Diversity: What Do We Do With It?

A column in the most recent issue of The Living Church (a publication about the Episcopal Church), written by the Rev. Steven Ford, touched on the theme of diversity within our denomination. The first and last paragraphs follow:

"A recent author has suggested that the current fashion of describing Anglicanism as a community of shared faith is totally off the mark. Rather, he believes, we're a motley collection of eccentrics who share a common taste for pageantry and theater. Until we accept and celebrate that, he concludes, we'll never be in tune with reality (John Glatt, For I Have Sinned: True Stories of Clergy who Kill [St. Martin's Press, 1998]).

"In the end, we Anglicans really are a collection of vastly different individuals. We came to the Church by following our own personal paths, and we take from the Church what each of us specifically needs. So a McDonald's model will never work for Episcopalians. We're a bit more like Burger King, I think, whose motto is 'Have It Your Way.' Maybe an even better motto for us is that of the USA TV network: 'Characters Welcome!'"

My question for the day: folks certainly recognize the diversity in our church, but when will they reach a point where they not only accept that diversity, but embrace it? The more diverse the church becomes, the more antiquated it seems factions of it become in their methods of dealing with that diversity. Food for thought.....