Hidden Meaning

The National Cathedral needs gobs of money to even undertake restoration. Thatere's a hidden metaphor in there somewhere.

From Left Field

I was mulling over the latest news from the Diocese of South Carolina when a thought came to me. The leadership of the Episcopal Church is by and large baby boomers. There is one movie that was a huge hit with baby boomers. It seems likely that they see themselves as the hero of the film. Here's a hint: The theme song from the movie made it into a lot of folk masses/youth group sing-a-longs.

What makes it even better is the name of the group that recorded it was 'Coven'.

For the record, the movie was awful. It was bad back in the day. It's still bad today.

Pre Convention Piskie Propaganda

There's a cameo from the recently famous Katherine Ragsdale!

The video was funded by Integrity, of course, and the Arcus Foundation. Here's the Arcus Foundation mission statement:

The mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.

The Arcus Foundation works around the globe in two areas—human rights and conservation. Within those areas, we focus our work on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights and preservation of the world’s great apes and their habitat. By focusing our efforts in this way, we can use our resources to achieve an impact in each of two critically important yet under-funded areas.

Gays and apes, so many possible jokes that it made my brain hurt.

The Point of All This Church Stuff

The only reason I respond to the writings of those who run my former church is to try to reach them with the Gospel.

Here is something I posted over at Stand Firm. It's not the best. But it's what I think.

What the above commenters wrote. When I use the word ‘heretic’ I do not use it lightly. Can you honestly say that Archbishop Cranmer would be in accord with your theology? Or Archbishop Laud?

You see, we’ve read your writings and we’ve heard your talks. We read the HoBD mailing list. Greg’s foray into investigative reporting was not news to me (and no I wasn’t one of the ones who relayed Ann’s post to him).

To be explicit, you are a heretic. You are in a position of leadership of a church that purports to be Christian and that used to be so. That is bad. Most of those who comment at StandFirm do so because we are concerned about that sort of thing.

My ideal resolution to this conflict between the heretics in power and the Christians who are opposing them is that you lot will repent of your sins, confess your errors and convert to Christianity. The very reason I, and others, engage in dialog is to reach that resolution.

Some of us had hoped that the impaired or ruptured communion tat the Episcopal Church is in with a large portion of the world’s Anglicans would have been a wake up call for our leadership. Instead of repentance, we saw self-justification, rage and denial. None of those emotions are the fruits of the Spirit.

You and your fellows have set yourselves up as arbiters of who God is, what He is like and how He operates. You have corrupted the word ‘Love’ to serve your ends, and you presume to tell God that He must change to conform to your vision of the world.

On a more personal level, nothing would make me happy than to know that you have stopped telling God what He is, what His limits are and how He should operate in this fallen world. If you could repent of your pride and ask God what He would of you, and seek to serve Him in humility and charity, then any conflict we might have would end.

We are the unworthy servants, and He is our master. He will not allow any other God before Him. And He loves you and me and all of us too much to allow us to continue in our sin.

I will continue to pray for you, Tom Woodward. I fear for your soul as well as the souls of your fellows.

There is a similar conversation over at Dr. Mabuse's Kraalspace. In fairness, here are the links to Tom Woodward's blog and Lisa Fox's.

The Bad News About the Good News

Up until now there have been several dioceses that have consistently grown by any measure (SC, Tennessee etc). The big story of 2007 is that no one grew. Atlanta, where I live, has coasted on a rising tide of immigrants from other parts of the country, some percentage of whom were Episcopalians. This resulted in some pretty statistics for a while.

I think, from a membership standpoint, 2007 will be a watershed year for the Episcopal Church. Absent some bold actions, the negatives for growth (aging membership, defections and lack of children) are going to outnumber the positives (defections from other denominations).

Two of the negatives (lack of children and aging) are going to result in an accelerated rate of decline over the years unless something happens to reverse them.

From a purely economic/business point of view, TEC is in almost exactly the same position as Sears. No new customers, existing customers are leaving (whether by going to another store or dying), huge fixed costs, and the goods are perceived as unattractive by potential customers. Further, much as Sears has backed off of or eliminated long standing policies (the Craftsman guarantee springs to mind), the Episcopal Church has rendered whole areas of belief optional.

