Click on the screen shot for the larger view.
Clergy and lay representatives from seven dioceses in The Episcopal Church, as well as six bishops with Episcopal jurisdiction, met in Charleston, S.C. on November 3-4, 2009 to consider ways they might assist each other in more effectively reaching their communities and the world for Christ. General Convention resolution B030, which encouraged domestic Dioceses within The Episcopal Church to enter into missional relationship, this meeting encouraged the dioceses to consider what resources they can share with each other and work more closely to further the Gospel mission. Evangelizing and reaching the unchurched; catechizing and discipling the converted; assisting members in generational faithfulness; renewing, strengthening and growing existing parishes; and planting new congregations to reach their communities with the Gospel were the areas of greatest interest. (My emphasis)
1. Establishing a website for sharing resources and networking for ministry and mission. It is their intention to have this ministry-networking initiative functioning in an initial stage during Epiphany 2010; and,
2. Sponsoring a large venue three day event in Dallas, September 23—25, 2010. This event will be for the purpose of encouraging, empowering, emboldening and equipping missionally focused individuals, congregations and dioceses, as well as providing resources to assist each other to be more effective in reaching their communities for Christ and his Church.
Dioceses presently involved in this Gospel initiative are Albany, Central Florida, Dallas, North Dakota, South Carolina, Springfield, and Western Louisiana. (My emphasis)
....
Pictured in photo, above, from left to right, are: The Rt. Rev. James Stanton (Dallas), the Rt. Rev. John Howe (Central Florida), the Rt. Rev. Bruce MacPherson (Western Louisiana), the Rt. Rev. William Love (Albany), the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence (South Carolina), and the Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith (Springfield). Photo: Joy Hunter
Posted for your information without commentary, except to say that I'd like to attend the meeting in Dallas in September 2010, but I wonder if I'd be welcome. A metamorphosis to a fly on the wall perhaps?
From the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina Archives.
Thanks to a reader for the link.
UPDATE: I changed my mind about commentary. Is this meeting part of the right wing conspiracy to take over the Episcopal Church, or, failing that, to destroy the church?
As I said in a comment at Adventus:
...even to myself I'm beginning to sound like a wild and crazy conspiracy theorist, but when folks are not what they appear, when their actions do not match their words, and when they speak in code, red flags begin to pop up. Maybe I see a pattern where no pattern exists but in my head. We shall see.
Count me among the wild-eyed conspiracy theorists, Mimi.
ReplyDeletePresumably EVERY bishop in TEC is interested in the things in their list. So what are the common threads that pull this bunch together?
Every last one of them has blustered against and threatened the national church. Every last one of them has whipped up their clergy and lay members against the national church. I know that several have been open about refusing to permit clergy who don't agree with them to work in their dioceses.
It if looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
Doxy
Doxy, thank you! At least I'm not alone in my craziness.
ReplyDeleteNo, neither of you are alone...I can hear, and have heard, the quacking from here!
ReplyDeleteYes, I must agree. . . Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack. . . One for each of them.
ReplyDeleteI must also ask, which are the most holy of the bunch, the three in purple shirts or perhaps the blackshirted ones? I notice one follows the ABC's example of priesthood. (snark off)
Susan, I don't know. Maybe casual = holy.
ReplyDeleteWill someone quiet those damn ducks!
Duck, definitely. They have to know by now that they're not going to take over TEC, so presumably destruction is the name of the game.
ReplyDeleteLapin, it's claiming that they will not leave the Episcopal Church and, all the while, continuing to undermine the church from within, tearing it down by word and deed.
ReplyDeleteBishops, where are your hearts?
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. I think we need to take a good long look at the bishop elections to which we consent. I know that's a dangerous game, but putting someone in such a position of power whose previous words and deeds indicate they will undermine the very church to whom they swear vows is a big gamble too - one we can't win! Trust me. I'm from Nevada, and I know gambling.
ReplyDeleteAs we say out here, "If you want to gamble, come to Nevada. If you want to gamble, and you think you can win, we'll send a Greyhound bus for you. If you want to gamble, you think you can win, and you say you've got a system... we'll send a Lear jet!"
Rick, you're right. It's not paranoia if they're out to get you. Bp. Michael Smith's candidacy for bishop in Louisiana is, I believe, an attempt to get another diocese in their corner. I pray to God that he is not elected, because he will be bad news for us here.
ReplyDeleteGM, don't worry. This group cannot and will not destroy the Episcopal Church, even if that's their goal. That doesn't mean we should take our eyes off them for a minute. Mission, fine. Mischief, not so much...
