Proud to be Episcopalian

Two things have come across my desk of late that have irritated me considerably. First was the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent article slamming the USA in a Muslim publication. The second was the retired Bishop of Southwest Florida's conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.

In regard to Bishop Lipscomb's conversion, I do understand the need to be where God is calling you. As a fellow pilgrim who converted to Anglicanism from my family's Methodist tradition, I know the longing to find a spiritual home. But numerous conversions by those who have conveniently retired with good pensions and health care paid for in perpetuem by people these jokers are leaving behind frustrates me to no end. When I left the Methodist Church, I left it all behind, job security, job prospects, health insurance and a pension. All of it for an unknown future in a place God was calling me to be. Would they convert if it meant leaving their pensions? These guys, like many of their babyboom generation, know little of commitment and even less of sacrifice.

And + Rowan Cantuar's comments that the US is now worse than England ever was in its imperialist days is just over the top and ridiculous. Admittedly I am the last one to take up for President Bush. I think he has walked all over the constitution during his time in office, but as much as I dislike his politics, his time as commander in chief will come to an end not because of coup or rebellion or violence, but because of good, old fashion American democracy. President Bush's term will end, and Americans will have a chance to elect someone else...There aren't too many places in the world were a political change like this takes place peacefully. And if it weren't for all of us so-called imperialist Americans, who for more than 200 years have put our money and our blood where our mouth is, there is no place on earth where political or religious freedom would now exist. Archbishop, your days as a moral authority are over. You have lost your integrity, not because you bash Americans, but because you are willing to sacrifice all conviction on the altar of compromise with those who would want only total submission from you. Being British, you'd think the lessons of Chamberlain would be a little more fresh in the mind.

I am proud to be both an Episcopalian and an American. And I'm tired of making excuses for its leaders who know little of loyalty and honor.

The Anglican Centrist opineds...

Greg Jones+ always has interesting stuff on his blog...This is just one of those gems he is known to post...concerning the recent issues in the the Church...

But those who believe that Jesus Christ began the Church, and He has imbued it with the Holy Spirit, and that the Church is itself a means of Grace -- we don't take kindly to breaking it apart for the cause of 'purity' or any other cause -- even when there are valid critiques of the Church held among those who seek to do it harm. And that's the rub -- coercion, force, threat of schism, these are not fruits of the Spirit. Those that advocate for them cannot be doing Godly work. The work of reformation and renewal in the Church is not the work of division, heretic-hunting, and making stark us vs. them scenarios.

Read the complete text here.

The Great White Hope...

I've been reluctant to post too much sarcasm on this blog. Not that I object to it, mind you. I just like sticking to the issues in the spirit of trying not to make it personal...But this takes the cake. Even before our House of Bishops concluded their recent meeting in New Orleans, a group of angry pointed hats (irate bishops) gathered in Pittsburgh and elected Bob Duncan as their new pope...but I think he was looking to be anointed savior...Anyway, check out Scott Gunn and his take on the matter over at inclusive church...

What is our purpose...

Surfing the blogs today, I came across this essay. Thought it was interesting, especially with its reference to one of my favorite Anglican mystics.

If the world looks at us as a corporate body and sees inclusiveness in our leadership and our practice, then we are communicating something about the hospitality of God. If they see us finding ways to stay together in Christ while holding a diversity of views, that is a revolutionary witness for our deeply polarized times. On the other hand, if all that the world sees is fighting and schism and mutual recrimination, then we are losing track of our real identity and purpose.

Read it all here...

House of Bishops concludes week of meetings...

The gathering in New Orleans has come to an end, and our bishops have released this statement summarizing their work for the week. This is set in the context of responding to most recent Primate's communique...

The House of Bishops expresses sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates for accepting our invitation to join us in New Orleans. By their presence they have both honored us and assisted us in our discernment. Their presence was a living reminder of the unity that is Christ's promised gift in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Much of our meeting time was spent in continuing discernment of our relationships within the Anglican Communion. We engaged in careful listening and straightforward dialogue with our guests. We expressed our passionate desire to remain in communion. It is our conviction that The Episcopal Church needs the Anglican Communion, and we heard from our guests that the Anglican Communion needs The Episcopal Church.

Read it all here...

Parting Words...

Stephen Bates, religion writer for the Guardian, is packing it in. I have always enjoyed his perspective, and he gives one last parting shot toward this week's house of Bishops gathering...