The bottom line is this, if we want to buy crappy tools or shoddy clothing, we don't have to go to Sears. Wal-Mart is cheaper. Likewise, if I want false teaching, dubious logic or bad music, I have a tv, with satellite no less. No church membership is required.

{H/T Underground Pewster}

Standard Answer

In the future, reappraisers ought to reply as follows to any criticism anyone might have of any innovation they wish to introduce:

God is clearly doing a new thing in the diocese of Los Angeles. The folks there are simply being church and living into the all inclusiveness of God’s love. We’ll all get a chance to share our story and do some theology. As for same sex marriage, well, that’s complicated, but by embracing the listening process, walking through life’s labyrinth, and living into the reality that there is much pain in the church right now and we have to allow time for healing, we will all be less shellfish.

Wishes

Right now I wish I lived in Fort Worth, at least religiously. Instead, I live in Atlanta, where the diocese just passed the following resolutions:

R08-4

Development of Liturgical Rites for Same-Gender Unions

Resolved: This 102nd Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta approves the
following resolution to the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church,
meeting in Anaheim, California, in 2009; and be it further


Resolved: This council directs the Secretary of Council to transmit the
following resolution to the Secretary of the General Convention:


Resolved: The House of __________ concurring, the 76th General Convention of
The Episcopal Church authorizes the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music
to develop appropriate rites for the celebration and blessing of the sacred
unions of gay and lesbian persons, taking into account the variety of civil
arrangements for such unions available in the regions served by the church;
and be it further


Resolved: that such rite or rites shall be presented at the 77th General
Convention of the Episcopal Church.



EXPLANATION
In light of events following the Lambeth Conference of 2008, it is clear
that our charitable restraint and response to the Windsor Report in the
matter of our declining to develop a rite or rites to allow the celebration
and blessing of sacred unions for people of the same gender has not had the
effect of preserving unity and civility between those who believe such
unions may be good and moral and those who cannot conceive as such a
possibility being within the bounds of Christian faith and the Anglican
Tradition. It is also clear that while a great many Episcopalians remain
undecided about their own beliefs in these matters, they recognize both the
desirability of allowing those who seek to make such commitments in the
midst of their community of faith to do so; and that the reality that the
cost of our charity has been at the expense of one clear minority within our
church; and further that there is no compelling reason that these brothers
and sisters should have to continue to bear the burden of that charity.

The development of such a rite or rites by and for the whole church will
allow a restoration of decency and order from diocese to diocese under the
guidance of each bishop, the ensuring of theological integrity to such rites
and the capacity of the church to "sanction" and declare such committed
relationships among people of the same gender to be both moral and fully
within the bounds of our common life.

Submitted by: The Rev. Geoffrey M. St.J. Hoare, The Rev. Charles M.
Girardeau,
The Rev. Noelle York-Simmons, The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
All Saints', Atlanta



R08-5

Repeal of General Convention Resolution B033

Resolved, this 102nd Annual Council approves the following resolution to the
76th General Convention meeting in Anaheim, California, in 2009; and be it
further

Resolved, this Council directs the Secretary of Council to transmit the
following resolution to the Secretary of the General Convention:


General Convention Resolution

Resolved, the House of ___________, concurring, the 76th General Convention
of The Episcopal Church recognizes that the usefulness of Resolution B033 as
passed by the 75th General Convention of The Episcopal Church has run its
course; and be it further

Resolved, that the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church herewith
repeals Resolution B033 as passed by the 75th General Convention of The
Episcopal Church; and, be it further

Resolved that The Episcopal Church acknowledges with regret the further
oppression visited on the lesbian and gay members of this church by
Resolution B033 and its application; and apologizes for the potentially
negative impact of said resolution on the ability to respond to the
vocational call by the Holy Spirit to the episcopate of any members of this
church; and be it further

Resolved that The Episcopal Church expresses its appreciation to the lesbian
and gay members of this church for their patience during this time of
discernment for the church; and be it further

Resolved that in the call to see the face of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ in each other, this church pledges its utmost effort to keep all
parties "at the table" as The Episcopal Church continues to insure the full
participation of all of God's children in the life of this church.





