Ed’s Blog

Richard’s Citizen Arrest!

Today’s ride (click on link to open a map showing ride in a new window) started a half hour earlier so we could include a few extra hills before heading off to our various jobs.  I ride with a small group of guys led by my friend Richard.  He is our ride leader and the fastest rider.  Today he arrested a guy.

I left our house at 5:55 am and took a flat land route over to the intersection of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Pierce (Red Star on the Map) where I met up with Richard, Chris, and Dan.  The ride over was quick but not difficult.  I kept my heart rate down in order to save energy for the climbs.  I arrived three minutes early and just after the others had arrived, so we headed up Pierce.  The top of Pierce is the entrance to the Mountain Winery.  It is a long climb and good to get out of the way before the rest.  All in all we climbed a little over 2,300’.  The only unusual thing was seeing a coyote on Pierce.  It just stood there on the road and watched me ride by.  It was a particularly steep section and I was going very slow.  I didn’t really appreciate the way it looked at me. I rode a little faster.

As we usually do we stopped for coffee at Peetes (Black stop sign on map) at the corner of Los Gatos Blvd and Blossom Hill road.  A few good laughs and a cup of coffee later we headed home.  We were all feeling strong and were riding at about 25 mph in a paceline down Los Gatos Almaden Road.  We stopped at Union Ave for a red light.  Richard noticed that the first car in line was straddling the lane to go strait and the turn right lane.  I noticed that the front passenger side bumper/side panel had been in an accident.

The light turned green and Richard got a great start.  I was next, but had a little trouble clipping into my pedal.  I was about 25’ behind him and well through the intersection when I heard a car honk.  I didn’t worry about it but then our day changed.  We met the guy Richard would make a citizens arrest on.

He drove past me much too close.  As he past me I started to yell my head off at him.  He passed me and drifted over into the bike lane.  His right wheel was straddling the line.  The line Richard was riding on.  I yelled some more.  I thought for sure he was going to drive into Richard.  He didn’t. He swerved at the last minute and passed within a few inches of Richard.  It looked intentional.  Richard yelled at him and started to chase.  I jumped out of the saddle and followed hard.  I was doing 26 - 28 mph.  Our hope was to catch him at the Leigh and yell at him.  This is when things turned strange.

He pulled into the center turn land and stopped.  We caught him.  (black “!” on map) I don’t remember if we caught him before he began turning or not.  In Richard’s blog he says I got in front of him.  I wouldn’t doubt it.  I was furious.  I remember him trying to do a u-turn and driving into the curb.  I was still yelling at him when Chris and Dan pulled up.  Richard was off his bike and using his cell phone to take pictures of the guy, his car, and his license plate.  I was still yelling stuff.  Incredibly, the guy rolled down his window and Chris asked him if he drove that close to us intentionally.  I calmed down just enough to shut up.  Richard called the police.

After a few minutes of talking to Chris and Dan, the guy pulled his car over to the curb and got out.  He could stand but clearly was having balance issues.  We talked to him until the police came.  They very quickly determined that Richard had made a citizen’s arrest, handcuffed the guy, and thanked us for stopping him.  The police said something about drugs.

Score one for the cyclists!

It has been years since I’ve been that angry.  After I calmed down I felt sorry for the young man.  In the moment though I was enraged.  I’d like to claim it was “prophetic wrath”, that I was voicing God’s disapproval of his reckless behavior; but swearing at the guy kind of ruins the whole prophet angle.  The truth is I lost it when he almost ran over Richard.  Pastor’s always hope that no one sees them in their sinful moments – especially parishioners!  I don’t mind this time.  Shirley Church, who no longer has a road bike after being hit by a car, saw the whole thing.  Ironic.  So today I get a mixed review.  I helped stop a dangerous driver but failed to temper my anger.  I repent, move on, and will pray for the young man who was arrested.

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Newton’s Third Law and the Archbishop of Canterbury

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton’s third law does not describe human relationships and yet the concept offers us a way of viewing the state of the Anglican Communion a few days post GAFCON.  Lets break this down in the simplest of terms and then elaborate.

The Episcopal Church tore the fabric of the Anglican Communion in 2003.  The instruments of unity within the Anglican Communion - particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury – have not been able to fix the tear.  Now GAFCON has provided the opposite reaction.

There is more.  The Lambeth Conference has not spoken since 1998 and will meet in a few weeks.  Will Lambeth be able to do what the other instruments of unity have failed to do?  That is the question on everyone’s mind and I will come back to this at the end of this post.  First lets consider the position of our Archbishop of Canterbury using a desk toy aptly called Newton’s Cradle.  The cradle sits quietly until one or more balls are raised and dropped into the others.  The center balls absorb the shock and pass it through to the others that are then flung outward until they come back to strike the center ball again.

