Quiet, So Very Quiet

Down in my small pocket of Episcopal land - and it is small, as my area is heavily Roman Catholic - all is quiet. One would hardly know that we have a new Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Her name is never mentioned, except by a few brave souls who include her by name in the Prayers of the Faithful. She is, thus far, Bishop She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

I watched Bishop Katharine's investiture live, and I loved it. She seemed to take delight in the ceremony, and I did, too. It was dignified and beautiful, as was our new PB.

I'll add this little prideful parenthesis: I picked Bishop Katharine as the best of those in the line-up of candidates for Presiding Bishop, when Fr. Jake posted the video interviews at his web site. Her qualities of quiet dignity and grace impressed me.

I expected to go to church the following day and find others to share my delight, but apparently, no one else watched the investiture, and there was no mention at all during the liturgy nor the sermon that we had a new PB. Later in the week, I asked my rector why no mention. He told me that after the early service, a parishioner had come to him to say how displeased he was about her election, so the rector thought it was best not to mention her. I told him how much I admired her, and how I had enjoyed watching the investiture, and that I would have liked to have had an acknowledgement that we had a new PB - just to go on record to let him know that he had one parishioner who was quite pleased about her election.

Our bishop is Windsor compliant. He states that he has no intention of leaving the Episcopal Church. He follows the Windsor Report's recommendation, in that he has postponed the ordination of a lesbian member of my church, who meets all the requirements for ordination to the permanent diaconate. He attended the recent Camp Allen, Texas, meeting of Windsor bishops, to which Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori was not invited. I am told that certain African bishops were invited. What little I know comes from sources outside my diocese, for our diocesan web site gives no information about the Camp Allen meeting, who attended, what was discussed. It appears that only bishops were present; no priests or lay people were there, as far as I know.

Bishop Katharine is not mentioned at all on the site, nor is there a link to the web site of the national office of the Episcopal Church.

The Windsor document calls for a "listening process", but to my knowledge, there has been no listening happening in my diocese. I asked one of our lesbian members if she knew of a "listening process", and she said no. No one is listening to her, that's for sure. Therefore, our bishop would appear to be Windsor compliant only in part.

Our small church does not have a particularly strong interaction with the diocese, with the exception of our recent search for a priest, in which the diocesan officials seemed to have a more heavy-handed involvement than usual. The bishop exercises his pastoral duty when we are between rectors by sending interims or suggesting supply priests. He makes his regular visitations, and relations with with him are quite cordial during the visits. We lay out a nice feast for him. Otherwise, we're in our own little world.

There is little to no mention in my church of the national church and its present state of crisis, nor of the troubled state of the Anglican Communion. I don't bring it up either, for if folks are not stirred up, then why should disturb their peace?

I'm uneasy about my bishop's silence. He says he will not leave TEC, but what are the Windsor bishops up to?

Before I finish, here's a link to a Dave Walker cartoon at The Wibsite, explaining the Windsor Report in a way we can all understand.