EXPLANATION
Resolution B033 was an attempt by The Episcopal Church to help continue the
discussions prompted by resolutions passed at Lambeth Conferences in 1978,
1988, and 1998 and in response to portions of the Windsor Report and the
requests of the Primates of the Anglican Communion. The resolution did
little to achieve those goals. Yet it did extreme damage to the spiritual
well being of the lesbian and gay members of The Episcopal Church and had
the potential for limiting the response of those members to any call to the
episcopate they might have felt from the Holy Spirit. Resolution B033 needs
to be repealed in order to reassure the lesbian and gay members of this
church of their full membership in this church and help bring about
reconciliation among us all.

Submitted by the Diocese of Atlanta



Submitted by:

Bruce Garner, All Saints', Atlanta; Member, Executive Council of The
Episcopal Church
John Andrews, Grace-Calvary, Clarkesville
RPM Bowden Sr., St. Paul's, Atlanta; Member, Executive Council of The
Episcopal Church
Tim Raasch, St. James' Marietta; Convener, Integrity Atlanta

Because we are, apparently, not out of communion with nearly enough of the Anglican Communion. Upon reflection the absence of a resolution labeling Archbishop Akinola a 'big fat meanie' is startling.

Defending Freedom

I've been to nice recently. Too calm, too collected, too darn perky. I was going to post a standard Veteran's Day post yesterday. Then I saw with our pal Liz Kaeton (not linking to her blog under any circumstances) wrote. And it's taken this long for me to cool down enough to write. Her one virtue is an easy, conversational writing style.

For everyone's convenience, I've reproduced her post in full, below. Let the fisking begin. Her blatherings are in Times font, my responses are in Georgia.

I support our troops, but not the War in Iraq or the War in Afghanistan.
The second part is accurate. But your support of the troops consists of saying you support the troops and pressing for their immediate withdrawal which renders everything that they have accomplished to date futile. No one is ever more idiotic or deceptive than a hippy who won't grow up. No one.

That's not an oxymoron. Neither is it unpatriotic.
See above statement in re: stupid and self-deceptive. And you don't love America. You love the bits that you like. You hate the rest of it. Your prior writings exemplify the level of your hate. You also continue to practise the Big Lie. Helpful tip: Saying your not unpatriotic doesn't make it so.

I love this country. I am as patriotic as the most patriotic person, but I love this country enough that I am against war - especially these two.

I love this county, I support our troops and I do not support the War, but I am not a pacifist. That takes real courage - courage I confess I have searched for but have not yet found.
You are a pacifist, unless the war is against the people you despise. The right, the whites, the middle class, the religious, the Christians and any one else who actually believes in a higher standard or who tries to be ethical or moral. You're a lefty revolutionary type and you very much believe the ends justify the means. You have used the old cliche about omelets and eggs.

I fear I am too much of a coward to be a true pacifist.

That's one way to put it. I wouldn't have said it quite that way. I agree you are a coward. And I also agree that you aren't a pacifist. But here you are trying a bit of deflection. By pleading guilty to what you believe to be a lesser offense and admitting what you hope will be seen as a flaw, you hope to gain the reader's sympathy and gain acceptance of the farrago of rubbish that follows.

So, I have settled for this peace: I think the most patriotic thing we can do is to do everything we can to end these wars that are not ours and bring our young men and women home.
Of course, you can provide no justification for that remark. Instead of 'think' the better word is 'feel'. Thinking has nothing to do with what you have written.

In many ways, these two wars feel like Viet Nam all over again. Even my father - who fought on the Pacific Front in WWII, and was very proud to have been decorated with the Purple Heart - was very much against the Viet Nam War.
It feels that way because the only experience you have or will ever admit to having of war is Vietnam. The two current wars are not even remotely like Vietnam. If you bothered to become informed about them, then you would know that. But, because you are ignorant about Vietnam, not to mention every conflict the US has engaged in since that time, you come up with nonsense. Helpful hint to anyone who wishes to be informed about the current conflicts. Here are some useful websites, chock full of accurate and current information. And your Dad being a vet and all, that means his opinion informs the current day's issues. Nice.

