Thursday, February 28, 2008

Dear New Hampshire ....

... send your money, not your bishop!

Episcopal Cafe reports: Lambeth Palace has been careful to avoid sending Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire any of the mail that goes out to bishops invited to the Lambeth Conference, and it has made sure that his partner, Mark Andrew, has not received any of the correspondence sent to spouses. Somehow, though, a request for $7,000 to support the conference has found its way to the bishop's desk.
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That's right. The invitation isn't in the mail but the "ask" is.
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It really does make you wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing over there -- and inspires me to ask (once again!):
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If the Petulant Primates really aren't coming to Lambeth Conference, what on earth is the Archbishop of Canterbury hoping to gain by continuing to exclude the Bishop of New Hampshire?
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How great a witness could this church ... this communion ... make to the world if it would refuse to scapegoat the only honest gay bishop in the Communion and come together as bishops of the WHOLE church at Lambeth Conference to seek the face of God in "the other."

C'mon, +Rowan ... step up, buddy.

It's never too late to do the right thing!

15 comments:

Manny Publius said...

Well, as long as they have things STRAIGHTened out on their end! LOL & crying at the same time.

Dave said...

And in this, the Anglican Communion is like the Democratic Party. LGBTs are expected to shut up and disappear, except they will take our money just fine. I guess gay money does spend as well as straight money.

JimB said...

If there is one thing that is clear from the bungled handling of the Lambeth Tea Party it is that no one will ever accuse Dr. Williams of being a prophet.

FWIW
jimB

Unknown said...

Susan, GOOD FOR YOU!

you're SO on point here!

I wonder if there's a way to disseminate this blog to other venues so that the non-attending African primates may read it or could be told of it; and a way to get it to Rowan lol

edav38 said...

Usually when they ask for money, they want you to be involved. Maybe Gene should take the "Ask" letter as his invitation, and just show up.

Anonymous said...

It's like the Nazis asking the Jews to light the ovens. Is there absolutely no shame to the arrogance of Lambeth?

Mary Clara said...

+Gene should come and bring the money. In cash. Wrapped up with a nice pink bow. And present it publicly, graciously and ceremoniously to the ABC.

Karen said...

Should we laugh? Should we cry? This is,sadly, about what I expect to come out of the ABC, but before I swing the ax to swiftly just on him I pause to wonder how many ways TEC sends precisely the same message to GLBT folk in ever so many Episcopal Churches right here at home? Send money, carry the water up the hill, but do not expect to have your relationship blessed or your call to ordained ministry upheld. (And yes, I know this varies from diocese to diocese, but it still all within TEC.)Oh for the day we live out our Baptismal Covenant.

Jim of L-Town said...

Dear Rev. Russell:

I agree that the money request is ill-timed and way out of order, but a comparison to the holocaust?
Hyperbole can be an effective literary tool except when anything less than mass genocide is compared to the holocaust.
Me thinks some folks should learn a little perspective.
While you (and many of us) continue to plead for some civility others, on both sides, seem wedded to the idea of vilifying our opposition. I guess the next comparison could be that Rowan is the new Hitler. Please folks tone it down just a tad.

A sinner saved by God's Grace

Jim from Michigan

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

Jim, with all due respect, there is a point where the straight-white-guys just don't get to tell the queers what their "perspective' should be.

I may agree that holocaust metaphors are off my own "hyperbole-meter" but I absolutely understand why there are those who feel as vulnerable in this homophobic culture as the Jews did in anti-Semitic Germany.

There is s difference between demonizing individuals (the verboten "ad hominem" attacks) and naming the demonizing characteristics of oppression.

I'm not vilifying Rowan when I challenge the impact of his actions. And, the impact of his actions is to support bigotry, bias and discrimination.

TX WaterBird said...

How crass!

Unknown said...

Oh, goodness.

A bureaucratic snafu and you think it's on purpose?

How silly. Your position is that invitations and coordinations and hotel lists are purposely not being sent, but a request for money is purposely being sent?

How about someone in charge of one mailing not remembering to activate the "not-invited bishop" filter?

Do Episcopalians (from all sides) all sit around reading and searching for things to get bent out of shape about? At all the blogs on all the sides, you all think the worst of everyone except those who share your point of view.

Hiram said...

I understand that Bp Martin Minns also got a request for a donation, even though he has not been invited.

JimB said...

Paul,

As I value the connection between my shoulders and head, I wont attempt to answer for our host ;-0.

But, let me tell you what I see. Of course it was "merely" an operations error. When they purged the addressee list for the invitations, they appear to have set a flag that the fund raisers did not check.

That said, we are back to the sensitivity issue. If there is one thing Lambeth Palace has it is management types. Someone on the ABC's Tea Party staff authorized that fund raising letter. That person would have to be working in an ice cave without Internet not to know that some bishops have not been invited due to organizational cowardice. All that person had to do was think (OK if they had thought both Bp. Minn and Bp. Robinson would be invited) and this thread would not exist.

I am, as one gay friend puts it, "distressingly straight." I can and do walk with my lesbian / gay friends through the hateful pickets. I can and I do assert their right to inclusion. I can and I do hurt when they are insulted. But(!) I cannot really feel the pain they feel when the church discriminates against them. Be it a "crucified place" (No I don't intend to forget the Presiding Bishop is among the discriminators) or the latest screed from Nigeria, I can walk away. I wont, but I can. They cannot and for me or especially someone who is by your own choice cut off from their pain to judge it is sin pure and simple.

FWIW
jimB

jeffrey cave said...

one would hope that bishop robinson would preside conspicuously at a very reserved yet joyous eucharist at the time of lambeth - it needs to be in a very prominent and dramatic setting over there. he needs to be surrounded by other cocelebrant bishops from the communion. it needs not to be in the least political, certainly not polemical--rather just doing what the church does normally all he time:celebrating the praise of god in word and sacrament, in the best anglican tradition. and the publicity needs to be handled very carefully and strategically so that the no one is diminished by the event. if anything the hidden message would probably be "poor babies" but that's o.k. in time the
unsatisfactory character of this whole lambeth invitation business will be seen for what it probably really is: cowardice, smugness, legalistic and petty. but gene needs not a bully pulpit throughout the lambeth event, but an altar, at least in my opinion.