VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Spins General Convention:
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 6, 2012
In her wrap up of the Episcopal Church's 77th General Convention in Indianapolis, Katharine Jefferts Schori concluded, "We emerge with abundant hope, better discipline for working together and with partners beyond this Church, for our fundamental reason for being - engagement with God's mission."
If you think acquiescence to her worldview prevailed, you would be exactly correct. She held the largely gelded bishops in the palm of her hand and wielded her authority with all the passive aggression necessary to lead a herd of docked and castrated sheep.
With the passage of provisional rites for same sex marriage, she has sanctified sodomy and sodomized sanctification. That transgendered persons who have had sex change operations can now apply to be clergy and that "gender identity" and its "expression" should not exclude people from "the life of the church at any level" was the final cherry on a two day old ice cream float that had been left in the sun too long.
KJS: "The General Convention offered new and creative responses to the call of the gospel in our day. We saw gracious and pastoral responses to polarizing issues, as well as a new honesty about the need for change."
VOL: No it didn't, it took the Episcopal Church right over the edge of Biblical faith into a no man's land of heresies, ancient and modern. The church's slowly emptying coffers, fleeing dioceses, priests and parishes, and its inability to fund everybody who has their hand out slowly drove the "need for change".
KJS: "General Convention addressed a number of significant issues that will impact the life and witness of this Church for years into the future - and they include many more things beyond what you've heard about in the news. The way we worked together also represented a new reality, working to adapt more creatively to our diverse nature as a Church"
VOL: Starting with Gene Robinson's consecration in 2003 and ending with a Transgendered "woman" priest with a deep voice in the pulpit reciting the Lord's Prayer, the convention will indeed impact the life and witness of the Church for years into the future presuming of course that it has one. Can polyamory be far behind.
KJS: "It is that way of creative engagement that ultimately will be most transformative for The Episcopal Church and the world beyond it. On issue after issue, the resolutions addressed by General Convention emerged in creative responses that considered, but did not end in, the polarized positions expected as we went into Convention. People listened to the movement of the spirit and discerned a way forward that was mutually up building, rather than creating greater divisiveness or win-lose outcomes," she went on to say.
VOL: Movement of the spirit. We are glad to note that spirit was in lower case as we hope she was not referring to the Holy Spirit in which case she would have piled blasphemy on blasphemy. If it was so mutually up building, one has to ask why there was at least some opposition coming from Bishop Bill Love of Albany and Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina who, in the end, walked out with his delegation. There were no win-lose outcomes because the vast majority of orthodox bishops have long since left TEC. The handful that remain must now be asking themselves and their dioceses whether there is any future for them in The Episcopal Church. The pressure will come from the bottom up not the top down. Bishop Lawrence is exploring that option even as we speak.
The hot-button issues of the last decade have not been eternally resolved, but we have as a body found creative and pastoral ways to live with the differences of opinion, rather than resorting to old patterns of conflict, noted Jefferts Schori.
What will be resolved "in eternity" is just how much punishment The Almighty will mete out to people claiming to speak for Him who have clearly violated His written word on how they should behave.
KJS: "There is a certain expansive grace in how these decisions are being made and in the responses to them, a grace that is reminiscent of the Elizabeth settlement. We've said as a Church that there is no bar to the participation of minorities of all sorts, and we are finding pastoral ways to ensure that potential offense at the behavior or position of another is minimized, with the hope that we may grow toward celebrating that diversity as a gift from God. If we are all sinners, then each of us may be wrong about where we stand. Human beings, made from humus, become Christ like when they know humility."
VOL: So humility is the new buzzword for sin. Once upon a time it was "generous orthodoxy", "diversity" and "inclusivity". Now it is "humility" and "expansive grace", just in case we might be wrong. "Expansive" should not be confused with spandex which does tend to limit one. A "minority" once meant someone of color and the church got over that a long time ago. Bear in mind that the Anglican Communion is mostly black, under 30 and situated in the Global South, this might come as a shock to some people.
KJS: "Major issues addressed at General Convention included approval of a trial rite for blessing same-sex unions. It may be used in congregations beginning in Advent, with the approval of the diocesan bishop. Bishops are making varied responses to the rite - a prime example of this emerging reality of local adaptation based on context - something which is profoundly Anglican."
VOL: And Global South archbishops and bishops will choke on their falafel, (sorghum) bread and noodles when they read this. How many more acts of spiritual violence will she permit, allow and ordain that will finalize any hope of communion with the Global South?
Consider the fact that Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh is coming to Indianapolis this month to inaugurate another Anglican diocese on North American soil should add fuel to the growing ecclesiastical flames. This will undoubtedly tick off Indianapolis TEC bishop The Right Rev. Catherine Maples Waynick who, when I last saw her, was wandering the halls of Indianapolis's Convention Center looking like a character out of Battlestar Galactica descending to terrorize orthodox Episcopalians.
KJS: "The decision to provide a trial rite for same-sex blessings was anticipated by many across the Church - some with fear and trepidation, others with rejoicing, and yet others with frustration that more would not be offered. The decision of General Convention may not have fully satisfied anyone, yet it has provided more space for difference than most expected. The rite must be authorized by a diocesan bishop, which permits bishops who believe it inappropriate to safeguard their own theological position. Some of the responses by bishops with questions about the appropriateness of such rites in their dioceses show creativity and enormous pastoral respect for those who support such blessings. The use of this rite is open to local option, in the same way we often think about private confession: "all may, some should, none must."
