As Hugh Muir says at the The Guardian:
A bit petty, some say, as Jefferts Schori is indeed a bishop and head of her national church – but in any event, she carried the mitre. And the subject for her sermon: God welcomes everyone, regardless of dress or condition.
Well yes! But what's even more distressing to read is the following:
And, with women clergy in the C of E looking forward to next month's vote in the general synod in York – which is expected finally to agree that women can become bishops here – word comes of a last-minute attempt to scupper the plans. And who is responsible for that? Step forward again, Williams, who with fellow archbishop John Sentamu is framing an amendment to put off yet again making any decision. Synod headed off their attempts to delay progress last year, but the archbishops are trying it on again. The world moves on but somehow time stands still. Welcome to the C of E.
Amazing! Well, not really. The plot to delay women bishops is right in line with the ABC's strategy to freeze frame the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. He'd like to hit the reverse button for the Episcopal Church in the US, but he doesn't have the power. Thank Goodness!
I wish he would just go ahead and kick us off the island. This being pecked to death by ducks is getting really old...
ReplyDelete(The one I feel really sorry for is Jane Williams. Can you imagine having to live with him when he's turned into such a reactionary, sexist, homophobe?!)
As the Mad One has pointed out, very bad manners indeed! I'm embarrassed for the ABC, as I suspect were many of the parishioners at Southwark Cathedral.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that ++Kate was spot-on. Comply with the silliness, but go on about what we are about.
Doxy, I often think of Jane Williams. What is it like at the dinner table, or the breakfast table, or the lunch table, for that matter? That Rowan takes such a pinched view of even the smallest details in protocol says something appalling about him.
ReplyDeleteKJ, maybe Rowan's mama didn't train him up right.
This is all part of the "if it looks like a bishop, walks like a bishop, talks like a bishop, it must be a bishop" syndrome. Anything to prevent that, Lawdy May! Cain't have no wimmin lookin like theyz gettin uppity 'n all.
ReplyDeleteWhen people have no power in great things they descend to controlling the few small things they can. Frank Griswold used to occupy himself with the positions of cruets on the credence table in the chapel at 815. At least he could put them in the right place!
She may not have worn it, but she did carry it. Good on her. Let's see how she does down-under at the end of the month in Australia and New Zealand. She certainly gets around. Gives new meaning to the term "flying bishop"!
ReplyDeleteI have come to believe that a part, perhaps a big part, of the anti-gay thing is a coverup for the anti-women thing. Yes, they are furious that TEC are honest about the GLBT and they will go on and on about that.
ReplyDeleteIt's still "acceptable" to be anti-GLBT.
It is less acceptable to be anti-women, so they clothe much of their disdain for the Americans under the cover of anti-gay sentiment, so they are not seen to be the misogynists that they are.
Frank Griswold used to occupy himself with the positions of cruets on the credence table in the chapel at 815. At least he could put them in the right place!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tobias. I did not know that bit of trivia. One day, it may come in handy.
Ueber-G, as our Katharine gets around, folks will see for themselves that she is not the ogress that reasserters make her out to be.
IT, teh gays are, indeed, the single group that it is still acceptable to mock in so-called "polite society". Blacks and women are pretty much off-limits - although not everywhere. But if you strip off the layers from homophobia, at the heart you will find misogyny.
I find Bishop Rowan, just plain snide (especially after banishing Bishop Robinson to the trinket selling arena of his Lambeth Conference cortol-hustle)...afterall, it´s not as if HE HAS DEALT with the very same REAL LIFE challenges that faced TEC...nope, he´s a coward, probably embarassed and shown up to be a overeducated spoiled brat the doesn´t use common sense...I don´t feel sorry for Jane Williams...many married folk adapt quite easily to codependent thinking for survival sake (I think we ought send them A GARISH Hawaiian Shirt and Mumu set)!
ReplyDelete(I think we ought send them A GARISH Hawaiian Shirt and Mumu set)!
ReplyDeleteOh, if I had Photoshop capabilities! MadPriest, are you listening?
He is small in every way. He is actually physically small. I was rather surprised by that when I attended the Trinity Institute the year following 9/11 when he was there. Perhaps he is one of those small men who has to make himself feel big by throwing the size of his office around all over the place. Well, so much for my amateur psychoanalysis.
ReplyDeleteActually, Boocat, I beg to differ. As a small guy myself, I can say with confidence that the Archbishop is a good head taller than I, close to six foot if not over. I just checked a photo of him, me and James, and he is taller than James, who is 5'10"
ReplyDeleteHe does, however, appear smaller than he is. And older. Weight of the world? Naaah.
Little insecure men! How funny because Jack Iker, former bishop of Fort Worth, is a very small man. I always speculated that he had a 5'2" syndrome! Saw For the Bible Tells Me So documentary last night with some wonderful footage of Bishop Robinson's ordination and interviews with his parents.
ReplyDeleteI saw (did not meet!) the ABC at the ecumenical service during TEC's House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans a few years ago, and I don't remember him as being short.
ReplyDeleteThe shortness may be moral rather than merely physical.
ReplyDeletePaul (A.), yes - just as our dear brother Tobias stands tall, despite his physical shortness.
ReplyDeleteI didn´t even know I was short until a few years ago...perhaps the ABC doesn´t know he´s tall and acts small!
