PRAYER FOR THE ELECTION OF A PRESIDING BISHOP FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a presiding bishop for this church, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

POSTCARDS FROM MY FRIENDS - FAIR AND ACCURATE

It seems that everyone (except me) has posted about Ross Douthat's opinion piece in the New York Times and Jay Akasie's thoroughly mean-spirited column in the Wall Street Journal.

From Akasie:

General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.

I was in Anaheim for GC2009, and I was obviously not on the A-list for an invitation to the parties.  Akasie says he is Episcopalian, and I'd like to know which Episcopal church he attends.

Others have said that Ross Douthat's column in the NYT was thoughtful and reasonable, but I can't agree.  True, he was not as nasty as Akasie, but still...  Not that TEC is above criticism - I've been critical - but neither columnist paints a fair or accurate picture of the church.  I didn't have the heart to take on either of the columnists, but others did, many others.  Scroll though the posts at The Lead to find the responses.

I'd like to point to posts by a pair of friends of mine, not because the two are my friends, but because I like what Doug Blanchard and Elizabeth Kaeton say about The Episcopal Church, my church.  My friends paint a much more realistic picture of the church I love than either of the writers in major media outlets.

In his post titled "What Ever To Do About the Episcopal Church", Doug says:

September of this year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of my confirmation into the Episcopal Church.  I've joined or participated in congregations in Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Italy, Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York.  In those three decades, I've been pleased to be part of congregations that were never large, but were full of people happy to be there, people from many different generations and classes.  Religious life was always a serious matter of education and prayer with Sunday school, adult education, Bible classes, pastoral training for laity, hospital partnerships, prison ministries, food pantries, hot meal programs, programs for homeless kids, Benedictine spiritual groups, prayer groups, house congregations, etc.  These congregations were always busy and full of life.  Most striking about all of them is that the majority of their members, including the clergy, were converts.

'Tis true; 'tis true.  Many of the members of my congregation also chose to be members of the Episcopal Church.  Read it all.

Next Elizabeth's post titled  "Postcard from Nineveh".  Already, I like the title.

The main thesis of the recent attacks have to do with holding up the recent actions of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church - authorizing liturgical blessings for the covenants made between people of the same sex, changing our canons to disallow discrimination based on gender identity and expression, etc. - as an example of why Christianity is in decline.

Elizabeth paints a picture of the church of the future, which I believe is spot on.

I don't think the church of the future is going to look anything like it does now.

I suspect it's going to look smaller, less bound to buildings and structures, more directed to caring for others than maintaining ourselves, more committed to following an unknown path to the future than cherishing dusty old maps that lead us over and over again to the past.

Of course, you should read the entire post.

UPDATE: And if you want even more on Ross Douthat, Paul (A.) says...

Our friend Slacktivist has posts on Douthat responses here, here, and here. The second of these posts posits an interesting proposition: Automobile-shaped development has produced an automobile-shaped ecclesiology. All are worth perusing.

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.

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.

TEC GENERAL CONVENTION 2012 LEGISLATION

Legislation passed at General Convention which causes me to rejoice.

• Authorized blessings for same-sex unions in dioceses with the agreement of bishop of the diocese.

• Explicitly included transgender people in the work and witness of the Episcopal Church and as candidates to the ordained ministry.

• The Rev. Canon Gay Jennings elected President of the House of Deputies.

•  Byron Rushing elected Vice President of the House of Deputies.
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About the legislation on restructuring, we'll see who is appointed to the task force and how that goes.  What I do not want to see is more power yielded to the bishops.  The hierarchical structure of TEC is entirely a good thing, but our shared governance by laity, clergy, and bishops is, I believe, our great gift to Anglicanism.

The budget?  That's not my area of expertise or even understanding, so I'll leave the commentary to others more knowledgeable.
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Legislation passed at General Convention which saddens me.

The resolution on the Anglican Covenant at its core says, "as a pastoral response to The Episcopal Church, the General Convention decline to take a position on the Anglican Covenant.”

Both Elizabeth Kaeton, who was present at GC, and SCG, who, like me, observed from afar, write with excellence about the failure of the Episcopal Church to take a position on adoption of the Covenant.

Elizabeth:

I understand the politics. Honestly, I do. But, I think the statement is inherently dishonest.

We could have easily said "no" to the Anglican Covenant in the House of Deputies.

