we recessed for the evening. On it was the message that the House of Bishops, by over a 2-to-1 margin, had concurred on resolution D025 with minimal amendment. Many of us were, quite honestly, astonished. We had expected some consternation from the HoB, at least an effort to make major amendments to D025, or perhaps a straight no vote on the resolution to show the Anglican Communion how many of our bishops were willing to hold the line, even over and against their larger, senior House.

Much to our surprise, we had arrived at one of those rare moments that both Houses had agreed on one of the most controversial questions before them, and B033 was now left soundly behind, a fading anomaly in the march towards the fullness of God’s grace for all the baptized; a temporary lapse in the greater arc of just truth about ourselves and God’s call to us.
The House of Bishops appears to have grown tired (as have we all) of attempting to appease others in the Communion, of trying to prevent schism when those departing have already insured it’s a foregone conclusion, of trying to purchase tickets to Lambeth and the other Instruments of Unity with talk of compliance, if not conformity. The elephant of the Windsor Report occupying the living rooms of both Houses now seems largely deflated, the false rumors and half-truths now gone, the hot air that made the elephant so big now replaced with the transformative and truthful breath of the Spirit.

http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/general_convention_2009_live/eyes_on_the_floor_an_epochal_b.html