Maybe it was the colleague who emailed me the opening sentence to Kendall Harmon's response to the JSC Report:
"This is an illegitimate report based on a bizarre and deeply flawed process."
Hmmm ... If Kendall hates it THAT much I must have missed something!
[photo credit: J.E. Bacon]
Not exactly a "folksey" setting but it was certainly a reminder of the sometimes "imperial" nature of our episcopate. Anyway, I whatever the reason I re-read the report and decided I actually DID have something to say ... and this was it:The Joint Standing Committee has pronounced the Response of our House of Bishops "sufficient unto the day" and now invites the Anglican Communion to move forward in faith in spite of our differences. Calling for a commitment to mutual listening and conversation, the report concludes, "It is only by living in communion what we live out our vocation to be a Communion."
"Our bishops told us their goal in New Orleans was to be 'clear' about where the church ‘is' in their response to the rest of the Communion," said Integrity President Susan Russell. "They said they were doing so in order to 'make room' for the conversations to continue and, based on today's report, they appear to have succeeded in that effort. It must be recognized, however, that this 'success' came at the cost of collateral damage to the lives and vocations of the LGBT baptized who continue to be cast as pawns in this game of global church politics."
"It is now time for our bishops to step up and put their miters where their mouths are and proactively advocate for the inclusion of LGBT voices in the 'mutual listening and conversation' the Communion has committed to continue," Russell continued.
"Here's what WE want to be 'clear' about: we're done being talked about and we're ready, willing and able to be talked 'with.'
"Integrity looks forward to being an integral part of that mutual listening and conversation and later this month in London will be working toward those goals with Anglican allies at planning meetings in advance of next year's Lambeth Conference..
32 comments:
What's up with all those flags?
It is what it is.
The sides continue to delineate.
Bottom line:
Six dioceses are leaving. Dozens of parishes outside of them are leaving. The crown jewel of the Diocese of Georgia is leaving (Christ Church - Savannah). Eleven churches in Virginia are out (including two with ties of George Washington). And on and on and on.
They, too, are tired of being talked "at".
Stop the assessments of those pulling out. The REAL question is WHAT PLAN DOES THE GLBT/ECUSA CHURCH HAVE TO SURVIVE? Don't look to Nevada or New Hampshire - no workable growth has been traced there. What IS the Plan for the survival of the Episcopal Church without the hundreds of parishes who are even now fading away?
Strangely enough, nobody in the Diocese of Georgia but Christ Church is that concerned about their leaving. Bp. Henry has already made very clear that they will leave without the historic church property -- which resulted in Christ Church's rather whining appeal that it didn't want to "sever its pastoral ties" when the Diocesan chancellor made clear the repercussions of their continued agitating.
You see, I'm in the Diocese of Georgia and know a bit about it, too. Christ Church has long been thought of as disaffected nutballs.
The only thing with any real ties to Washington in VA are the buildings, which they may -- but likely not -- keep. Even so, I prefer TEC ties to God, than Reasserter ties to tradition and Washington and Abuja and Canterbury and any number of substitutes for living faith.
Our plan for survival is God.
You may have heard of Him.
cp:
One is tempted to think the setting may reflect some right-wing "renewal" going on in the HoB.
I wasn't able to attend, so I can't speak authoritatively, but in reality, it's because that meeting was held at the Nixon Library, and I'm sure that, with the new-found sensitivity to the feelings of their "host," no-one even thought to ask to have them removed and perhaps (gasp) an Episcopal flag placed on the dais instead.
Susan:
Bishop Andrus of SF met with the LGBT community tonight and was shocked, shocked, that we neither applauded him nor agreed with his point of view about where things stand. He was very defensive in his speech and did very little to acknowledge the pain that people were expressing to him. My opinion was that he was upset and dismayed that we were "attacking" him (we weren't) and he was astonished that we thought the New Orleans report was a load of bullhockey. I actually think he thought that by coming and reading the New Orleans document in its entirety (yawn) that we would all be excited and happy.
He also told us two things that upset me:
(1) It's up to LGBT folk to make this an issue, not him and
(2) We have to hold the Anglican communion together because that's the only way we can help AIDS orphans in Africa.
Sigh. And we consider this guy to be a friend.
-J
You can hear a lot of blah-blah and fly a lot of flags but the heart of the heart of the whole thing is that human beings need to have the influence of a mother's parenting style AND a father's parenting style or else they are handicapped to the extent that one is lacking. Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale in his book called Fatherneed spells it out from that viewpoint and Brenda Hunter in The Power of Mother Love spells it out from the other side. Kids need the softness of a mother and the roughhousing of a father, or as Carol Gilligan of Harvard says, fathers stress rules, mothers relationships, fathers fairness, mothers sympathy. Boys who grow up with fathers are less likely to be violent because they learn from fathers how to affirm and channel masculinity properly. Kids need the constant experience of the complementary parenting styles, and all the meddling of church and state to nullify that is damaging. I'm sure that if you meditate long enough on your personal experience of growing up and of raising children, you will come to this central conclusion. Church and state must throw its support toward these central realities or risk the permanent instability of many new members of society.