One year, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, Veteran's Day fell on a week end. We left shortly after he had marched in the local Annual Veteran's Day Parade and traveled to a Military Cemetery outside of Boston to visit the grave of one of his buddies who had died.

After we had laid a small bouquet of poppies near the headstone, my father said to me, "Look around. Look at the gravestones. What do you see that's the same?"

I dutifully did as my father said, walking slowly among the markers on the graves, fingering the cool marble stone and listening to the dry leaves crackle as they were blown across barren field by the brisk November wind.

"Dad," I said, finally, "Everyone of these stones has PFC before the name. What does PFC stand for?"

Cue the class warfare.

My father smiled briefly, proud of his daughter's correct observation. His smile was suddenly clouded - the way the sun goes in and out in the November sky.

"Private first class," he said sadly.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"They are the youngest soldiers - the newest soldiers - the ones with the least experience in war."

"Look around," my father continued after I considered his words. "You won't see too many graves marked 'Captain' or 'Lieutenant' or 'Colonel'. Oh, there are some, but most of the graves here are the PFC's."

Not to interject reality or anything into this affecting story, but the single most casualty prone rank in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and modern times is Lieutenant. There are less of them overall than PFC's. You have to ascend to field grade officer ranks to see any dramatic reduction in casualty rates.

"Like your friend?" I asked.

"Like me, too," he said.

He grew very quiet and said, "We were very young. Too young. We were young warriors, fearless young turks, ready, we thought, to die for our country. But, when death came to our friends, we were never ready. But, we had to keep going. We had to keep going . . ."

He took a few drags from his Lucky Strike and his eyes trailed off over the tops of the gravestones to a long ago battle in a country far, far away.

"War is a terrible thing," he said almost whispering his words over the rows of graves that held the bodies of young PFCs.

I looked at my father's face, lined with sorrow and pain and suddenly, it all came clear. In that moment, I understood the terrible nightmares that woke us up in the middle of the night - a sound so horrible and so loud as to wake the dead.

I realized, then, that it must have been the dead that had awakened him.

Suddenly, I understood his frustration and anger when he would 'get an attack of The Malaria', as he called it - which brought him right back to a place and time he'd much sooner forget and never have to relive ever again.

I couldn't possibly have understood - still can't possibly understand - the full cost of war, but I knew he had paid - and was continuing to pay - a heavy price for playing his part in The War that was supposed to have ended all wars. But didn't.

"War," he said again, "is a terrible thing."

He said it as fact and he said it as prayer.

I understood then, that some may have fought for freedom for all, but all may not ever again be fully free.

Pray for our Veterans on their Day.

Pray for peace in our time - and their's.

And bring them home ASAP, so they will never have closure. So that everything they have fought for will be forever in vain. So that evil will triumph, so that no other country will ever take the US seriously again. So that Elizabeth Kaeton can live the rest of her life in peace, knowing that the country where she lives has been doomed by her actions. that the grandchildren she purports to love will be the slaves of one faction or another. Pray for the people of Chatham, New Jersey and especially for the congregation of St Paul who have to endure the rantings of a narcissistic sociopath. And pray that nothing she desires ever comes to pass.

As for me, I'm praying for a miracle. I'm praying for the Reverend Doctor Elizabth Kaeton to repent and come to the fullness of faith in Christ Jesus her Lord. But then again, I've always liked long shots.

Theatrical Advice

So you have a church and you're putting on a play. In San Francisco. And you're aiming your production at mature audiences. From all that I've read, there is only one thing your production lacks for it to reach its full potential.

So here is my best advice:




H/T StandFirm

The Next Big Issue

will apparently be the communion of the unbaptized (COTU), or as it is more trenchantly termed "the communion of the damned (COTD)".

It's prohibited by the rubrics and by tradition but, of course, that hasn't stopped more progressive diocese such as my own (Atlanta) from allowing it.

