The humbling of churches in our day?

It would appear that the church(es) of the world have a lot to be humble about. Here is a quick round up:

The famous Saddleback Church a while ago was ejected from the even more famouse Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for having the temerity to appoint a female pastor. It is attempting to regain lost fellowship. No doubt the SBC is not corporately feeling humbled by what it has done. It ought to!

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), especially through its Archbishop Foley Beach, Chair of the Gafcon Primates' council, is leading the charge that the Anglican Church in Canada and The Episcopal Church (in the USA) and more recently the Church of England are "bad boys" of global Anglicanism because of, you know, not getting a certain topic right. Is it humbling, I think we may quietly wonder, to find here that ACNA has a quandary or three of its own about getting other things right?

In an update of the situation in which the Anglican Church of Uganda, via its Archbishop, is enthusiastic about the criminalization of homosexuals, the Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a statement. Along with many others, I find this statement compelling. Unfortunately, Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba does not. He has issued a robust response here. I think it is called “doubling down.” Definitely not a humbling of the Ugandan church then. Though I do wonder, you may too, why, when the Ugandan parliament offered a golden opportunity for critique of the criminalization of homosexuality, it chose to miss it and instead to doubledown on endorsing it.

In the Church of England itself there is plenty to be humble about (and I think the CofE is aware of that) as it comes to grips with a series of challenges re safeguarding or insufficient safeguarding in times past and possibly times present. One example involves how the church, two bishops in particular (then Sheffield, now Oxford; then York, now retired), handled a complaint (here for a recent statement by +Oxford). Another involves Soul Survivor, a famous ministry, inaugurated by a man called Mike Pilavachi, now the subject of an investigation into poor if not abusive behaviour, with perceptions of past inadequate responses to surfacing knowledge of allegations, and present consequences re staff being stood down.

Meanwhile, across the Tiber there are many stories to potentially follow up and read, and further across some other rivers, we continue to find the very contemporary scandal of the Russian Orthodox Church supporting the least supportable war of recent times.

We churches have a lot to be humble about. That includes my own as we attempt to be better in the light of our Royal Commission on Abuse. More generally, being a bishop in an episcopally led, synodically governed church gives me a front row seat view of how difficult it is to be a humming, thriving, darn near perfect church. Instead the reality, starting with myself, is how flawed and frail we humans are as we attempt to do things together, for God and for the flourishing of God’s church.

There is much for the church to be humble about and we seem to have a lot going on these days which humbles us.

This is a good thing.

It is also far from the most difficult situation churches can face.

This item, about the possibility of an Anglican Christian in Pakistan being hung for blasphemy, sharply reminds us that hard though it is to be humbled, there is worse for Christians to face in the world today.

This post is not about the individual situations noted above each of which, no doubt, involves considerations not reported upon and concerns by those with complaints against churches which are not voiced in the articles cited. I may not publish your comments if you comment on the individual situations. I am open to publishing your comments about my "slant" here but my wariness is if we stray into discussing situations which then involves the comments making judgments calls on individuals named in reports above without supporting evidence I may run the risk of being unfair to those individuals. 

Comment generally about "the humbling of churches" in our present day is welcome.