Yeah, all them flags is freakin' me out!
Jack,
Unfortunately, I couldn't be there last night. I'm tired of our priests apologizing for our bishops and both orders telling us they're not our pastors. Especially when issuing national if not international public statements, pastoral considerations are in order as Dr. Crew points out. The whole reform of the office of the episcopate at the Reformation and in the Divines was geared to chief pastor. Instead, we now have politicians.
Anonymous,
The opposite of blessed unions for lbgt adults is not not stable heterosexual marriges.
Do you really think that the girl in Mississippi who is sexually involved with a boy and becomes pregnant does so because two women can get civilly married in Boston? Or that he is with her because the diocese of Chicago permitted a priest to bless two men?
The argument that a child is best raised by two parents, a dad and a mom, may have some validity, I simply am not able to judge. But, even if it is true, it has nothing to do with the realities.
Some people enter marriges that fail. Some people have children without marriges and remain single mothers. If every gay and lesbian person in America moved to another country next week, you would still see a majority of America's kids in either single parent or blended families.
In fact, many lesbian and gay couples offer loving homes that produce well adjusted happy kids. It may be that when the alternative is the bickering and legal infighting one sees in many divorces, that a single gender family is a step up.
The best arguement for changing the way we do family in America is the complete mess straight, "normal" couples have made of it. The best arguement against change is that lesbian and gay families do not need to join the mess.
FWIW
jimB
So, Mark-
As long as everyone leaves who doesn't agree with you, then you're OK with the disintegration, right?
BTW: Check your history. General Washington was active in those churches in Virginia. Christ Church, Savannah sports more in its ministries than nearly a dozen of the "radically welcoming" churches in New Hampshire combined. Time to talk about WHAT is planned for churches to survive. God expects that, too.
PS: Why does the Presiding Bishop keep talking about "45 to 60" churches leaving? Good grief! Is there ANYONE who can add with real numbers in this Church? At least two dioceses are pulling out followed by four others and then literally uncounted others.
We're OK with that, though. Right?
Doug Desper-
The parish that current calls it's self "Truro" wasn't there when When George Washington was alive. To be exact, Jerusalem Chapel was built in the 1850's, as I recall. Do try and learn your history.
The sky is not falling. It *is* irritating what happened, but spare me the angst.
I'm a gay man. I have a partner. We both left Churches that were dismissive of GLBT people. Neither of us are in sackcloth and ashes. Both of us see this as standing in place. By doing so we do open up the possibility of ongoing conversation all over the Communion. If we all got Rites for SSB this instant in TEC it wouldn't mean a damned thing, except that the conversation would be over. We would get our goodies and to hell with the GLBT's in the 2/3's World. Catholicity, in many senses, would be lost as we toss others overboard on our march to justice.
I had an opportunity last night to listen to the Rev Dr give an informal talk in Baltimore. he said two things that I wish I had said. One was that the "hard work" of theology was still being done, but that American Episcopalians seem reticent to do it. The other was that we had to handle the anthropological before we could address the eclesiological. In other words, we should be more concerned about the gay kids in Iran who are in danger of hanging than weather or not we, "safe" in North America, get to wander down the isle. Until all are free, none are.
Breathing room has been gained, lets not stomp our privileged, North American feet feet and whine.
"The argument that a child is best raised by two parents, a dad and a mom, may have some validity, I simply am not able to judge. But, even if it is true, it has nothing to do with the realities."
It's the most important reality in the controversy tearing the church apart. All benefits, all legitimacy, all support should go to shoring up the mother-and-father families, because they are the anchorage of stable human personality. -- J
Anonymous 11:46-
What has been shown is that stability in family relationships is what is important - more so than the relatively new nuclear family, per se. I know plenty of people who wander this Earth with deep emotional scars caused by their heterosexual parents. I know plenty of people who are not. Same with people raised outside of the so-called "traditional family unit." To say otherwise is to make a mockery of my friends raised by their grandmother, or my cousin who was raised by her mother after her father died. It is also to push aside the agony of many who were raised in the suffocating toxins of "families' where the mother and father were only together for the "sake of the children."
You may studies and turn research to suit your aims, but repeating your misinformation and skewed data will not make them truth.