ReplyDeleteLeo, then you're another tall man, though short in stature.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, just maybe (tho', of course, I don't for one second believe it) he was afraid she would wear the notorious oven mitt, beloved of "reasserter" nasties, and hoped to spare her the embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteE. Café reports that "Kenneth Kearon will attend the meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church that begins tonight". What next?
Admittedly, the oven mitt was a mistake, Lapin.
ReplyDelete"Kenneth Kearon will attend the meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church that begins tonight"
Who invited HIM?
Williams' command that Schori was not to wear her marks office is a denial of her episcopal standing. A bishop is the office holder of the church through whom all communions under their authority are validated. As a priest, I cannot legally and authentically recite the eucharistic prayer without the authority of a specific bishop. In theory I am merely an extension of the bishop to allow all his or her flock to receive communion. (This is standard catholic ecclesiology and cannot be argued with by anybody who calls themselves episcopal). Therefore, Williams is de facto stating that he is not in communion with the prime bishop of TEC. Therefore, he is saying that he is not in communion with TEC. Therefore, as prime bishop in the Anglican communion he is stating that TEC are not in communion with the Anglican Communion.
ReplyDeleteSo, what is everybody arguing about. The deed is done already.
So, what is everybody arguing about. The deed is done already.
ReplyDeleteBut what if we don't accept that the deed is done, MadPriest? What if the representatives from TEC continue to show up, pay attention, and speak the truth, as I hope they will? And at least some of the English are cheering us on in our determination.
Have you read Mark Harris' latest? That's a sample of the views from this side of the pond. We're going to fight to keep a place at the table. We hear the pleas from those from other provinces not to abandon the Communion.
In the end, the ABC may have his way, but he'll have to do more than indulge in such pettiness as ordering Bp. Katharine not to wear her mitre and carry her crozier.
"But what if we don't accept that the deed is done, MadPriest? What if the representatives from TEC continue to show up, pay attention, and speak the truth, as I hope they will?"
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that we don't agree. We elected Bp. Katharine. She is our Presiding Bishop and nothing is going to change that. Gene Robinson was elected Bishop of NW and recently Mary Glasspool was elected a Bishop in California. The deeds are done. We need to keep walking bravely ahead. If that leads to us eventually walking apart. Then so be it.
In the meantime, we need to show up at the meetings and carry on as if nothing has happened.
When Sarah and I were going through some trying times at our church, I kept hearing that vestry spent an inordinate amount of time on discussing us. I decided that that was ridiclous. I began going to the vestry meetings even thought I was not on the vestry. I figured if they needed information about Sarah and I, I could supply the information and end the endless speculation. Funny, the opposing team suddenly didn't have any questions and the vestry was able to get on to more important things. BTW, I am now on the vestry.
I began going to the vestry meetings even thought I was not on the vestry. I figured if they needed information about Sarah and I, I could supply the information and end the endless speculation.
ReplyDeleteTwo Auntees, you did exactly right! How it warmed my heart to read your comment. And the pièce de résistance:
BTW, I am now on the vestry.
Do you hear the sound of my applause?
As usual, Mimi is projecting far more onto my comment than it actually contains. I was merely pointing out where Williams' logic eventually ends up. I am sure Williams isn't saying, even though he might love to, that TEC is not in the Communion. However, what he did to the PB does infer excommunication. I am getting at his lack of clear thinking, his actions and his words say two different things, and had no intention to stir up another rant about how hard done by TEC is.
ReplyDeleteMadPriest, you may also want to read Tobias Haller's tongue-in-cheek response titled Rowan's Millinery Petition.
ReplyDeleteI have. I always go to his blog before dumbing down at Wound Up Bird.
ReplyDeleteMadPriest, you don't get it, do you? We are mocking the ABC's actions. We in TEC are well rid of any illusion that Rowan exercises clear thinking. And, Lawdy, Lawdy! don't you think we know that the ABC's actions and his words say two different things?
ReplyDeleteGrandmère Mimi said...
ReplyDelete"Kenneth Kearon will attend the meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church that begins tonight"
Who invited HIM?
Grandmère, I think he is just coming to give back our check, I mean cheque. Seems it was signed by a female Bishop so it's not valid in England.
Wade, we should take the cheque and not bother to write another cheque signed by a proper (straight male) bishop, because the budget is tight at 815, and our funds can be better spent.
ReplyDeleteIt has been confirmed that KK will attend the EC meeting, and he will take questions. I hope our friend Mark Harris has his set of questions prepared.
I'm confident that Father Mark is equal to the task.
ReplyDeleteI continue to be amazed by the love and understanding shown by both sides :(
ReplyDeleteAnonymous--do you not understand? What the ABC has done--and what he *hasn't* done--has real-world consequences.
ReplyDeleteJust ask GLBTs in Africa, who are cowering under a rolling wave of homophobic violence...
"Mitre-gate" is simply a symptom of how broken and corrupt the Anglican Communion is--from the top down. +Cantuar can apparently concern himself with whether +KJS can wear her mitre in the UK--but doesn't give a damn about the millions of GLBTs around the world who face life-threatening violence because he has, in effect, condoned it by his silence.
I can--and do--pray for him. Mostly I pray that he will step down, so that the vast harm he has done/is doing will stop.
Doxy
Anonymous, if you comment again, please sign a name, any name.
ReplyDeleteI don't see taking note of the lack of proportionality in the ABC's attention to matters great and small as lacking in love. Perhaps we are lacking in understanding. Speaking for myself, the archbishop is a puzzlement and has been for quite a number of years now.