Some of you have actively followed the decisions of the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Others have been blissfully unaware that our denomination even had a General Convention. We have. And the actions taken mark a significant and distressing departure from the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them.Read the letter in its entirety at the link above.
Monday, July 16, 2012
BISHOP MARK LAWRENCE WRITES A LETTER
Following the early departure from General Convention 2012 of all but two of the deputation from the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, Bishop Mark Lawrence wrote a letter to the congregations in the diocese.
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....sigh....
ReplyDeleteWant to make any bets about the future of the Episcopal Diocese of SC?
margaret, I won't take your bet. Sigh...
Delete"actions taken mark a significant and distressing departure from the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them."
ReplyDeleteWhich eventually will give him permission to depart from 'this church.'
We'll see, susan s. +Mark has had one foot in and one foot out for quite a while.
DeleteWell, that's one way to Do the Hokey Pokey!
DeleteLOL! Could be some Hokey Pokey is on the way in SC.
DeleteThis brings up lots and lots of very painful memories for me: "no authority to revise the marriage rite OR to devise some parallel quasi-marital sacramental service" "won't abandon the diocese to darkness and anarchy" - so.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the worthy bishop, I cannot possibly have any kind of sacramental, which is to say sacred, union with another man. Not here, not there, not in all time or eternity. When my late husband died, it was brought home to me very forcefully that as far as the state of Texas considered us, we were nothing more at all than strangers who lived together: no relationship between us whatsoever that the state could or would recognize.
Comes now the bishop to tell me the Church feels exactly the same way. Which really makes me very glad not to be a communicant at this time. I know it's just one diocese he speaks for - but of course there are others, including the seceded one I live in, whose attitude is just the same.
So if I'm all THAT unholy, how am I supposed to feel - about myself, about Church, about God and this terribly hostile universe I find myself in, eh?
How would you feel?
Dear Russ, though there are people of faith who agree loudly with that bishop, there are many more who don't. God's love is beyond our imagining, beyond any calculating, and is certainly not parceled out in little bits according to some human ideas about worthiness.
DeleteI am sorry for all your losses.
Russ, what Laurel says. You are not unholy; you are God's beloved, and THAT is how you should regard yourself, always and ever. The people in church so often fall short of Jesus' command to love, which he said contains the whole law and the prophets. To put it bluntly, Mark Lawrence and his ilk are full of shit. Very likely, there are a good many in the diocese who agree with him, but not all. The church includes many folks who put the two Great Commandments first and believe that all are included in the circle of God's love.
DeleteI'm so sorry that you were badly treated when you lost your beloved husband. The darkness and anarchy is in the hearts and places where God's love is not present. I have to tell you, Russ, the sure knowledge that I am God's beloved is what keeps me going on many a day.
From Psalm 139:
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
See? I can quote the Bible like a fundie
Blessings.
Russ, i'm answering you as a queer survivor who also lost his husband, and as a life long Anglican. as Mimi said, this bishop 'don't know shit.' look to your life, to the love and years you shared with your husband- that timeless, unassailable continuious truth- nothing short of God in and through you, my brother.
Deleteno one, and i mean NO ONE can rob you of the God-given grace of your baptism living itself out in your daily life. no one.and as strange as it might sound it is both your love and your loss, your life, your pain and your persistence which stand the proof of this made in the IMAGE& LIKENESS- nothing less, and the fact that you even entertain conversations such as ours is yet further proof.
it's in the life and the living (both the act and the two-legged variety of living) that our God reveals herself and works. and unfortunately Bishop 'don't know shit' Lawrence's dissembling, misrepresentation schemeing says more about him than either God or the Church.
IMAGE & LIKENESS, (((((Russ))))) you are nothing less- and as painful as that might be at times, it's wondrous!
Merci chere (((((Mimi)))))
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Delete(redoing for typo)
DeleteMimi, Laurel, David, Bonnie - thanks for your kind encouragements. Most of the time I just blow this stuff off, and consider the source. But after 50 years of feeling the sting of the lash, when it hits a sore spot I still hurt. But the bishop and his ilk will have their reward.
