Redding shahada saga ends in deposition

You may recall my blogging about this a year or so back. It is picked up in these terms by the Church TimesChurch Times - US cleric deposed after becoming a Muslim: "A CLERIC in the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Revd Ann Holmes Redding, has been deposed for becoming a Muslim. She made a public profession of her faith 21 months ago, and was given a year by the Bishop of Rhode Island, the Rt Revd Geralyn Wolf, to discern where her faith commitment lay.
She was deemed at the end of that year to have abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church, and was inhibited from exercising her ministry. The inhibition continued until 31 March, when she had the opportunity either to withdraw from the Muslim faith or renounce her orders. She did neither, and was therefore deposed." And the Seattle Times -obviously- picked it up too.

I think that this was probably the only outcome in the end; but I still believe that the bishop acted rightly; it is better to give time to consider, and if necessary repent than to act precipitously where the intimacy of a relationship to God is concerned (unless we have a very clear supernatural insight and the humility to exercise it wisely). The only difficulty with it is highlighted by comment in the Seattle Times: "In Christianity and Islam, while "there are streams of tradition that are mutually exclusive, there are also streams that are not mutually exclusive," said Eugene Webb, professor emeritus of comparative religion at the University of Washington. "Ann is exploring those."
It would be a good thing, Webb said, if more churches allowed for such exploration since it's "going to take place one way or the other. It might be better to wait and see what comes of them, rather than decide in advance that it wouldn't be fruitful.""
It adds an interesting dimension to the dialogue about contextualisation and syncretism; usually the latter is seen as the former 'gone too far' usually in mission. However in this case it's not an evangelistic issue but rather a spirituality thing. I'm still concerned that Ms Redding should be given space to explore: it's a centred set thing: if she still feels in her heart that Christ is central but somehow there is 'that of God' (to borrow a Quaker concept that seems uesful at this point) in Islam that she must explore, then she needs to do so in a way that allows her to retain a positive relation to Christian faith. I think of figures such as Sadhu Sundar Singh and wonder whether it may be that she could be part of Christ's strategy with Islam. It's too early to say. That said, her state intellectual beliefs seem not to be affirmative of orthodox Christian belief, but that predates her shahada-saying. So no easy resolutions here.