Interesting take on the direct connection between the rise of new communication technology and the present calls for non-geographic dioceses. According to the author of the piece below, the latter is an expression dependent primarily on the former.
“Evidence of the ‘connection economy’ is growing all the time. One of the key characteristics of this new era is the decreasing importance of tradition boundaries, and the increasingly significant role of connections. In particular, geographic barriers are being swept away in a tidal wave of technology-fuelled globalisation. The latest scrap of evidence of this emerging reality comes from the Anglican church (the ‘Church of England’).
Since 2003 when the American arm of the Anglican church, The Episcopalians, ordained an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, to the position of bishop there has been a growing divide in the global church body representing about 80 million people around the world. In particular, the African Anglicans who are mainly conservative and opposed to homosexuality have been pushing hard for the Americans to be disciplined or even kicked out of the Anglican Communion. The general body of the Episcopal church have refused to budge.
BUT, a number of individual churches that are more conservative have broken ranks. They have left their geographic diocese, and have oversight from another diocese. In the past, this has sometimes been done from ‘head office’ in Canterbury directly, but now something new has happened. These American churches have connected with African diocese, and are now accountable to bishops thousands of miles away. This is actually outside of the Anglican rules, although technically it is within church law.
The bottom line is that the connection economy is impacting everything everywhere. As Thomas Friedman said, ‘The World is Flat’, and it is seriously Connected, too.”
Read the rest here: The Church and the Connection Economy at ?ic @TomorrowToday.biz
On its face, the idea of a non-geographically defined diocese or province makes a certain amount of sense in Friedman’s “flat world”. It would certainly make a lot of sense if we were to use these electronic tools to help bridge the gap between dioceses, provinces and countries.
Unfortunately, this is being proposed to push us in the opposite direction, to separate people who used to worship together and force them into opposing camps. The electronic media have played a large role in this conflict, encouraging people to read only those blogs from their own “side” and forming cliques to keep the others “out”. If anything, the electronic village is reminding us of the virtues of the real village, where we meet people face to face and come to terms with the fact that these are flesh and blood people, not politically drawn caricatures that can be pilloried at will.
The internet is nothing more than a tool. We should be more careful how we use it.
I in total agreement Paul. I think the article by Pierre Whalon over on Anglicans Online this week about the non-geographic dioceses in Europe points out the dangers inherent in trying to create and live in such settings.
I think the fact that we *can* do something does not in any way mean that we *should* do something. Which is certainly a common lesson from the tech world.