Because the subtext to every message like the bishop's is that I - and my gay brothers and sisters - I am not a human being. A defect in the universe, an abortion, a blot on the pure white page of God's creation.
Or at best, something utterly subhuman, like a dog, a cat, a rodent - and therefore expendable.
Which of course is always the subtext in messages like that - not only to me, but to blacks and Jews and Indians and Mexicans and Chinese and all the others. And to women too.
It's all just really old now and really really annoying, the wasp in the living room - and I'm so tired of hearing that I have no right to exist in their clean, pure world. You trace all those texts and subtexts back to their premises, and that's what it comes to. And that sucks, big time.
Russ:
Deletewhat 'reward' is it you're feeling thi bishop is getting?
the concensus at we LGBT folks are children of God, full members within the Church, and elligible for all of the sacraments is a majority within both your and the Canadian Churches.
my sense is that this bishop is only increasing his hateful antics because essentially he knows that he 'and his ilk' have lost their hateful,alienating battle, and now, with one eye on the door, he's manouevering for a way to paint himself a victim so he can justify grabbing the silver and real estate and running.
as my late sainted Welsh grandmother used to say 'people will always talk- SOME people, that is. but you're not going to let that stop you, are you?'
Russ, I understand how hurtful it can be to have old wounds reopened. We are all wounded in one way or another, some more than others, and I do not mean to trivialize the pain inflicted on LGTB folks by saying that. Hate is ugly to face, and I have not often had to contend with hatred from others. Condescension, paternalism, yes. What I do is keep in mind that the fault lies not in me, but in the haters, paternalists, etc. and, if I have the opportunity, I call them on it and tell them that the problem is theirs, not mine.
DeleteMimi, I know you get it, and I never think you are trivializing. That's why I feel comfortable sharing these thoughts here, and I thank you for providing a safe place where all us wounded birds may flock together.
DeleteDavid - Re: "reward." See the words of our Lord in Matthew 6; also the conclusion of Matthew 25.
Russ, I'm pleased that you're comfortable here and that the blog feels like a safe place.
Delete{{{Russ}}}
DeleteRuss--What Lauel and GM said.
ReplyDelete"as THIS church has received them." (emphasis added) Guy needs a better pipeline.
Revs. John Burwell and Neil Michelle were among the candidates for Bishop of Upper South Carolina - during the election process they were summoned to a meeting with +Lawrence to discuss the future of EDUSC pending their election! So for a while he was trying to influence all of South Carolina even if it was on the down low! Those of us who worship in Upper South Carolina thank God daily that we were blessed with +Waldo! (at least the majority do- Can't speak for Sarah Hey or the Underground Pewster - LOL)
ReplyDeleteSeriously - +Lawrence is chosing to missunderstand the Pawleys Island court case - his policies have hurt many of my dear friends because they are not welcome in "His" version of an Episcopal Church. He has been looking for a fight with TEC and the PB since day one - and at only 62 he can't be forced into retirement for another 10 years.
On some levels I think the PB would be wise to just let +Lawrence rant and rave and continue to look like a homophobic looney - however, he is not doing DSC a huge favor with his actions and RUMORED manic control of the clergy - so maybe the PB should gently and lovelingly invite him to exit at earliest convenient moment! Personally I don't think he should have ever been elected!
Blessings to all
Jane, I think Mark Lawrence should never have got consents the second time around. He intended to make trouble from the get-go. One reason, amongst others, I'd not like to see +Mark forced out now is that he will serve as a martyr to the cause of the excluders. If he goes, I'd like him and his Standing Committee make the move on their own. Of course, we'll hear their moans that they didn't leave the church; the church left them.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about thanking God for +Waldo. The Communion Partners tried to take over my Diocese of Louisiana with Michael Smith, Bishop of North Dakota, and he came in second in the vote! I thank God for our bishop, Morris Thompson. I did everything I could with my wee blog to keep +Michael from being elected. I don't know how much it helped, but I tried. See here and here.