Friar John,
From Truro Church's Website/History:
"Truro’s history is tightly woven into the tapestry of Virginia history. Named after the Parish (now the Diocese) of Truro in England, Truro Parish was created by order of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1732, some 10 years before Fairfax County itself came into existence. The father of George Washington, Augustine Washington, was a Truro vestryman and nominated the first regular rector of the parish in 1736. George Washington himself was appointed to the vestry in 1762." (End)
My point here is that when word spreads that well-respected churches are gone, there will be a rising disgust in the pews of many-an-average Episcopal parish. These historic and vibrant churches have lent legitimacy to the often ill-conceived policies of the National Church. With them gone the remaining Church's identity will become closer akin to a Political Action Committee. Most average pew-sitters won't stomach that. This Divorce has one facet that will backfire: loud voices content with burning all the family pictures, because they are doing "a new thing".
One of the scariest things to me is when the oppressed start using the reasoning and vocabulary of the oppressors. It's happened throughout human history, but still ...
Anyway, making light of my ability to be validated within the church through my SSB and then telling me that because of my selfishness a child in Iran will be tortured? Please, check your rhetoric at the door.
I participate financially in several projects which lift people from poverty and empower healthy families. That might not save someone from getting tortured, but it doesn't stop me from giving anyway.
-J
And I just realized just how badly I messed up the HTML on my othe rpost.
The Mans name is the Rev Dr James Alison.
frair john --
I freely concede the exceptions to what I've said -- people raised by single mothers who are great, people raised by a mother and father who are awful, etc. In the inner city, 90 percent of boys raised without a father have run-ins with the police but only 10 percent of those with a father. That 10 percent is a reality but it's the contrast that must be taken seriously. -- J
Doug Desper said
"My point here is that when word spreads that well-respected churches are gone, there will be a rising disgust in the pews of many-an-average Episcopal parish. These historic and vibrant churches have lent legitimacy to the often ill-conceived policies of the National Church. With them gone the remaining Church's identity will become closer akin to a Political Action Committee. Most average pew-sitters won't stomach that."
I don't think so, not even in Virginia. I live not far from The Falls Church and Truro Church. They and the other 12-13 parishes that have voted to affiliate with the Churches of Nigeria or Uganda have been out of the mainstream of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia for years. In the small parish where I am a member, no one pays much attention to what The Falls Church and Truro are doing. If anything, people are glad that they have finally made official what they have been moving toward for years.
Doug Desper, the USA is a nation of freedom of speech. You can put any untruth or stretch of the truth you want on a church website and that won't make it true.
Joan R. Gundersen, who has a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Notre Dame and has published extensively on the history of the church in Virginia believes those claims to be false.
How “Historic” Are Truro Church and The Falls Church?
...Neither is the direct descendant of a colonial parish. Neither can claim George Washington as a past member of its vestry or its congregation. Both are “new” church plants from the 1830s and 1840s. In most places in the United States, founding dates in the antebellum period would be quite old enough to justify a claim of being “historic,” but these two parishes have sought the additional aura associated with George Washington and our colonial past...
whigDoug Desper,
This Washington Post article also calls into question the status of the folks at Falls Church and Truro Church who have voted to steal the Episcopalian heritage of the Diocese of Virginia;
Episcopal Churches' Breakaway in Va. Evolved Over 30 Years
"At least two-thirds of the worshipers are Methodists, Presbyterians or Baptists, and there is no pressure on them to be confirmed as Episcopalians, said the Rev. Rick Wright, associate rector."
It's a sad day if the majority of the folks voting to drag these parishes from the DoV & TEC are not even confirmed Episcopalians!
Whether George Washington was or was not a member of this or that congregation in Virginia may be questioned, but he was certainly a slave owner. The notion that Christians were entitled to own fellow human beings was justified by both scripture and tradition, based on the standards of those times. Today we find this appalling. We are in a similar struggle now over LGBT civil rights issues. If we stipulate that God and scripture are unchanging, can we not agree that our understanding of God and scripture has changed, and will continue to do so?
Jack Sprat-
You misread what I wrote.
I didn't put a causative spin on your SSB and a kid in Iran dieing. What I did mean to say was that there is a disconnect between those of us in the North and those of us in the South. While we may not have our official and public SSB’s there are those for whom there is a real chance of violent and painful death, there is a limit to how far we can push our claims of injustice. We are faced with a choice as to wither or not we are willing to stand in solidarity with those who are our Brothers and Sisters, as best we can, or if we will take our toys and ignore them. Prayerful solidarity with those we share Baptism and the Eucharist is where we could be standing, if we were to drop our intense feeling of anger. We are responsible to and for them as fellow members of the Body of Christ, or dose all the Baptismal rhetoric end at the coast? As it stands now, we are able to be advocates within the Communion for them, and to stand with them, as best we can. Apparently, we cannot have both, so which in the end is more important?