I think we could have even released ourselves from being held hostage from a very few purple shirts in the House of Bishops and let our 'yes' be 'yes' and our 'no' be 'no'.

The folks on the legislative committee, however, chose to be careful. I keep hearing a line from the Sondheim play, Into the Woods, "....and I was so careful, I forgot how to care...."

I don't know when "pastoral response" became synonymous with "weak" and borderline duplicity.  We kicked the can down the road on this one, sacrificing a great chunk of our integrity on the altar of expediency. 

I can't imagine that our friends around the Communion can't see right through this one.

Given the other acts of courage in which this convention has engaged, this one is an embarrassment.

Le sigh.

SCG:

It's as if we are on a game show of "Who Wants the Anglican Covenant?" and the Episcopal Church is sitting on the hot seat, saying, "Gee, Meredith.... ummm... we think it's "No," but, well, gosh, "Yes" means we get to go meet with important people.  Ah, gee, ummmm...maybe, well, maybe we could ask the audience, but ummmmm...."

Meanwhile, those of us sitting at home are screaming at our computer screens: "No!!!  The answer is No!!!!"

Perhaps they needed the "Phone-A-Friend" option.  Call Scotland.  Call the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia.  Heck, call the 26 diocese in the Church of England who had the guts to say "No"!

Please read both posts in their entirety.

From everything I've heard from those who were there and from what I've read here at home, the representatives of No Anglican Covenant Coalition, moderator, Malcolm French, and US convener, Lionel Diemel, both did a terrific job of advocacy at GC for a polite but firm "no" to adoption of the Anglican Covenant, and I thank them from my heart for their hard work.  The results were not what we hoped, but that is no fault of theirs. Well done!

Those of us in NACC who walked with our English friends (virtually speaking) through their courageous vote to defeat the Covenant in the dioceses in the Church of England and with the Scots through their clear vote against adoption at General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, so wanted TEC to support their brave stands against the odious Covenant with a polite but firm vote against adoption.  That TEC was unable to demonstrate support of our friends causes me shame and disappointment.  The legislation  that was passed smacks of hypocrisy, since there is no money in the budget for the "task force of Executive Council to continue to monitor the ongoing developments with respect to the Anglican Covenant" (whatever that means). Does it mean we'll sit and watch while other churches have the courage to make a decision one way or another?

Meanwhile, General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia passed legislation stating that the church is "unable to adopt" the Covenant. Congratulations!

GENERAL CONVENTION AND RESTRUCTURING THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

In July, The Episcopal Church will come together at the triennial General Convention 2012, where the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops will gather to set the course of the church for the next three years, until they meet again. Restructuring of the church is on the agenda, and much that is excellent has been written by my fellow bloggers.  Amongst the most recent:

Mark Harris at Preludium - 'The Current State of Affairs....'

Elizabeth Kaeton, at Telling Secrets - 'The Kudzu of Mission Creep'

Tom Ferguson at Crusty Old Dean - 'Guns, Germs, and The Episcopal Church'

Margaret Watson at leave it lay where Jesus flang it 

Tobias Haller at In a Godward Direction

The subject has been well-covered by the bloggers listed above and others, thus I will only add that great change is on the way for the Episcopal Church and other mainline Christian churches in the US.  How will The Episcopal Church meet the changes that will surely come whether we are ready or not?  I am fairly pessimistic about the church as we know it in the short term, but I'm quite optimistic about Church (the Body of Christ) in the long term.

MODEL RESOLUTION FOR TEC GENERAL CONVENTION FROM NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALTION

Below is the model resolution from NACC on the Anglican Covenant for General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the US, which meets in July 2012  The resolution is also available here as a Microsoft Word file and here as a PDF file.  An introduction and explanation may be found at Comprehensive Unity.

Title: Relation to the Anglican Communion

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 77^th General Convention give thanks to all who have worked to increase understanding and strengthen relationships among the churches of the Anglican Communion, and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention reaffirm the commitment of this church to the fellowship of autonomous national and regional churches that is the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention believe that sister churches of the Anglican Communion are properly drawn together by bonds of affection, by participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without coercion or intimidation; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention, having prayerfully considered the merits of the Anglican Communion Covenant and believing said agreement to be contrary to Anglican ecclesiology and tradition and to the best interests of the Anglican Communion, respectfully decline to adopt the same; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the leaders of The Episcopal Church at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.

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