ReplyDeleteTobias, you see that I asked more questions than I gave answers. The group needs to know that they are not flying under everyone's radar.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I get the Western Louisiana diocesan newspaper. In printed statements the bishop over there denies that he wants to leave the Episcopal Church but adds "at this time." Believe me, these people are dangerous to our church and will do everything they can to undermine it and to alienate their dioceses.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile a group of lay people from five congregations (one of them Lutheran) gathered today to weed, scrub, polish, scour, sweep, repair, and mop so a mission that appeared abandoned a month ago looks cared for and is ready to celebrate God's love. They read and pondered Scripture, discussed God in our midst, and prayed. THIS expression of mission and ministry I trust. No bishops around and only two priests, and they helped clean. None of the advertising for this mission even lists a clergy name on it. There was lots of talk of evangelism, too. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteWell, I read it as disciplINing the converted -- but I suspected that's what they really meant.
ReplyDeleteAha! The men who are plotting how to waddle away from those who practice the indiscriminate inclusivity that Jesus taught without losing their pensions and insurance were all in one pond. At least they've decided so far that schism isn't all it is quacked up to be. They're trying to duck the lawsuits? Quack Anglicans, IMNSHO.
ReplyDeleteOKAY...This is one of my pet peeves! "Discipling the converted"????? What the hell does that mean besides that they don't know how to write? Is that like fellowshipping? Let's fellowship together! Sounds like a bunch of Southern Baptists!! Oh wait! they were a bunch of Southern Baptists, weren't they?
ReplyDeleteOh, Pseudo! You are vewwey, vewwey, cwevvuh!!!
ReplyDeleteOrmonde, Bp. MacPherson has one foot in and one foot out, as evidenced by the qualifier "at this time". We should carefully take note of such qualifiers.
ReplyDeletePaul, what your group did today is mission in the best Gospel sense. How lovely to hear of folks from different congregations coming together to do God's work and share God's word. Do you know how much I want Our Saviour to succeed? Do you have any idea of the great value that I set on what you and the others are doing to bring the church back to life? I pray that the people will come.
Piskie, you brought the quacking ducks back!
ReplyDeleteAs to "discipling", I believe that's code talk borrowed from the fundies, having to do with headship, and moving the dumb sheep along in a herd. There's only one way to be a disciple, their way, and no questions allowed. It is not about fellowship. It's about who has the power. They do not sound like Episcopalians.
Someone tell me what generational faithfulness means. Is that more code talk?
I'll answer my own question. Here's a description of a CD on generational faithfulness from Vision Forum:
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of God for the Christian family is continuity, growth, development, and dominion. Each family that stands in covenant with Christ through the representative headship of the husband/father is part of that growing kingdom. If a man wants to change the world for generations to come, let him look well to his duties in the family, and be the means of continuing — or beginning, as the case may be — a dynasty of God-honoring, Christ-serving, kingdom-advancing children, grandchildren, great grandchildren....
The potential impact for the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom is exponential for the Christian family. The future belongs to families that exhibit multi-generational faithfulness and fruitfulness!
Fundie ideas.
Mimi, my comment about discipling and fellowshipping was just a rant about trying to turn perfectly good nouns into verbs. Fellowship is one of my least favorite conversions. We have fellowship, we are a fellowship, we meet in fellowship, etc. but we do not fellowship together. I understand that the words do not have the same meaning and aren't necessary one to another. In my mind the one thing they have in common is their noun-hood. Well I'm sure they can be used in the same sentence, but you get my drift! It's just the general laziness of folks who are unwilling to learn grammar that gets to me.
ReplyDelete"The disciples had fellowship one with another." There, I did use it in a coherent way. :o)
Susan, I see. The misuse that drove me crazy was "disconnect" as a noun, when we had a perfectly good noun already - "disconnection".
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is true that the bishops in the group and their followers use the language of fundamentalists. Whether the meanings are the same, I can't say. They apply the Scriptures in a more literal way, also.
I believe it's WAY past time for their brother and sister bishops to bring them to heel. If a bishop is asked if he/she wants to leave TEC and uses the phrase "not at this time," that bishop is not loyal to TEC. Period.
ReplyDeleteAnd that bishop needs to go. Sooner, rather than later.
I'm tired of "playing nice" with people who are violating the vows they took at their ordinations/consecrations. I am tired of their weaseling and prevaricating and obfuscating. I am tired of them doing spiritual violence under cover of their purple robes (or even black t-shirts).
A few bad apples CAN spoil the whole barrel. It's time for their peers--and clergy and laity--to tell them to fish or cut bait. If you can't support the church to which you vowed your loyalty, then have some integrity and leave it.
(Of course that's the problem---not a one of them has the integrity to leave. They love their power and their salaries far too well...)