What, pray tell, is the objection to the American flag display?
Do Episcopalians now reject the good old red-white and blue?
I'm really interested in why a symbol of our nation - one that represents all viewpoints - is seen as a negative.
A sinner saved by God's Grace.
Jim of Michigan
As long as everyone leaves who doesn't agree with you, then you're OK with the disintegration, right?
Which is not what I said. I presented the actuality of what you are misrepresenting. Christ Church hasn't been anyone's crown jewel in sometime.
Stop reading your agenda onto me.
BTW: Check your history. General Washington was active in those churches in Virginia.
So what?
Washington is a saint, now?
Christ Church, Savannah sports more in its ministries than nearly a dozen of the "radically welcoming" churches in New Hampshire combined.
So, who is it doing all this for? Is it actually helping anyone? Does Christ Church do what it claims, or simply set up committees and call that outreach? I know of no one who's impressed with Christ Church's actual activities.
Time to talk about WHAT is planned for churches to survive. God expects that, too.
Well, thanks for delivering the word o' God, prophet, ol' buddy. When the time comes to discuss those things, I doubt those who've left will be consulted, having sold their birthright for a mess of pottage -- which could be why you haven't heard anything.
Lot of energy has been spent debating sources - which have been debated before any moderns were in-vitro or womb.
Bottom line: There are too many progressives willing to burn the House down just to see an agenda to its conclusion. In the end this will ostracize the Episcopal Church from the majority of the Christian Church, notwithstanding the Anglican Communion. Indeed, it sounds like a new religion.
I'm not fine with that.
The review of history will see the old Church of the Anglican saints - including a few founding fathers - replaced by the shrill voices of those stomping their way to glory.
The Episcopal Church has become a cartoon due to the loud and dismissive voices who those who want change at the cost of everything. New religions are born this way. But, the rest of the world Church will abominate the new Episcopal Church for what it is: pseudoBuddhism where one invents the deity du Jour and communes with oneself (and along the way drops charity to the worthy poor). No outside interference or critique. Only supportive tones welcome.
Amazing how no one talks about the stagnant or declining churches who are often found in reappraising dioceses. West Virginia lost 50% of their people (their view). Has any growth happened in other reappraising dioceses? Show it. It will need to be widely copied. Why hasn't it?
Progressives are interested in making progress with regard to issues such as voting rights, civil rights, equal access to education and health care, etc. The progressive “agenda” in TEC consists of extending the message of the Gospel to all of God’s children. This is based on the belief that we are called by the Holy Spirit to do so. This is not a new religion. Nor did it begin in 2003.
Conservatives appear to want to preserve institutionalized bigotry and homophobia. There’s nothing new about that either.
Since the progressive agenda is of the Spirit where is the proof?
Surely God would have been prospering such and drawing people towards its light in reaction to bigots. Again: show me where this agenda is working and growing the Church...or are we past the Holy Spirit's power?
Doug-
Parishes all over TEC are growing. They do so by meeting community needs, or they are in areas
All of the Churches are having trouble with membership, as are most other organizations.
Read Bowling Alone to see a study of the social forces we are fighting.
It may be comforting to act as if the Progressives are at fault, but it just isn't true. If it were the case, then the SBC would be rolling in members, but even they are in decline. Small, boutique style denominations (the MCC or the ACC) show some growth, but that is part of the highly consumer culture we have developed in the US.
I can only speak for my church. My church is growing in members, ministries and soon, square footage, as we begin a major building project. Fred Phelps has picketed us. The IRS has tried to silence us. And yet we are growing.
The progressive “agenda” in TEC consists of extending the message of the Gospel to all of God’s children.
I'd say that the 'progressive' agenda in TEC is in fact not progress. Instead of spreading the good but hard news of the Gospel, which is that we can transform ourselves in Christ, they tell sinners what they want to hear; that what they are doing is not sin. This is where we were before Christ showed up. It appears to me to be a regression towards paganism.
This is based on the belief that we are called by the Holy Spirit to do so.
When I was on my parish's selection committee for a new pastor, I asked the candidates "We hear a lot these days about how changes in the Church are being inspired by the Holy Spirit. How can one tell if that's true? How do we know if something has been inspired by the Holy Spirit?"
The answer I got from one candidate was "The Holy Spirit will not contradict Scripture." On that basis, I can't see much that has come out of TEC that's bears evidence of having been inspired by the Holy Spirit; my guess would be some other kind of spirit.
This is not a new religion.
True. It's older than Baal.
Nor did it begin in 2003.
Nope. It's been coming for years, an inch at a time.
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