How do I know it's the next big thing? Well, Episcopal Life Online very nicely signals what the next prophetic thing TEC is called to do by posing questions in its reader response column. My guess is that with COTD being widespread, but not universal, the church wants to make the change to the canons and the rubrics to conform the rules to the reality. And because we're hospitable or whatever.

Here are the money quotes:

From Geoff Brown • Taconic, Connecticut, Sep 18, 2008 The canons need to be changed.

When I bring kids in from our Sunday morning community soccer program for Communion, it has occurred to me that, when a child comes in from this community outreach program, it would be absurd to give the poor kid, who finally has decided that he or she actually wants to come into church, the third degree as to whether he or she was baptized.

Would Jesus have given this kid the third degree about something that most likely would have happened (or not) while the kid was still in diapers, and through no conscious decision of his/her own? Isn't there a pretty clear statement in the New Testament when Jesus tells us not to forbid the children who want to come to him?

It's hard to imagine a clearer example of the universally scorned idea of "church as club" than this, in my humble opinion.

================================================================

From Jean Rutherford • Portsmouth, Virginia, Sep 19, 2008 It seems clear to me that that the cannon and the teachings of Jesus are in conflict. Changing the canon seems like a no-brainer. Maybe we should just eliminate it. I feel that the most authentic base we have is Jesus. He is the authority for Christians. It surely would support our claim of the radical hospitality of Jesus.

=================================================================

From William A. Doubleday • Columbus, Ohio, Sep 19, 2008 I believe there is a related issue. The 1979 Prayer Book and our professional liturgists have raised the bar so high on Baptism that many grandmothers can no longer see grandchildren baptized in an Episcopal parish where the family has worshipped for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, sometimes the same parish is inviting everyone, including the unbaptized, to receive communion. I see merit on both sides of both of these issues, but I think our liturgical vectors should be coordinated. Right now our messages are mixed and sometimes contradictory. It is time for a high caliber group to do some theological and pastoral reflection on these matters. If the canons need to be changed, where is the General Convention? If the canons need to be enforced, where are the Bishops?

The writer is a professor of Pastoral Theology at Bexley Hall Seminary

{ed. I have no idea what he is going on about.}

=============================================================

And lastly one semi-orthodox opinion:

From Thomas Bushnell, BSG • Los Angeles, California Sep 18, 2008 I think that Clay Morris has missed the point. Clergy have made a promise, and it is not unreasonable to expect them to keep their promises, whether their names are Robert Duncan or Clay Morris or the leaders of St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco. The answer to the
question posed is that some Episcopal Church clergy have substituted their own judgment for that of the church, and have chosen to dishonor the vows they have made by violating those canons they think ought to be changed.

One question is whether people should honor the vows they have made and keep the commitments they have pledged. A quite distinct question is what our canons should be. But it is entirely inappropriate to suggest that there is some great muddling, or that the question of disobedience is anything other than the question of disobedience. It is entirely inappropriate to suggest that if the canons need to be changed, it is all right for clergy to dishonor their ordination vows and render them essentially a nullity.

It seems to me--as a person myself under obedience--that keeping this distinction is crucial. If I am to be an honorable person, I will keep the commitments I have made, and if I have made a firm decision not to, I will depart gracefully and relinquish the prerogatives of such office as I hold. And, I believe, this is what a decent and honorable person does, whatever his or her name may be.

=============================================================


You can tell how fallen my church has become by the total lack of effort the heretics put into justifying their depravity theologically.

The question for me is no longer "Will I leave?" The question is now "Where will I go?"

One parting thought: Chris Johnson mines that section for comedy gold. I justfind it depressing.

Nunsense

Lest it be said that only Episcopalians run off the rails theologically, here is the heart warming story of a nun at the Democrat Convention and her fiery denunciation of the death penalty, the war in Iraq and Jesus' death and resurrection.

And just in case anyone came here looking for the musical, here is the intro:

Because They Grew Lonely

Some of the more frequent commenters at Father Jake's place have started their own blog. It will be interesting to see how that develops.