PRAY FOR LESLEY'S MUM AND ALL WHO LOVE HER

From Lesley's Blog:

Mum – may she rest in peace

I can’t believe she’s dead.

I can’t.

Surely she is sufficiently irritated with how slow and inefficient everyone is to still be alive and harang us?

If you had to choose between mum being the quick and the dead, she is definitely the quick, and impatient in spades.

For goodness sake, she has never laid down in bed during the day, ever.

How can she be lying in a bed in hospital? Still…. like very still indeed… so still she can only be dead.

What a shock when our loved ones die suddenly. We have no time to prepare. Sorrow follows whenever our loved ones pass, but grief and shock coming together are more difficult to bear.

How lovely that Lesley and her Mum spent enjoyable hours together on the day she died and that she did not suffer. Still...its incredibly hard on those who are left behind.

I extend my love, prayers, and sympathy to Lesley's family, friends, and all who love Lesley's Mum. Lesley, her husband, Alan, other friends, and I shared an hours long lunch when I was in England. Both are lovely people, and I feel privileged to have met them.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Lesley's Mum. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, to all who are bereaved the spirit of faith and courage, that they may have strength to meet the days to come with steadfastness and patience; not sorrowing as those without hope, but in thankful remembrance of your great goodness, and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love. And this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

ST EDMUNDSBURY AND IPSWICH DIOCESE SAYS STICK A FORK IN IT...

...the Anglican Covenant, that is. The synod of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese in the Church of England voted to reject adoption of the covenant.

From Lesley's Blog:

The synod met on Saturday the 5th and the motion was rejected.

That makes the number of Dioceses in the Church of England split evenly:

Lichfield and Durham have voted for the Covenant.

Wakefield and Edmundsbury & Ipswich have voted Against.

This is fabulous news. I heard one Church of England bishop say recently that although he had reservations about the Covenant, he couldn’t speak against it because he had sworn an oath of obedience to Rowan Williams. It really does need to be the lay people and the clergy who stop this mad document. Well done Bishop Peter Selby, and well done to the members of Eds&Ips synod.

I agree. The vote to reject the covenant is fabulous news.

About this:

I heard one Church of England bishop say recently that although he had reservations about the Covenant, he couldn’t speak against it because he had sworn an oath of obedience to Rowan Williams.

????!!!

Bishop of Buckingham, Alan Wilson, in the comments to Lesley's post:

As a bishop who has taken an oath of canonical obedience in all things lawful and honest, I have to say I think it’s bizarre to think this commits me to blind obedience to any notion the Archibishop (sic) may adopt. I think it is a higher and more positive form of obedience to be more honest, and had some of my colleagues had the spine to advise him earlier about their real feelings about some of the drawbacks in this particular scheme it would have been an act of loyalty, not disloyalty. In none of my dealings with him (which are not amazingly extensive) have I ever seen anything that implies he would want anything less than honest critical friendship.

And we all say, 'Amen!'. Of course, as former colonials, what we say may not count. Still, I commend Bishop Alan, and I only wish a greater number of bishops in the Church of England had his courage.

Picture from Wikipedia.

FROM LESLEY TO JIM

Please read Lesley's post titled Moratorium Schmoratorium. The post is short, so I won't give you a quote, but the title should be enough to intrigue you.

And then, read Jim Naughton's post at the Daily Episcopalian on the process of choosing a bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC as compared with....

Last week, while the Church of England was dealing with embarrassing revelations about how badly the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had behaved while selecting the current Bishop of Southwark, I was observing the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D. C. as it prepared to choose the successor of Bishop John Bryson Chane, who retires in November.

The process that I witnessed was so different than the one described by the late Dean Colin Slee in his now-famous memo, that it seems almost unfair to draw comparisons. In filling the vacancy in Southwark, the English method of appointing bishops was clearly at its worst. Or so one hopes. A story of subterfuge leavened with a dash of Python-like absurdity, it featured a media leak meant to scuttle two candidacies, clumsy attempts to blame the leak on an innocent party, an investigation into the leak whose findings have been kept secret, and a delicious moment in which the Archbishop of York lobbied for votes while leading a group outing to the toilet. Little wonder that members of the Crown Nominating Committee were reduced to tears during the proceedings.

There's more.

The process in DC sounds similar to ours in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, when Morris Thompson was elected bishop about a year ago.