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GC2012: The Episcopal Church Boldly Goes Where No Man Has Gone Before

By Michael Heidt
www.virtueonline.org
July 13, 2012

The 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, one of the largest bi-cameral legislative bodies in the world, is over. What did it achieve? The church's leader, Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, gave the world a clue in her sermon at the event's opening Eucharist. "We must boldly go," she preached, "where Jesus has gone before."

She would have done better to stick with the Star Trek original because by end of business on Thursday, July 12, the Episcopal Church had passed a series of resolutions taking the small denomination into uncharted space.

By overwhelming majorities in both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, the Episcopal Church scored an historic first, brokering transsexualism into church law. With the passage of the "transgender twins," resolutions D019 and D002, it's now against church law to exclude people who have had sex-changes from the life of the church at any level. Watch out, world, for the first ever "trans" bishop.

In similar vein, both Houses gave a resounding thumbs-up to gay-marriage, breaking with Scripture and twenty centuries of Christian tradition, to authorize rites for same-sex blessing. I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing is due to hit the pews on the first Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2012. Realizing that a small minority of bishops and dioceses are against this unprecedented step, the gay-marriage resolution, A049, contains a conscience clause. No one has to use this innovative liturgical resource, at least not yet.

Far-sighted observers of the Anglican Communion and its North American franchise may remember that similar language, nearly word for word, was employed in the legislation that introduced another first into the church in the halcyon days of the 1970s. No bishop had to ordain women then; now they do. Bets are off on the likelihood of the gay-marriage conscience clause remaining for any appreciable length of time.

Some will inevitably argue, correctly, that such a thing goes against the church's non-discrimination policy, enshrined in Title I, Canon 17, Section 5 of the church's law. This states that, "No one shall be denied rights, status or access to an equal place in the life, worship, and governance of this Church because of... sexual orientation." It's a small step from that to passing a resolution at a future Convention mandating same-sex blessing.

But for now, the few remaining traditional bishops and dioceses in the Episcopal Church don't have to celebrate gay-marriage, and these made a fight-back, of sorts, at the Convention. A Minority Report, condemning the transgender and same-sex innovations, was read from the floor of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. By the time the report had reached the Deputies, on the last day of the Convention, 14 bishops had signed on to it.

The report, "Indianapolis Statement," which stands for all the things that the Episcopal Church is busy legislating against, such as Scripture, the teaching of the Prayer Book and apostolic tradition, amounts to a dissent, and a brave one at that. But where will it lead?

This was made abundantly clear; the signers of the Indianapolis Statement announced their goal to both Houses, stating that their intent was to "keep conservatives in the Episcopal Church and liberals in the Anglican Communion." Well you can't get much more inoffensive than that; hardly the stuff on which to rally North American Anglicanism for the historic faith of the Gospel. Good luck, traditional bishops, with keeping your liberal enemies "at the table," but don't be surprised when your irenic colleagues use the not inconsiderable sum of $12 million, earmarked in the church's budget for legal costs, to sue you for disloyalty.

Returning to the business of the Convention; much was made of the church's need to turn the denomination's 50,000 member shrinkage per annum around. As the church's Chief Operating Officer, bishop Stacey Sauls, reminded prelates in the House of Bishops, the days of doing "business as usual" are over. To that end, the Episcopal Church passed a "missional" budget dedicating 42% of its triennial income of over $111 million to administration and governance, $1million is set aside for church planting. Mission and growth? You do the math.

But maybe, just maybe, the emptying churches in Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's declining dominion will start to fill with the massive North American transsexual demographic, as the Episcopal Church draws its circle ever wider to include people who opt for gender reassignment surgery. Who knows, perhaps the heady lure of provisional same-sex blessings will add some much needed ballast to the Episcopal Church's bottom line.

Don't hold your breath. The same failed anti-gospel policies of pansexualism and gender politics that have proved so spectacularly successful in driving normal Christians out of the church, that have resulted in millions of dollars spent on litigation, and brought schism to the Anglican Communion, to say nothing of the wreckage of decades of ecumenical endeavor in the wider church - these same policies were all in play at this year's General Convention.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church claims to have "re-imagined" the church, and in a final press briefing she warns us, "Watch out, world. We're coming."

The world knows what to expect, yet another three years of church killing, liberal snake oil masquerading as Christianity. Don't be surprised if anyone except the deliberately blind are fooled.

END




'via Blog this'

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Episcopal Church General Convention 2012: Maybe We're Just Nuts

By Ladson F. Mills III
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
July 19, 2012

Dr. Samuel Johnson the famous British writer observed that people do not need to be taught as much as they need to be reminded. Perhaps this is the reason that whatever comes out of The General Convention of The Episcopal Church (even the good things) seems irritating. It is reminiscent of humor writer Dave Barry's observation of the way some preachers decry hell from pulpits on Sundays. It leaves one with the impression their parishioners spent Saturday at the local travel agency booking a trip. When not reaffirming the obvious we are celebrating the inane.

