From Huffington (Pierre Whalon) With linksSchadenfreude is a wonderful German word, meaning to pretend to be saddened by another's misfortune while secretly rejoicing in it. It is a specialty of journalists, among all the rest of us sinners. "Ain't it awful about the Anglican Communion?" has been a headline that a lot of media around the world have been trying to write for some twenty years. I remember at the 2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops (a gathering of the world's Anglican bishops every ten years or so) how the media were salivating in hope of news that the bishops were at each other's throats and that the worldwide Communion would fracture and split apart. They soon slunk away as it became clear that we were not going to do any of that.
Last week's meeting of the 38 heads of the Communion's churches (called "Primates"), chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was another example of Schadenfreude disappointed. The Washington Post, usually one of the lesser offenders, wrote a seriously wrong report, entitled "Anglican Communion suspends Episcopal Church after years of gay rights debates." The reporter apparently couldn't wait to proclaim the desired result, because had he waited for the final communiqué, entitled "Walking Together in the Service of God in the World", his editors would have stopped that story . The Episcopal Church was not suspended. The gathering of the Primates has no power to "suspend" a member church, in any event.
More here-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bishop-pierre-whalon/aint-it-awful-bout-dem-an_b_9008452.html
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