Monday, July 31, 2006

Yin and Yang in Pittsburgh Today

Well, Pittsburgh is evidently the hot place to be today. Happily, I'm in cooler-by-the-day Southern California grateful that the heatwave has ended here, but there's definitely some "yin and yang" church stuff going on in summer-steamy Pittsburgh today.

First the "Yin": Bishop Duncan and the Network folk are gathering to talk "next steps" -- which sound very much like "last steps" toward the schism they have been working so long and hard to achieve. You can read "Moderator Bob's" address to the ACN here ... or you can just get the Clif Notes version below:

"Innovating ECUSA has walked apart. The clarity we prayed for has been given."

The new lingo is now "innovating" vs. "enduring." (I never liked "reasserters" and "reappraisers" much anyway, but you do kind of need a scorecard to keep track with these guys.)

Whatever. The bottom line is (stop me if you've heard this one before) we are the ones who have "walked apart" while they are pulling hamstrings running to obtain alternative primatial oversight, create covenants and confessions and create a curia-esque magesterium that bears absolutely no resemblance to anything Cranmer, Hooker or Seabury would have recognized.

And WE'RE the ones who are "innovating."

Methinks they dost spin just a bit too much! (See also: Whatever!)

But before you despair, check out the "Yang" -- and that would be "in other news" from Pittsburgh this press release from Roman Catholic Womenpriests posted today by Fr. Jake of Father Jake Stops the World:

On Monday, July 31, 2006, 8 U.S. women will be ordained priests and 4 women will be ordained deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. The ordination will take place on a chartered boat that will depart from Pittsburgh, PA at 3:00pm (1500 hours) E.D.T., and will sail on the Three Rivers: the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio, Bishops Gisela Forster, Ida Raming and Patricia Fresen of Germany will preside. The women being ordained come from California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

Just as, by her example, our foremother Rosa Parks led white America to the understanding that they must examine their conscience and recognize the sin of racial prejudice, the womenpriests and womendeacons lift up the issue of gender equality before the Roman Catholic Church. By offering a new paradigm of gender equality, womenpriests and womendeacons affirm that women, as well as men, can and do image Jesus Christ.

Now there's an enduring innovation! And let the people say, AMEN!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You said "And WE'RE the ones who are "innovating.""

I thought that was your whole premise -- that the Holy Spirit was leading you to do a new thing. That this was Prophetic.

I don't understand why you are complaining about being called "innovating" when it has been the basis of your whole defense of your position. Please help me understand.

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

Main Entry: in·no·vate
Pronunciation: 'i-n&-"vAt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -vat·ed; -vat·ing
Etymology: Latin innovatus, past participle of innovare, from in- + novus new -- more at NEW
transitive verb
1 : to introduce as or as if new

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

AH .. a clarifying moment.

NOT "my" whole premise ... (flattered, I'm sure) that the Holy Spirit is leading us to do a new thing.

Rather, that the Holy Spirit is leading us to do the same old thing ... liberating the captive, freeing the oppressed, bringing the same good news to the stranger at the gate as Jesus brought in Jerusalem and Peter brought to Cornelius.

Same old thing.

Not a new thing.

Not an innovation.

The Enduring, Inclusive Love of God made available to all in Christ Jesus.

Thanks for the chance to clarify.

Toewalker said...

Its the same "old thing" that the Church should be doing. You know, that whole Beatitudes thing that Jesus gave us in the Sermon on the Mount.

Radical, isn't it?

Toewalker said...

By the say, RevSusan+, while this may be slightly tangential and off-topic, I just wanted to say:

You ROCK!

I read your blog daily, and its a continual source of inspiration, comfort, solidarity and sharing. Thank you for being here.

Jeffrey

Anonymous said...

You contradict yourself in this post.

You condemn Bishop Duncan for promoting schism while you extol the "Roman Catholic womenpriests" who are in fact in schism by virtue of being excommunicated by simulating a sacrament.

It seems to me that Bob Duncan gets more grief than anybody in this entire situation because as an Episcopalian bishop he is using his office in a manner that seems designed to cause the breakup of The Episcopalian Church. Despite my pronounced conservative theological bent, this is something that we agree on. For integrity's sake, he should have resigned his office long ago and sought the episcopacy from another authority.

Meanwhile the "womenpriests" still claim to be Roman Catholic even though they have been excommunicated. For integrity's sake, they should not use the moniker Roman Catholic except with the word "former" or prefix "ex."

Let each one be honest with who they are.

Anonymous said...

Oops, I forgot to put my ID on the last comment. FrMichael