VOL: Texas Bishop Andrew Doyle certainly anticipated GenCon's decision and acted preemptively. "None must" will last till the next GenCon when an outraged Barbara Harris clone will demand that Rites be made a "right" and Integrity types like lesbian priest Susan Russell will cry out in anguished tones about a church still thrashing about in the grip of homophobia. The final few orthodox dioceses will suddenly know the game is up.
KJS: "General Convention also produced creative responses to a number of other challenging issues - in particular, peacemaking in Israel-Palestine, the Anglican Covenant, and the call to restructure The Episcopal Church. The resolutions adopted reflect a higher level of investment in the health of diverse opinions and positions in the Church than we have seen for a long time. We can celebrate a bit of 'growing up into the full stature of Christ' and the kind of welcome we claim to exemplify: 'The Episcopal Church welcomes you,' whoever you are and wherever you stand. As a Church, when we're at our best, we earnestly believe that that diversity helps to lead us toward the mind of Christ."
VOL: The Covenant is dead. Jefferts Schori said so herself. Nobody would dare discipline TEC's immorality. Not even Rowan Williams would do that. Furthermore nobody cares what TEC thinks about Israel or Palestine. One doubts Prime Minister Netanyahu wakes up in the morning and screams at his secretary for an update from 815 2nd Ave. NY, NY about their views on Christians in the Gaza Strip. Everyone knows that Muslims would like to exterminate the few remaining Christians in the Holy Land and Israel will turn a blind eye.
KJS: "The call to restructure the Church is a response to growing grassroots awareness that we must change or die. I've heard it put this way, 'It's not a matter of tradition or change - tradition IS change.' We live in an age of rapid change, and if we are going to be faithful to our baptismal work of going into the world and proclaiming the gospel, our methods and support systems also need to change. We need to be more responsive and able to engage opportunities, more nimble."
VOL: INTERPRETATION. We are running out of money. Being nimble means we may have to sell the church's national headquarters to pay the bulk of $15 million to David Booth Beers' legal fees in an obsession to keep on suing for empty churches that will be sold for mosques or hospice care.
KJS: "Nimble is not a word usually associated with Episcopal churches, but the passion and energy at our General Convention was certainly moving in that direction. Nimbleness has something to do with creative risk-taking; it may have a playful character that is also profoundly creative, and it partakes of joy."
VOL: There was no passion or energy except from the pansexualists who wanted to be sure that not a vestige of homophobia should be found anywhere in the halls of convention center. The HOB was about as joyless a place as one could find. I suspect one might find more "joy" in a state of Nevada's houses of ill repute Madame Jefferts Schori's old ecclesiastical hunting ground.
KJS: "We're looking for a 21st century Episcopal Church that can adapt and respond to a myriad of varied local contexts and missional opportunities. We've begun to realize, pretty widely across the Church, that the way we've 'done church' for the last century or more no longer fits many of our contexts. We haven't been terribly effective at evangelism with unchurched populations; we haven't been terribly effective at retaining the children born to Episcopal parents; family structures are changing and our ability to address the needs of those families has not kept pace, whether we're talking about ECWs and women in the workforce, or single-parent families, or special needs children."
VOL: For that you would need to have a clear unalloyed gospel message which TEC doesn't have. There has been NO evangelism of any sort for more than 40 years. The 20/20 program to double the church by er 2020 has been scarpered. Those Episcopal churches that do evangelize, like Falls Church VA (which has 4,000 members), would be deemed to be narrow minded and fundamentalist and not in sync with TEC's new found inclusive agenda, which excludes the gospel of repentance and change.
KJS: "The General Convention decided to address needs for structural change, by looking at the ways in which we live and move and have our being as a Church. A task force will be appointed to listen broadly within the Church and offer a proposal by late 2014."
VOL: Translation: "Structural change" means the church is top heavy with bureaucrats making six figure salaries pushing papers around that no one reads hoping that TEC's political arm can muster enough interest in the halls of power in Washington to make a difference. Never happen. No one cares what a dying denomination like TEC thinks.
KJS: "General Convention asked for a task force to study our theology of marriage. Remarkably, this happened only a few days after the Anglican province of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia did the same thing. This may offer some very creative opportunities for study across provincial boundaries in the Anglican Communion."
VOL: Right, and TEC will, as soon as it is feasibly possible, throw out traditional understandings of marriage and sink Western Culture and the faith that upholds it into the dustbin of history. David R. Carlin, Jr., Catholic sociologist and author had it exactly right when he said, "The drive for same sex marriage will overthrow the Christian moral system and overthrow Christianity itself. Therefore, those who are pushing for the institution of same sex marriage are ipso facto pushing for the elimination of the Christian religion."
KJS: "All of this creative work means that we emerge with abundant hope, better discipline for working together and with partners beyond this Church, for our fundamental reason for being - engagement with God's mission. We have moved beyond the entrenched conflict of recent years. I pray that our growing confidence is a sign of new humility, knowing that we are finite creatures who can always be wrong, that we can do God's work only as part of the Body, and that disagreement is a mark of possibility."
VOL: No. The "entrenched conflict" will continue until the last orthodox Episcopalian leaves or is hounded out of TEC; then she can declare victory.
KJS: "God still seems to have a use for this Church, if we can remember our central focus - to love God and our neighbors as ourselves, wherever we go, and wherever we find ourselves. May God bless the journey, and may we learn to travel light."
VOL: This begs the question what "central focus", TEC has none. It is all over the place on faith and morals. Furthermore there is no guarantee that TEC is in fact moving towards the light. It might in fact be heading towards the abyss and darkness. My bet is that it is the latter and the weight and vibrancy of the evangelically driven Global South would seem to support that.
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