In Response to Northern Michigan...

This is just for the folks in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. A few of us are going to encourage the Bishop and Standing Committee to vote no in response to the confirmation of Rev’d Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester as the next Bishop of Northern Michigan. This is not meant to be snarky or mean spirited but an honest attempt to live in a community that is called to accountability one to another. If you agree with the contents of the letter and wish to be a signatory, please do so under the comments link at the bottom of this post.

February 24, 2009

To the Bishop Ordinary and Standing Committee of the Diocese of Southern Ohio

Rt. Reverend Sir, ladies and gentlemen of the Standing Committee,

We hope you will prayerful consider voting no to the confirmation of the Rev’d Kevin Thew Forrester as the next bishop of Northern Michigan. Our reasons for asking you to vote against this confirmation are rooted in two concerns; the process used in selecting candidates by the Diocese of Northern Michigan and the suitability of the candidate himself.

In regard to the process by which nominations were made, the committee charged with this task presented one candidate for election. On the surface, presenting a single candidate raises immediate issues about the transparency of this process. Why was a single candidate presented? Was no one else seen as qualified to stand for election? And of course the perception of this makes one wonder whether there is a small group of people trying to control the process.

Is there any precedent for requiring more than one candidate? Had the Diocese asked the House of Bishops to elect a bishop for them in lieu of holding a diocesan election, which is provided for in Canon III, paragraph 11, section 1b, the House of Bishops would have been required by national canon to present a minimum of three persons to stand for election. This begs the question, “if it is appropriate for the House of Bishops, why is it not appropriate for the Diocese of Northern Michigan?”

Regarding Rev’d. Forrester’s suitability, he is on record as being both a practicing Zen Buddhist who received lay Buddhist ordination and a Christian. Whereas these two faith traditions may not be mutually exclusive to one another in the life of a lay person, the vows required of a Bishop in Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church exclude a person from being beholden to any other faith tradition save Christianity—no matter how complementary to Christianity other traditions might seem.

In the liturgy for the ordination of a Bishop, the candidate is first required to state their belief that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain all things necessary to salvation, and that they will conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church. If one takes this question seriously, does a person holding dual religious allegiances forswear themselves upon making this declaration? Later in the service, the candidate is required to affirm, “Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.” Again, is this possible if one holds to two faith traditions simultaneously? Finally, the candidate is asked if they will the guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church. Can this be done with integrity when one qualifies their response to the affirmation by claiming to also follow another religious tradition?

We hope you keep this information in mind as you prayerfully consider voting no to the confirmation of the next bishop of Northern Michigan.

Your fellow servants,

Rev'd. Jeff Queen, Rector of All Saints', Portsmouth
Rev'd. Dave Halt, Rector of St. James, Westwood
Rev'd. Dr. David Bailey, Rector of St. Stephen's, Cincinnati
David Kern, Christ Church, Glendale
Lee Daily, All Saints', Portsmouth
Vicki Daily, All Saints', Portsmouth
Adelaide Leitzel, Christ Church Glendale
Shannon Walker, St. George, Dayton

The Velvet Reformation

The place of gay people in the church is one of the bitterest disputes in Christianity since the Reformation. The Anglican Church is trying to have it both ways—affirming traditional notions of marriage and family while seeking to adapt its teachings to the experiences of gays and lesbians. Presiding over the debate, gently—too gently?—prodding the communion toward acceptance of gay clergy, is Rowan Williams, the brilliant and beleaguered archbishop of Canterbury. He’s been pilloried from all sides for his handling of these issues, but his distinctive theology and leadership style may offer the only way to open the Anglican Church to gay people without breaking it apart.

Take time to read this article in the current Atlantic Monthly.

A Good Sermon

Take the time to listen to this sermon on the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law from the Very Rev'd. Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St. Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow.

...Notwithstanding the fact that I believe in a progressive society, we still have our demons. The demon of Sectarianism still stalks this city and I suspect may be on the rise. The demon of anti-Semitism rears its head hanging on the coat-tails of an ugly war against the people of Gaza. The demon twins Xenophobia and Racism are nothing new and not too difficult to recognise – but I fear the danger that they will grow stronger and fitter as they feed off the bitter pickings of economic recession and fiscal gloom.

Notwithstanding the fact that I work in an open, inclusive congregation, I know that the demon Homophobia is still so fit and well in the church that we have learned to live with it as though it is normal. Anti-gay attitudes and prejudices are the unwelcome guests at every Anglican table and have been promoted even this week by the international meeting of Primates of the Anglican Communion. Such things have become so familiar that we are in danger of learning how to live with them. Such accommodation is an accommodation with evil....

Read or listen to the sermon here.

Fort Worth is moving on...

About 400 delegates and overflow visitors who filled the 116-year-old Trinity Church and its parish hall on Fort Worth's south side for a February 7 special organizing convention celebrated being "called to life" anew and getting back to the business of being the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

About 19 clergy and 62 lay delegates representing 31 congregations unanimously elected the Rt. Rev. Edwin "Ted" Gulick, bishop of Kentucky, as provisional bishop by a voice vote in clergy and lay orders. Gulick, who will serve as provisional bishop until at least mid-year while continuing to serve the Diocese of Kentucky, received a standing ovation and sustained applause.