And if you wonder why I'm all exercised about this, just go read about St. Mark's in Beaufort, SC. Apparently, in the eyes of +Lying Lawrence, only those who share his theology and his disdain for TEC are permitted to form worship communities and enjoy the bishop's pastoral care.
I repeat--If the House of Bishops won't do it's job, it's time for loyal clergy and laity in those dioceses to file presentments.
Grrrrrrr,
Doxy
Doxy, I know about St. Mark's in Beaufort. That's a sad story. My heart goes out to the faithful Episcopalians in the diocese of SC. They are squeezed out.
ReplyDeleteYep, lotsa code words. One of the Iker follower churches says in its mission statement:
ReplyDelete"to win the lost to Jesus Christ and DISCIPLE every believer." (emphasis mine)What does disciple as a verb mean??? OED says it is a noun.
I am remembering now their great involvement in the Bill Gothard seminars about 25 years ago. All about the man/father is head of the woman/mother/family, etc, etc.
Wonder if he's still doing that rant? You can be sure he wasn't an Episcopalian.
But I am. Thanks be to God.
My Google a/c is IAmAnEpiscopalian, but I can't remember my password. Sorry!
We are commanded to make disciples of all nations but somehow I think Jesus' vision (or the evangelist's) has gone through some very strange filters before the term "discipling" shows up among evangelicals (and pseudo-episcopo-neocons).
ReplyDeleteWell the neocon part is not pseudo.
And yes, Mimi, I feel your prayers at my back every day.
IAmAnEpiscopalian, don't worry about your account. Just sign your comment so I'll know who you are.
ReplyDeleteI've heard this kind of talk before. Women take a subservient position in the family. The man is the head of the house. Blah, blah, blah.... They don't sound like Episcopalians.
Pseudo-episconeocons. That's good, Paul, although it's a little long - like your blog name.
Here is the actual quotation from Bishop Macpherson's convention address, available on the Western Louisiana website:
ReplyDeleteIn the course of our Post General Convention Gatherings, and at which some 900 people turned out, I shared the dilemma of the nature of the Church at this time. Some feel that I have not done enough to move us away from where they feel we should be, and others live in the fear that I might.
But permit me to repeat why we must stay where we are at this time. We need to stay where we are because our Lord needs the faithfulness of the ministry this diocese has to offer, and does offer through the commitment of those who make this their spiritual home, and in turn are striving to build up the Kingdom of God in this place and the life of Christ’s Church. We stay also because our historic identity with the Anglican Communion demands it of us. Without ordered processes there is no catholicity, no claim to the ancient Christian unity, which we claim is at the very heart of whom we are as members of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. This is why we stay where we are at this time, but in the months ahead, and depending upon the direction taken by The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, we could well be faced with making a choice of being either provincially oriented or Communion oriented – for it is clear we cannot be both.
The URL for the above convention address is http://www.diocesewla.org/DC%202009%20Convention%20Address%2010.9.09%20final%20delivered.single.pdf.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ormonde.
ReplyDelete...for it is clear we cannot be both.
That ain't necessarily so, but that's obviously Bp. MacPherson's opinion.
Thanks for the link, too. I'll read the entire address later.
This is why we stay where we are at this time, but in the months ahead, and depending upon the direction taken by The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, we could well be faced with making a choice of being either provincially oriented or Communion oriented – for it is clear we cannot be both.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the direct quote, Ormonde. I actually think it makes my point about whipping clergy and laity up quite well.
It is NOT clear that we cannot be both provincially oriented AND communion-oriented.
But I guess it depends on *which* "Anglican Communion" you mean. Do you mean the one which is historically affiliated through the Archbishop of Canterbury and which consists of many provinces that have already indicated they are not comfortable with the imposition of an Anglican Curia and won't sign a "covenant" that requires one?
Or do you mean the "Nouveau-Fag-Free-Anglican Communion" that is now headquartered in Nigeria, which has explicitly removed any mention of connection to the ABC from its constitution--and supports a murderous campaign against GLBTs across Africa?
I know that the hapless and spineless +Rowan Williams keeps trying to will something he calls the "Anglican Church" into being, but I don't see many takers for his vision. Anybody who wants something like that is probably already packing for the Anglican Ordinariate or preparing to swim the Bosphorous.
It is time for us to call this bunch in purple on what they are doing. The whole thing is a manufactured crisis. And people like +Macpherson are the ones manufacturing it. They need to stop it or go.
Doxy
There's the old saying, "Shit, or get off the pot." It keeps coming to mind, so I'd best put it out there.
ReplyDeletePaul--in the midst of my diatribe, I forgot to say how wonderful it was to see the community of faith coming together at Church of Our Saviour. You remain in my prayers.
ReplyDeletePax,
Doxy