Andrew Waldo's letter to the diocese of Upper SC.
ReplyDeleteLapin, I read the letter twice, and +Waldo reminds me a bit of Rowan, with his wanting to be bishop to all and facing the possibility of, in the end, being a bishop to no one. The theology on SSB has been done, but some folks simply do not agree with the practice and probably never will. I don't know that doing more theology will bring them around to even acceptance, if not approval. I do like the form of his question as, "Why not...?"
DeleteI get antsy when folks talk about self-control and self-sacrifice as it applies to others, namely LGTB persons, who are again asked to wait patiently.
I'm sorry to see +Waldo encourage +Lawrence and his cohorts in their self-pity.
I interpret his references to the situation in the diocese of Texas as implying that same-sex blessings will probably be authorized in congregations that request permission. We'll see.
DeleteI hope that's true.
Delete"The theology on SSB has been done, but some folks simply do not agree with the practice and probably never will." Agreed.
ReplyDeleteI also don't understand why, why, why, people find it difficult to admit that the original theology--no matter how steeped in tradition--was just flat out wrong.
Lapinbizarre, I hope that you are right. Prayers ascending for all of you in USC. I did see that there is one really negative comment to the bishop's letter. If you ever pop over to WNC, I hope you will visit my church--Calvary Episcopal--you will be welcome. It's right off the Hendersonville Road.
Bonnie, I saw Sodom and Gomorrah. That comment will surely not sway the bishop.
ReplyDelete+Waldo wants to know "exactly and precisely" what theological justification there can be for same-sex blessings. This is above my pay grade at the moment, but surely there can be no lack of theologians who can lay it out for him, eh?
ReplyDeleteBut you know, even if they come up with a treatise as long as War and Peace, it won't matter to the die-hards on the other side: no amount of talking or writing will ever please them. They are not looking for answers, that's just a rhetorical ploy; they already have the answers, by God, and no one's going to tell them different.
At the risk of once again ruffling feathers amongst my fellow Southerners, I seem to recall that the Pharisees had their theology all very nicely and intricately laid out to suit themselves - right down to the fine line of tithing the mint, and the dill, and the cumin. Aye - but how did Our Lord rebuke them?
Before he entered the priesthood, Waldo was department head (Early Music) in a Boston Music Conservatory. At the risk of talking stereotypes, I doubt that he's never encountered gays before.
ReplyDeleteRuss, I noted "exactly and precisely", too. The bishop is chasing rainbows (no pun intended) there. I believe we won't find that kind of justification this side of heaven.
DeleteLapin, some of his best friends were gay? Sorry, I couldn't resist. ;-)
A music conservatory, oh that's rich. Although I wasn't a music major myself, I could tell you stories about the Music Dept. at my alma mater. I once attended a fabulous production of The Pirates of Penzance there, in which three sometime lovers of mine - past, present, and future - were all singing on stage together. The lead tenor, the hero of the story, did a very convincing job of kissing the girl at the end, which got great applause - but I was probably the only member of the audience who knew how those kisses really felt. Ha!
DeleteWhy are the kisses of girls wasted on gay men, when there's a dyke out there who could REALLY appreciate it?
Delete;-/
Here's our bishop's response.
ReplyDeleteBp. Benhase's Journal
You know, I've been rather pleasantly surprised at the subdued response from the bishops in the South to SSB...with the exception of +Lawrence, of course. While they may not be rushing to allow the blessings, they seem open to permitting the practice and perhaps even soon.
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DeleteIn a comment on a new news story in The State on Andrew Waldo's letter, "MableX" notes and asks "As a cradle Episcopalian from the Lower Diocese of South Carolina, Miss Lawrence and Miss Harmon, are probably the prissiest men I've ever met. Interesting how they are the ones promoting bigotry and hate in the Episcopal Church. Wonder why?"
ReplyDeleteMakes me smile. Can't stop smiling. Huge grin.
ReplyDeleteMee too.
Delete