They are the sort of people who claim themselves so superior to their bishops that they won’t allow them to touch them for ordination, or who would not allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to preach from their pulpits (they should be so lucky) for fear that he might dangerously challenge the comfortable beliefs of their flocks, the sort of people who pick and choose the sins that are acceptable and condemn those – always committed by other, lesser people – that are not. Why is remarrying divorced people now OK – allowing them to continue fornicating – but not recognising the lifelong commitment of gay people to each other? Why does the Bishop of Carlisle happily bless nuclear submarines and, for all I know, dogs and cats, but not the unions of people who wish to demonstrate their devotion to each other for ever?

Read it all here...

God speed, Brother.

The Daily Office

I have often dreamt of having the offices prayed daily in the churches I have served. So why not? Derek Olsen, a good blogger in my meager opinion, address the issue, with some interesting responses...

...but during the week [the Episcopal Church] sat quiet and empty. I would much rather have had Lil’ H run about, gleefully scattering cake donut crumbs (bad choice in retrospect…) in the midst of an Episcopal Morning Prayer service, but it wasn’t an option for us. And I wonder why not. Oh—certainly I understand that there are reasons—but still I wonder…

Read the rest here...especially the comments.

You talk, talk, talk about it...

You talk as if you care...it's not just a song from 10,000 Maniacs. The Rev. Giles Fraser is criticising the Global south primates for their unwillingness to do just that....

This is the right thing to do, for it is just this sort of risky talk, often clandestine, that led to peace in Northern Ireland. No peace will ever come without a willingness to sit around a table and talk.

Check out his commentary in a recent Church Times.

More words from across the pond...

The Archbishop of York, the Most Hon. & Rt. Rev'd John Sentamu gave us these words to ponder in a recent article in the Telegraph, found here.

Speaking about recent statements from the Global South Primates, York says...

"Anglicanism has its roots through Canterbury," he said. "If you sever that link you are severing yourself from the Communion. There is no doubt about it."

Words of wisdom from across the pond.

The Primate of All Ireland, the Most Rev'd. Alan Harper was quoted recently by Christianity Today. See the article here and view his complete sermon here. He is expressing serious doubts about the proposed Anglican covenant as a tool of division rather than a instrument of unity. And he is not the only one expressing doubt. The Archbishop wisely states...

....Recently, I preached at the installation of the first of the ecumenical canons to be admitted to the Chapter of the National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Patrick, Dublin. What struck me then, and what strikes me still, is how immensely difficult it is and how immensely long it takes in the life of the Church, to recover unity amongst Christians, once we have allowed ourselves wantonly to collapse into disunity....How hard it is to heal the wounds of the past and how slow. How swiftly we become blind to and dismiss those with whom we disagree and from whom we determine to separate. Blind to the insights and revelation granted to others, belittling or dismissing their perspectives, we consciously limit the horizon of our own vision and experience. Indeed, we create a new boulder behind which we expect to find interred a lifeless corpse, not a living tradition....

Amen brother!

Summer Sermons

I'm working on a summer sermon series that focuses on the Catechism. It looks like it will develop into something worth doing. The idea came to me from our Wednesday evening bible study held at the local Irish Pub. I started this past Sunday with the sermon, "Made in the image of God." The next few weeks will include working through the Prayer Book Catechism with topics like, "the nature of God the Father," and "Sin and Redemption." I am going to try and post a few of the outlines for these sermons on this site. We'll see how it goes.

Rest in Peace Bishop Kelsey...

[Episcopal News Service] Bishop James Kelsey of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan was killed in a road accident at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, while returning to Marquette from a parish visitation, Jane Cisluycis, diocesan operations coordinator confirmed.

Kelsey was traveling alone, but it is unclear at this time whether any other vehicles were involved in the incident.

"The Episcopal Church has today lost one of its bright lights," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said. "We will be less without the easy grace of Bishop James Kelsey -- Jim to most of us -- and we shall miss his humor, insight, and passion for the ministry of all. He gave us much. We pray for the repose of his soul, and for his family. We pray also for the Diocese of Northern Michigan. All of us have lost a friend. May he rest in peace and rise in glory."

Born in 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland, Kelsey graduated from Ithaca College in 1974, and from General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1977. In 1985, Kelsey moved with his family to Oklahoma, where he served for four years as canon missioner for Cluster Ministries. In 1989, he was called to the Diocese of Northern Michigan, where he served for 10 years as ministry development coordinator before being elected bishop in 1999.

Kelsey will be remembered as a welcoming and open person who always endeavored to include others, Cisluycis said. "It is hard to imagine the hole he will leave behind," she said.
Kelsey is survived by his wife, Mary, and three grown children.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

A picture to bring you back from the edge...

The Rev'd. Deacons Schisler share in a recent baptism here at All Saints'. It's moments like this that bring you back from the craziness going on in certain portions of the Church...and remind you what we are being called to do in this world.

