ON THE DELAY FOR WOMEN BISHOPS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

A couple of days ago, I received a note from John Iliff in which he commented on the delay by the committee tasked with producing the draft legislation on women bishops in the Church of England, with the result that General Synod will not be able to debate and vote on the legislation at their February gathering. John's words stuck in my mind, and I asked him if I could post them, and he agreed.

I don't know the intricacies of how an established church runs it business, and politics. But I just wonder, if they are delaying and putting off this very necessary legislation to allow women bishops for one reason alone. Isn't February when B16 puts the rubber to the road on his much ballyhooed Anglican Ordinariates? (Or whatever they're called) This may be a way for the CofE to increase pressure on those fence-sitting nose-bleed-high Anglo's flirting with going over to Rome. Just a thought. But it still riles me that B16 by implication trashes my Catholicism, and yours and every other Episcopalian's. The solution of course is to "detach" from such stupidity. Still a work in progress, I guess!

Does the pope's upcoming visit to England play a role in the delay? I suppose we will never know, but to ask the question makes sense to me. As a former Roman Catholic, if I wanted to be part of an institution as centralized as the RCC, I would never have left. I've grown quite fond of the relatively democratic governing process in the Episcopal Church. I realize that the Church of England functions differently and not quite so democratically as TEC.

Of course, John and I may be getting a little paranoid, which would seem rather understandable in the present ecclesiastical atmosphere in which we live and breathe, with our primus inter pares, Archbishop Rowan Williams, gazing longingly toward Rome as the model for his "New Anglican Communion".

Ann Fontaine's post at The Lead, references Churchmouse.

From Mouse's perspective anyone looking in on this process will consider it a farce. I know that there are complex issues involved, and that it is important to get this right, but it seems incredible that the Revision Committee have simply failed to meet the deadline. This issue really should be settled. Dragging feet and stringing out the arguments simply doesn't help anyone.

Some had argued that this would be rushed through in the aftermath of the Pope's offer to take in disaffected Anglicans. Doesn't seem to be working out that way.

Be sure to read the rest of Churchmouse's post and the comments, in which one of the committee members, Bishop Pete, responds to Churchmouse.

What, if anything, IS going on behind the scenes with the delay?

UPDATE: From Thinking Anglicans comes a statement from WATCH (Women and the Church). An excerpt:

Despite this disappointing setback, WATCH would like to thank those members of the Revision Committee who have worked hard and with dedication in their attempt to achieve the aims of the General Synod to create something that offers a moment of transformation of historic proportions in the life of the Church.

“At least no one can say that any stone has been left unturned” said Christina Rees, chair of WATCH. “We now expect the very best legislation to be presented well in advance of the July meeting of General Synod. We hope to see a clear, workable and straightforward set of proposals, which are closely aligned to what Synod requested in July 2008, namely legislation making it possible for women to be bishops within the existing structures of the Church. Perhaps all the extra time this is taking will help the Revision Committee to reach the simplicity that lies beyond complexity.”

There will be great expectations of the draft legislation after the delay.

MARTIN LUTHER KING - "LOVING YOUR ENEMIES"

From Martin Luther King's sermon Loving Your Enemies preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957.

So I want to turn your attention to this subject: "Loving Your Enemies." It's so basic to me because it is a part of my basic philosophical and theological orientation the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded by Saint Matthew, we read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master: "Ye have heard that it has been said, "Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
...

Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn't playing. He realized that it's hard to love your enemies. He realized that it's difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn't playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point. This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn't playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command.

Now first let us deal with this question, which is the practical question: How do you go about loving your enemies? I think the first thing is this: In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I'm sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.
....

And this is what Jesus means when he said: "How is it that you can see the mote in your brother's eye and not see the beam in your own eye?" Or to put it in Moffatt's translation: "How is it that you see the splinter in your brother's eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye?" And this is one of the tragedies of human nature. So we begin to love our enemies and love those persons that hate us whether in collective life or individual life by looking at ourselves.

A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.
....

And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God's image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.
....

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That's the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It's not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.
....

Now for the few moments left, let us move from the practical how to the theoretical why. It's not only necessary to know how to go about loving your enemies, but also to go down into the question of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus' thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn't cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.
....

There's another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can't see straight when you hate. You can't walk straight when you hate. You can't stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That's what hate does. You can't see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.
....

