Exile and Scapegoating

On Friday, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams issued a statement that at least two Bishops would not be receiving an invitation to the Lambeth Conference - the once-every-ten- year gathering of the Anglican Communion.
Invitations to Lambeth have historically been the sign that one is in communion with the Archbishop and that one is a member in good standing within the Anglican Communion. One of the "un-invited" is New Hampshire Bishop, Gene Robinson. The other is Martyn Minns appointed by the Archbishop of Nigeria as a "missionary bishop" to the US Church (meaning that Nigeria thinks the US Church has gone astray and needs the episcopal oversight from someone outside our boundaries; an action the Anglican Communion does not recognize and why AB Williams excluded Minns.)
These exclusions from Lambeth brought a hailstorm of commentary from around the Church. Below is an excerpt from the statement by the Bishop of California, Marc Andrus:

" ..... the tactic of exile and isolation has been among strongest tools of oppression against the human spirit. We were created to be in communion, and there is a deep-seated intuition on the part of those who wish to hem in human freedom that the best way to do this is to separate us, one from another," he wrote. "The isolation and exile of Bishop Robinson rebukes the bright vision of the unity of the Church, and substitutes the mechanism of the diabolic, the shattering of communion and integrity," Andrus wrote. "I cannot overemphasize how important it is to meet this action on [William’s] part with the weapons of the spirit. I will be praying that my response and our response will be in solidarity with Bishop Robinson, mindful of our relatedness worldwide, full of shalom, and creative, in the manner of Jesus Christ."

The complete text of Andrus' statement and other related news items can be read at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/

The "tactic of exile and isolation" as Andrus calls it, seems to be a measure that may be easy to defend as a gesture of political strategy and difficult to defend as of God. Unity that is preserved at the expense of one man is the mechanism of crucifixion. In John's Gospel (11:47-50), the high priest acknowledges that Jesus has performed many signs of healing yet is is willing that he should be condemned to death, " .... it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have a whole nation destroyed."

This is the politics of scapegoating.