So goes the Episcopal Church, so goes the...

I don't use this title with any arrogance of station intended. The culture wars being played out in our little corner of the Kingdom are also beginning to be made manifest in other parts of the vineyard. It just so happens that we are ahead of the pack.

Here is a link to the recent Pew Foundation forum. Philip Jenkins, one of my favorite authors, was keynote at the event. The transcript of the event is fairly long, but well worth your time.

Akinola Shows His Cards

+Peter Akinola, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, and majordomo of the current coup attempt by the Global South Primates of the Anglican Communion, showed a little more of his cards recently in the response to the listen process currently underway in the Communion. He fully supports the anti-gay legislation currently under consideration in the Nigerian legislature. This repugnant bill would imprison persons for homosexual behavior. Can anyone in the US, no matter how conservative, honestly want this guy as their spiritual father in God.

Check out the Nigerian response here.

Word from the home office...

Our Bishop and Bishop-elect have both written statements concerning the most recent HOB's meeting.

Read Ken's statement here...

Read Tom's statement here...

There have been other Bishop bloggings as well. Often I'd not list them here as they are out of our jurisdiction, but I commend Bishop Howe of Central Florida, and his comments. Although one of the more conservative members, his remarks about the meeting should be noted. Read him here...

Stephen Bates with commentary on HOB's Meeting...

Stephen Bates, writer for the British paper the Guardian, has this to say..

In the late 1970s, when New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy and appealing for financial help from federal funds, President Gerald Ford told the city he would not bail it out, prompting a famous Daily News headline - Ford to City: Drop Dead. Well, in rather more polite language, that's just about what the bishops of the US Episcopal church have said to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Read the rest here...

Sermon from Closing of the House of Bishops Spring Meeting

Check out the full text of +Katerine's sermon here.

Some Clarity in the Midst of the Storm

The House of Bishops should be applauded for the work of their meeting this week in Texas. Their first response to the Primate's February 2007 statement is listed here. It is clear and concise and demonstrates a level of leadership not seen from the House in recent years. A tip of the biretta to our Presiding Bishop, +Katherine. As usual, I don't agree with some of the material, but that matters little in that I have a great deal of respect for them in this difficult time. They are proving an anchor in the storm, just as their apostolic ministry demands...

The House of Bishops word to the Church for Easter is here.

Check out analysis from a centrist friend, Father Jones here.

I continue to pray for our Church, but as our Bishops have made clear, its time to get down to the business of mission...

Primates hubbubaloo...

Now that the Primates of the Anglican Communion have had their yearly gathering, the analysis and the commentary is in full force. Here is a list of resources of what was produced and reported upon at the meeting...

The Primates Communique to the Church

First Draft of the new Anglican Covenant

In a day or two, I'll begin to list sites where the commentary can be found...for the moment, I encourage you to meditate on the content of these two documents...they will effect our church for some time to come...

Waking from the slumber

I feel as if I have awakened from a slumber here in the blogosphere. Looking back, my last post was wishing folks merry Christmas, and today we commemorate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent...It all seems too surreal.

In the meantime, I went to Disney World with the family, hosted an Evangelism Conference for the diocese and have lost all track of time in the interim.

Back in the parish, things go on as they always do, from one season to the next. We are bond together in this half-light of time, complaining there isn't enough of it, always wanting more, and in the end not knowing what to do with the generous portion we've been allotted.

The Church at times suffers this angst as well. Recently, Anglicans of all stripes have been busy contemplating time...experienced in many places as counting down on different sets of clocks when the end of the Communion will take place. It's sad really. As with humanity so with its institutions. We are so caught up in our own mortality, individuals and the communion as a whole, that we fail to see the passing of time, poorly spent and fretted away. All the while each side claiming some imperative or mandate that to often hides worldly ambitions in the guise of Gospel principles.

Thank God for Ash Wednesday. Thank God for Lent and its reminder that we are but dust and to dust we shall return. If we take this with some seriousness, maybe we can begin to realize the great distraction that much of the current debate among us Anglicans truly is and begin using our time with more discretion. (I'm not belittling the convictions of any of the camps among us, but rather I am belittling the notion that we can reach unity through functioning like political parties.)

I'm brought back from this rant by some words read today out of one of the little used and greatly ignored gems of Anglican spirituality, The Book of Homilies...in its sermon against contention and fighting, these old proses ring true today...

We cannot be jointed to Christ our Head, except we be glued with concord and charity, one to another. For he that is not in this unity, is not of the Church of Christ...

Maybe we should give up fighting with each other as our Lenten discipline. It might be a little more productive than giving up chocolate...