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That's why Jesus says, "Love your enemies." Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they're mistreating you. Here's the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don't do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can't stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they're mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they'll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That's love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There's something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
....

So this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, "I love you. I would rather die than hate you." And I'm foolish enough to believe that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And then we will be in God's kingdom. We will be able to matriculate into the university of eternal life because we had the power to love our enemies, to bless those persons that cursed us, to even decide to be good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us.

Oh God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every problem that we confront in all areas. Oh, we talk about politics; we talk about the problems facing our atomic civilization. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as we solve the crisis and solve these problems "the international problems, the problems of atomic energy, the problems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race problem" let us join together in a great fellowship of love and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Give us this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this Christ, we pray. Amen.

The excerpt from the sermon on the very hard saying of Jesus, words that I sometimes wish Jesus had never said, "Love your enemies", is long. The entire sermon is even longer, but I urge you to read it all. MLK's words are for the ages, certainly as timely today as in 1957, as are Jesus' words in the Gospel.

I had never read this sermon before today, and I felt chills and a sense of wonder at the timeliness of the words of this prophet. In the sermon MLK says, "I love you. I would rather die than hate you." He died for the sake of love, and truth, and justice, and is thus a not only a prophet but also a martyr.

MURALS IN HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL - HAITI

John D sent me the photos of the murals in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I wanted to see pictures of the murals, about whose beauty I'd heard so much, but my online search proved fruitless. Perhaps, I was not diligent enough in my search, but then these two photos from John D landed in my mailbox. When I asked permission to post the pictures here, John D responded:

Please post them, if you wish. I'm afraid very few people in the rest of TEC ever saw them. I particularly love that the artist(s) chose African faces for the traditional stories.

Mrs. John D (Betsy) took the photos.

Of the picture above, John said:

Actually, this is my favorite, and apropos for Epiphany.

Yes.


How sad that the lovely cathedral and the beautiful murals are now a pile of rubble.

Of course, compassion and help for the people of Haiti must be our concern before buildings, but I can't help but grieve the loss of such beauty as the cathedral and the murals.

If you'd like to help, I suggest Episcopal Relief and Development. They're one of the best, with low overhead and nearly all of the money going to help the people of Haiti.

UPDATE:

Ormonde Plater said...

The famous murals of Cathédrale Sainte Trinité, on the life of Christ in a tropical setting, can be seen at Windows on Haiti. All were destroyed except the wall with the Baptism of our Lord (lower left).

Thank you, Ormonde, for the link to photos of all of the murals.

BITCHOLOGY

FINALLY -
Someone is bitchy enough to say it like it REALLY is!

When I stand up for
myself and my beliefs,
they call me a
bitch.

When I stand up for
those I love,
they call me a
bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own
thoughts
or do things my own way, they call me
a
bitch.

Being a bitch
means I won't
compromise what's
in my heart.
It means I live my life MY way.
It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.

When I refuse to
tolerate injustice and
speak against it, I am
defined as a
bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for
myself instead of being everyone's
maid, or when I act a little selfish.

It means I have the courage and
strength to allow myself to be who I
truly am and won't become anyone
else's idea of what they think I 'should' be.

I am outspoken, opinionated and
determined. I want what I want and
there is nothing wrong with that!
So try to stomp on me, just try to
douse my inner flame, try to squash
every ounce of beauty I hold within
me.
You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch, so be it.
I embrace the title and am proud to bear it.

B - Babe
I - In
T - Total
C - Control of
H - Herself

B = Beautiful
I = Intelligent
T = Talented
C = Charming
H = Hell of a Woman

B = Beautiful
I = Individual
T = That
C = Can
H = Handle 'anything'


Don't blame me. Blame Sue, who will probably say I'm lying.


Update from the comments:

Rick+ said...

I think the final line should be, "And if I did all these things and was a man, I'd be called assertive."

Quite true, but, of course, I'd never say that, but Rick is a man and he can.

NOT OUR ABILITY, BUT OUR AVAILABILITY

It is by God's grace that our feet don't lose contact with the path we set out to follow. We say, 'Here I am, Lord' when He calls. He calls continually to the willing and the unwilling. It is not so much our ability He has need of, but our availability.

Jesus stands on the shore and whistles
for his people to respond, wave upon
wave. He calls them to bind the
broken-hearted, and build up waste places.

I see a Man walking by the seashore,
whistling gently to the waves of those
who will come to restore the ruined
places, who're crying,

'PREPARE THE WAY!
Prepare the way, Prepare the way.
Prepare the way for the Lord!'