Read it all here.

A Good Laugh

I always think it's good to laugh at ourselves from time to time. It keeps us humble. Enjoy...

People of the Book...

But actually no, this is not going to be a post about inerrancy or the little battles between the fundamentalists and the rest. My point here is a different one. During the conversations (or maybe I should say declarations, there wasn’t much give and take) every so often someone would quote from the Bible. And what struck me was that people were quoting from different versions and translations, some of which were familiar to me and some of which definitely were not. One person used the following quote: ‘Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want’. I guessed that this must be from Matthew 16, but the particular form of words was entirely new to me. By googling it later I discovered that it was from a version called ‘God’s Word’, which I suspect is a paraphrase rather than a translation.

Take time to read this interesting article.

Primates gather in Egypt...

The first day of the Primates Meeting in Alexandria has ended with the dedication of St. Mark's pro-Cathedral and the installation of new dean, the Very Revd. Samy Fawzy Shehata.

In an often moving service the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by dean Samy who translated the Sermon in Arabic, spoke of the importance of recognizing the God’s presence in the St Mark’s.

"As we dedicate this cathedral we ought to be praying that this is a place where Jesus is alive. When we step into this church and experience Jesus' life of prayer, it changes the way we see things.

The Archbishop also spoke of the importance of recognizing the holiness of prayer in others.
"The person praying next to me is a person in whom Jesus is praying….try to see the force of energy of Jesus' life in them. When I diminish them, I am in danger of destroying Jesus' voice in them."

Read the enitre article here.

A good series from Derek Olson

One of our up-and-coming scholars, Derek Olson, is working on a few articles for Episcopal Cafe.

Here is part of his most recent work on why the year 1054 matters to Anglicans...

As a result, the beginning of the problem in the Church began in the 2nd and 3rd centuries when the churches in Rome and north Africa began doing theology and liturgy in Latin rather than Greek. By the 4th and 5th centuries, two separate paths diverged—one in Greek, the other in Latin. Nowhere is this more evident than in the linguistic capabilities of the great Doctors of the Church in the patristic age. St Augustine himself admits his inability to converse in Greek; St Gregory the Great spent six years in Constantinople yet never learned Greek. St Leo too could neither read nor write it. While Sts Ambrose and Jerome were quite fluent in Greek, Jerome’s program of translating great Christian works from Greek into Latin further reduced the need for western clergy to learn the language—and formulations—of the eastern theologians. Photius, one of the greatest scholars of his age, knew no Latin.

Read it all here...It is a good reflection on what is currently happening in the Anglican Communion.

From the, "Can you believe this?" department...

Can you believe this stuff...the New York Times reports...

Pope Benedict XVI, reaching out to the far-right of the Roman Catholic Church, revoked the excommunications of four schismatic bishops on Saturday, including one whose comments denying the Holocaust have provoked outrage....

Among the men reinstated Saturday was Richard Williamson, a British-born cleric who in an interview last week said he did not believe that six million Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers. He has also given interviews saying that the United States government staged the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext to invade Afghanistan.

A good thing to remember the next time the Vatican tries to lecture Episcopalians on our moral condidtion in the midst of ordaining women and recognizing the rights of gays and lesbians.

If you can stomach it, the whole article can be read here...

Bp. Jenkins post Katrina

They are an unlikely pair, chatting up people on porch stoops in the poorer neighborhoods of New Orleans: Bishop Charles Jenkins, 57, the son of white, rural north Louisiana and pastor to 18,000 south Louisiana Episcopalians, and Jerome Smith, 69, black and rumpled, son of Treme, a former Freedom Rider from the civil rights movement.

Before Hurricane Katrina, in the days when Jenkins says he was focused more on the well-being of his predominantly white church than his predominantly black city, they might never have crossed paths.

But since Katrina, they have forged a relationship in which Jenkins, now deep into a profound personal and spiritual transformation, said he has come to love and rely on Smith. Smith, a sometimes fiery activist in whom Jenkins sees a gentle soul, has become one of the bishop's principal guides into New Orleans' poor African-American culture, a landscape Jenkins said he previously glimpsed but did not understand.

"He's my mentor, you know," Jenkins said recently. "It is a good day whenever Jerome Smith comes by."

But Smith is only one symbol of the journey of Charles Jenkins, and by extension Jenkins' diocese, since Katrina.

Bishop Jenkins was the speaker at our last diocesan convention. He is a true man of God. Read this article all the way through, it's worth the time.

Read it here.

Episcopal Church in Inauguration Spotlight

President-elect Barack Obama will attend a private prayer service on the morning of his inauguration at the historic St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, according to the Presidential Inauguration Committee.

Kevin Griffis, spokesman for the inauguration committee, said yesterday that the prayer service will not be open to the public.

St. John's, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, is known as the "Church of the Presidents." Since James Madison, every president has worshiped there at some point during his tenure in the Oval Office. The church has kneelers embroidered in tribute to each president, and Pew 54 is traditionally assigned to the chief executives when they visit.

Read it all here.