Now this is admittedly a simplistic view of what has happened:  The Episcopal Church raised the threat of tearing the communion when Gene Robinson was elected bishop.  At his consecration the ball dropped.  Energy was released, the Windsor Report was written, the Primates met and issued communiqués, and the Archbishop in the center of it all effectively stood still.  Finally the energy drove through and pushed a ball up into the air.  GAFCON.  GAFCON met and issued a statement. This is the ball that has dropped and struck the others.  Now the energy is working through again.  The Archbishop of Canterbury is still in the center and is very unhappy to feel the power coming through from the other side.  Not all the power goes through.  Some escapes in heat and some is lost to gravity.

This is a very inadequate model of course for it fails to account for the complexity of issues that are involved in the crisis and it suggests that GAFCON is simply reactionary.  GAFCON is a response to a crisis, and an authentic exercise of leadership.  The only reason the model works even a little bit is due to the inaction of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Our Archbishop of Canterbury is a puzzle.  I greatly admire his writing and his official statements.  He talks the talk, but has consistently failed to carry through in action.  I frankly think his description of the nature of Anglicanism is right on the mark.  I just do not understand why he fails to carry forward the decisions and commitments of the Primate’s Council.  His failure to uphold the Dar es Salaam Communiqué released the energy that lifted GAFCON into the air.

I had hoped that he would lead the Lambeth Conference to a solution to the present crisis, but it truly appears that he has turned over his leadership of Lambeth to the Conference Design Team, and that this team is determined to ensure that this Lambeth Conference issues no statements and passes no resolutions.  He seems firmly committed to staying his course.

GAFCON has ensured that standing still is not an option.  GAFCON is providing a way forward within the Anglican Communion – they are not leaving – for Anglicans around the world who want to restore the Communion to the principles on which Anglicanism was founded.  Having identified that the present instruments of unity have proved inadequate to deal with the present crisis – a point on which the Archbishop of Canterbury agrees – they have formed a new council of Primates who intend to stand together to promote orthodox Anglicanism around the world.  GAFCON also recognized a new Anglican Province in North and South America.  This last action will certainly loom large at Lambeth.

The Lambeth Conference is the great unknown factor in all of this.  What will the Lambeth Conference do about the tear in the fabric of our communion and what will the conference do with GAFCON?  The Lambeth Conference is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s meeting.  All come by invitation and he has a form of authority over it.  A moral authority not a positional authority.  This is important to understand.  All bishops are equals within Anglicanism.  Primates are first among equals in their provinces, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the first among equals among the primates and at Lambeth.  The Archbishop of Canterbury is given deference on the basis of his moral authority and that authority is now at an all time low due to his inability to navigate the crisis.  The great current question is what will the assembled bishops do at Lambeth?  Will a change in the agenda be made? It wouldn’t be the first time this happened.  Will Lambeth act to precipitate an end to the crisis?  We shall see.

There are many options.  What we know now is that a great deal of energy has been released and it is not all going to be lost to gravity.

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GAFCON Midweek Update

GAFCON (Global Anglican Futures Conference) is approaching the half way point and there are some early indicators of the direction the statment will take.  Ruth Gledhill who writes for the Times Online has done a very good job of expressing it here I do not agree with all that she writes or characterizes, but do think she has done a fine job of pulling together several important threads. Articles and observations like this suggest a proposed church within a church model will be endorsed by GAFCON.  There are precedents for this.  In Europe for instance there is an Episcopal Diocese and an Anglican DIocese that utterly overlap.  One geography and two churches.  New Zealand has a somewhat similiar structure.

Language typically used for describing families is being used for this purpose.  In several places I have read comments to the effect that we have gone from a family household to a more extended family during this crisis.  The suggestion is that this now requires a different set of expectations for the way we live together. So if you have the time, please read Ruth Gledhill’s article.

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Bp. N. T. Wright on the Colbert Report

N. T. Wright is one of the foremost Biblical Scholors of our age.  He is also a Bp. of the Church of England and one of the primary authors of the Windsor Report.  On this show he is promoting a new book he has written that is quite wonderful.  Even better he more than holds his own with Stephen Colbert.

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GAFCON: The First Shoe Falls

We want unity, but not at the cost of relegating Christ
to the position of another ‘wise teacher’ who can be
obeyed or disobeyed.

We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved
Communion, but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible
to accommodate the latest cultural trend.

GAFCON starts on Saturday June 21st.  On Thursday June 19th a conference theological paper was released.  It is excellent.  It is written in several parts.  It begins with a history of the crisis and continues with a description of the major points of division.  The largest part of the paper is devoted to four areas of concern: orthodoxy, the Lordship of Jesus, the nature of revelation, and worship.

This is a very important document and I hope everyone takes the time to read it.  Here are several reasons for doing so.  You will better understand the statement that GAFCON makes at the end of the conference, as well as understanding whatever statement Lambeth makes in response. It will help you understand that this crisis has been unfolding for decades.  It will help you understand why the leadership of The Episcopal Church really like listening processes.  Also just released is the text of Bishop Duncan’s opening plenary address.  It also is must read material.

Finally here is a quote from Bp. Andrus of the Diocese of California.  Before you read it, please reread the quotes that started this blog entry.  Then compare that attitude with the theological worldview of Bp. Andrus.

Sometimes the church is not quite caught up with the civil society, and this is one of theose times.

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