Bryan Pollard

From Celtic Daily Prayer.

"Benedict XVI: Ecumenism=Conversion to Catholicism"

From the New York Times:

Pope Benedict XVI defended his decision to invite disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church en masse, saying Friday it was the ''ultimate aim'' of ecumenism.

Benedict told members of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the invitation wasn't an attack on the church's reunification efforts with other Christians but was rather designed to help them by bringing about ''full and visible communion.''
....

The Vatican's invitation ''is not in any way contrary to the ecumenical movement but shows, instead, its ultimate aim which consists of reaching full and visible communion of the Lord's disciples,'' Benedict told the members of the congregation, which he headed for a quarter century before becoming pope

The title of the post is the headline of the the story at The Lead. The headline says all that needs to be said.

Thanks to John for sending the link.

WHAT I THINK...

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer's history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger..

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my damn neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to the ten-page paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.

15. I hate it when I miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!) but when I immediately call back it rings nine times and goes to voicemail.. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My best friend's 4-year old grandson asked him in the car the other day "Poppy, what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do you respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Thanks to Doug and Julie. If two people send me what they think, and they think exactly the same thing, then I think I should post their identical thoughts, don't you?

COMPARE AND CONTRAST...

...with Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh. I won't link to the voices of evil. I'm sure that you've all seen and heard their loathsome contributions to the discourse on the horrific tragedy in Haiti. Around the blogosphere are many more appropriate responses, too many to mention, surely. The video above from Fr. Jake is one example. Fr. Jake posted another excellent video which is making the rounds by Fr. Frank Logue, Vicar of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia, titled "Where is God in the earthquake?"

Malcolm at Simple Massing Priest offers a good response.

SEXIST HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Priest fails in female bishop bid

Sexist sub-headline of the day:

A Scottish Anglican priest has failed in her bid to become the first female bishop of a major UK church.

And the winner is...the BBC!

The Reverend Canon Dr Alison Peden had been on a shortlist of three for the role of Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Dr Gregor Duncan, 59, was the successful candidate, beating Dr Peden, 57, and the Venerable Dr John Applegate, 53.

An electoral synod of clergy and lay church members made the decision.

Come on people! The Rev, Canon Peden didn't fail anything. Did the Ven. Dr Applegate fail? No. One candidate of three was elected. No one failed.

H/T to Of Course, I Could Be Wrong for the link to the BBC.

WOMEN BISHOPS IN CHURCH OF ENGLAND DELAYED AGAIN

Last night I quoted and linked to the article in the Church Times noting that the draft legislation on women bishops in the Church of England is to be further delayed until after Easter. I was too tired to provide commentary to the article at the time I posted, but this morning I'm ready to do a bit of editorializing. The committee tasked with the revision of the draft legislation will not have their work completed in time for the legislation to be debated at next month's General Synod meeting. It seems to me that either something is very much amiss within the workings of the committee or that the committee was given a near impossible task to accomplish.

In my opinion, if certain bishops and priests in the CofE feel that they can't work with or serve under the authority of women, then that is their problem. If a priest is already serving in a diocese when a women is appointed bishop, then he must deal with her or move to another diocese with a male bishop. If a bishop finds it icky to have women bishops as colleagues, well, too bad.

However, it seems the Church of England wishes to treat their anti-women-bishops clergy more gently, and the committee is stalled over whether a woman bishop will have her authority in her own diocese wrenched away or whether the bishop will voluntarily (heh, heh) cede oversight of the picky priests to a male bishop. Silly, silly, silly.

What truly riles me is that as the Archbishop of Canterbury presides over his dysfunctional Church of England, he finds the time and has the chutzpah to attend the Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans and lecture our bishops on how to be proper bishops - from what I've heard - mainly by exercising more muscle. As if that were not enough, the ABC appeared in Annaheim before General Convention 2009 to warn our bishops and deputies that passing certain legislation would strain our relationship with other members of the Anglican Communion.

So. How are the inner workings of the CofE my business? Well, it's sad to see that the mother church still functions in what seems like the dark ages in its attitudes and treatment of women clergy. But I make it my business to point out that as the ABC spends his time interfering in the functions of TEC, his own church cries out for his time and attention. Yet again, I advise the ABC to tend to his own garden, which is so obviously in need of tilling, weeding, and watering.