Taking kids to church...

This is a quick read, and a good reminder about how children bring life and adoration into the context of worship that adults don't because they are grown up...

I had a whole new experience of church. I got to do something I’ve never done before - I got to take children to church. How different it makes the experience. Turning up at a strange church with twin nephews (and my father) was an absolute delight.

Read all of Kelvin's experience here.

New Bishop on YouTube

Although this is not local, I thought it was an interesting way to meet a new Bishop in the Church. Take a look and see what you think about a new purple shirt from across the pond.

Spending some time with Jesus...

This has been such a crazy week. Fantastic Evensong with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Parish Christmas party, 2 deaths in the parish, our monthly Requiem, a wedding on Saturday, and now a head cold.

The high point of the week was the glorious evensong. The choir and I sung the service using the Smart setting for the Magnificat (one of my favorites). We used our new monstrance during the benediction. It was one of those moments when time stopped and all of our gathered attention was focused on Jesus right in plane sight.

His presence was overwhelming and as our choir master, Justin, sung "Of the Father's Love Begotten," as a solo, there was not a dry eye in the place. It struck me in that moment how adoration and benediction are so wound up in the incarnation as to be the very foundation of this liturgical event. Jesus in the manger, Jesus at the Jordan, at the wedding in Cana, and Jesus on the Cross is the same Jesus who calls us into his loving embrace and shelters us in the midst of the storm.

Crazy aeh? The baby in the manger whose arms are open wide to embrace the world.

Epiphany

Epiphany gives us three stories of showing forth, when you bring the Eastern and Western traditions together, three stories in which the nature of Jesus is revealed in surprising and unexpected ways.

Today we start with the story of the wise men following a star to find the new king. The first visitors to the infant Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel are the wise men. Whoever they were, they were Gentiles. So, even though Matthew puts Jesus very much in a Jewish framework and his infancy stories are about portraying Jesus as the new Moses, Jesus is manifested first to foreigners. And that says that Jesus is for us too, all that he was, all that he did, all that he taught, was for us, for those who come because they have enough wisdom to follow the light and make the hard journey to come and kneel before the true king.

Then we get the story of the baptism of Jesus. The accounts show God proclaiming that Jesus is his son, and he is the Beloved, and God the Father is very proud of him. In all four Gospels, the baptism manifests Jesus’ divine origins.

And the triptych is completed with the story of the wedding at Cana, when the wedding feast, the messianic banquet, is enlivened by the new wine. Jesus is the one who transforms the ordinary water of our worship into better wine that you have ever tasted. Jesus brings in the kingdom of God which is fulfilled in the heavenly feast.

A thoughtful post at "Thinking Anglicans." Read it all here.

Something to think about...

You've seen the bracelets with the initials WWJD, "what would Jesus do." Have you ever given much thought to a year spent living this out. Here is an excerpt from a recent article describing one man's attempt to do just that...

"I've concluded that I am a follower, but I'm not a very good one," Dobson said. "If you get serious about the Bible, it will really mess you up." He has witnessed for Jesus in bars, picked up strangers needing rides and voted for a Democrat who he believes best reflects Christ's teachings. During recent Christmas celebrations, as Christians worshipped the Christ child born in a manger, Dobson appreciated more than ever the man who preached love, only to die on a cross...

Read it all here. It's very interesting.

Cantuar's New Year's Greeting

Here is a taste of Archbishop Rowan's new year's greeting...

It’s always a relief to have a bit of space after the busyness of Christmas to relax at home and mull over the past 12 months and the hopes and possibilities of the year ahead. The prospect of this coming year, though, is one that produces a lot of anxiety and insecurity for countless people. There are fears about disappearing savings, lost jobs, house repossessions and worse. While the headlines are often about the big figures, it’s the human cost that makes it real for us...

Read it all here...

Happy Christmas...

This is my favorite Christmas Carol. I guess I want to use it to say merry Christmas to all of you. What a blessed season it is...

Peace.

Thinking about Christmas

Last night, December 21st, was the longest night of the year for me and for everybody else in the northern Hemisphere. It was also the coldest night we have had in a while. Fitting, I guess. Fortunately I was snuggled up warm next to my wife in our living room watching a movie and feeling little if any of the affects of the winter weather just outside.

Even though this has been a rushed year and a rushed Advent, it has been a good one nonetheless. The gifts are purchased or made, the house and the Church are now decorated. There is little to do but wait...wait for the crowds to gather, wait for the carols to be sung, wait for hearts to me made joyful once again by the story of the Christ child's journey into this world so long ago and into our lives today. I hope all of you will have a merry Christmas and a truly happy new year.

Chrismas Greetings from a Welshman

My hope and my prayer for you all this Christmas-tide and always is that you will welcome Jesus, the light of the world, into your hearts and minds, and that you will allow your own lives to be used to bring light to others. Enjoy your celebrations of the coming of the light, be good news for others, and remember that the kingdom of God is present when little things are done in love. God bless you and strengthen you to do such things and to be an instrument of that Kingdom. And, if you are among those who are passing through darkness, may your needs be seen and answered in genuine love and real care.

Read all of Bishop John's message here.