What are the results from the fifteen million dollars plus spent on this year's convention? Same sex trial liturgies approved, to the surprise of no one, and barriers are now removed for employing and ordaining the transgendered. No wonder the reaction from the world is a laugh when it is not a yawn. After thirty years as a parish priest I cannot claim to have seen it all but transgender issue in the parish is one I escaped. Perhaps it is easier to proclaim this a victory rather than deal with the deterioration of our denomination.

Saturday Morning Meeting with Mark Zuckerberg and Clay Matthews

Today I attended the Walmart Saturday Morning Meeting for executives. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was the featured guest. The parking lot was jammed. The visitors poured out the doors. The auditorium and cafeteria were packed.

Facebook has around one billion users and one thousand engineers. The CEO of Walmart featured two saying of Facebook culture that he really liked.

1. Done is better than perfect. Facebook encourages quick changes and taking risks. The problem with perfection is falling behind and being defensive. They have summer interns who make all of Facebook stop working. Although that is a catastrophe, they use those shut-downs to learn why it happened that a newbie could break the whole business with a little code.

2. What would you do if you were not afraid? This is a good saying for everyone dealing with technology. We do not like feeling dumb. We do not want to break things or get into trouble. We naturally want to play it safe. The people who are pioneers do just the opposite and make enormous mistakes. Walmart laughs about horrible purchase decisions because they learn from them.

Clay Matthews of the Green Bay Packers also spoke today. An interesting insight is that he was not so good in his early years, when his own father was the defensive coach, so he did not play. He worked on his deficits and became a leading college and pro player.

He was funny and articulate. 

The Awfulness of Kuske's Talmudic Catechism

Every time someone asked me, "Which catechism do you use?" I said - "Luther's." That always prompted an exchange where the edition was narrowed down. I bought inexpensive editions of the Small Catechism by itself and used those.

I like the layout of the Gausewitz, because the Biblical passages are in the back. However, every edition gives the printers a chance to muck up the original work. Like the Bible, the original gets lost in the political agenda of the fiends who decide to improve upon it.

I have a master's degree in education, and I teach graduate courses in education. In the last decade I have taught thousands of students and used many textbooks. Kuske's book, which is far more Kuske (and the worst of WELS) is one of the worst ever. The blue book reminds me of the Talmud, whose pages are explained below.

Luther's Small Catechism is a masterpiece, but the work is lost in the clutter of Kuske. The book begins with a tepid and misleading description of the Reformation. Oh, how carefully the author avoids justification by faith, which is now an evil phrase in WELS and suspect in much of Missouri. UOJ is introduced, in subtle form, on page 22 of the 1982 edition.

Next the author launches into a large section on knowledge of God and the Bible. This is done with questions and answers, numbered, and NIV quotations. Blue print and clip art makes it even worse.

How effective has this been? WELS is the most anti-Biblical, anti-Confessional sect among the Lutherans today. They are worse than ELCA because they are dishonest about what they really teach and practice.

Digging. Digging. I finally found the beginning of Luther's Small Catechism - page 53 of Kuske's epic tome.

He stands on Luther with both feet to introduce Universal Objective Justification, which is completely opposed to the Biblical doctrine taught by the Reformer. The method reminds me of Karl Barth and Charlotte Kirschbaum, whose adulterous relationship fueled the dogma of Fuller Seminary - using Christian doctrine to replace faith in Christ with Marxist slogans. Oh yes, Father Barth sent his honey-bun to the big Communist shindig. She was the brains of the team anyway and a lot better looking.

The real dogma of WELS is - Our radicals can do no wrong. They have embossed that on every mind washed and re-washed at Mequon and New Ulm. Outside the UOJ/Church Growth fraternity, everyone is fair game. That fraternity runs the show and runs off with the offering money. For examples - see Glende's St. Peter Freedom and Downtown Bar Church.

Or - Rick Johnson in Corona, California.

Or - Randy Hunter.

Or - Jeff Gunn, whose imitations of Rick Warren converted Jon Buchholz from persecutor to apostle, a change more dramatic than Paul's on the road to Damascus. Scales fell from the DP's eyes and he saw for the first time that WELS needs leaders like Jeff Gunn. Soon we will hear Jon singing the new CCM classic, "Jesus Is My Rice," words by Gunn, tune by Sesame Street Productions.

Or - the Godfather Hisself - Kudu Don Patterson, Great White Hunter. They are so po' they need a free vicar each year. But they are so rich they can build a new church next to Doebler's Rock and Rock effort in Round Rock. But they are so rich they can give $40,000 to the WELS/LCMS fund-raising business started by Ron Roth.

Don't worry - when those money-burning efforts flop, the news will be buried in a blizzard of happy news items. 

When you hunt Kudu Deer in Africa,
you rub shoulders with Donald Trump.