CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Look what that cat MadPriest dragged in.

When Grandmère Mimi made her state visit to England last year we met up in Yorkshire and visited the quaint village of Lastingham for lunch.

After our meal, Mimi and me went to have a look in the church. On the way back to the car, we were Googled and have been immortalised on their street view function. Mrs MadPriest can be seen in the distance opening the boot of our car.

Dat is me, and dat is him. I don't know about immortalized, but the picture was taken in March of 2009, so it's probably been on Google's street view function for quite a while. Amazing!

Below is a picture of the Norman crypt of the Church of St. Mary in Lastingham, the church Jonathan and I visited that day.

ON GENERAL SYNOD OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

From Anglican Journal:

“Despite all our differences we are passionately committed to walking together.” So said a pastoral statement approved today by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada on the issue of same gender blessings. And it may mark the beginning of a new spirit and approach to a question that has divided the church in recent years.
....

The result is a document that acknowledges continuing differences within the church on the issue, and says “at this time, we are not prepared to make a legislative decision.” The statement instead committed the church to more dialogue. This compromise left both sides wanting more, but there was a new and surprising level of support from both sides, and the statement was approved by a large majority within the 350-member synod made up of lay people, clergy and bishops.

“For many members of General Synod there is deep sadness that, at this time, there is no common mind. We acknowledge the pain that our diversity in this matter causes. We are deeply aware of the cost to people whose lives are implicated in the consequences of an ongoing discernment process…,” they said. “For some, even this statement represents a risk. For some, the statement does not go nearly far enough.”
....

And there were concerns expressed. Kellina Baetz from the diocese of Algoma said the document “fails to acknowledge the reality that inaction is also action.” She pointed to a piece of the text that said “we accept that different local contexts call at times for different local discernment, decision and action.” Then she asked, “Now I understand that the language here is perhaps deliberately vague for good reason, but I don’t know how you call that anything other than affirmation of local option.” Local option is a term used for one proposed resolution to the issue in which dioceses and local parishes could decide whether or not to bless same-sex unions.

The delegates to General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada did what they did and what they felt they must do. Presumably, the ACofC did not make a "formal" collective decision to depart from the moritoria of the Windsor Report, which has now become a list of rules that member churches of the Anglican Communion must follow, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury and other members of the AC, although how a report came to be a set of rules is still a mystery to me.

Oh, and it appears that the "rules" are more restrictive for some member churches than for others. In the end, I'll wager that the representatives from the Episcopal Church will be the only members of the ecumenical committees who will be asked to stand down, although we are not the only member church to have departed from "gracious restraint" in the matter of following the "rules" of the Windsor Report.

STORY OF THE DAY - VETERAN TRAVELER

carries a lot of suitcases but all of them
are empty because she's expecting to
completely fill them with life by the end
of this trip & then she'll come home &
sort everything out & do it all again


From StoryPeople.

Due to extreme busyness, I've not had time to attend to email, my blog, phone calls, nor much of anything but the duties that demand my attention now. When I can, I'll get back to all those things. Don't worry. Nothing is wrong here, except that I'm quite busy.

I love the "Story of the Day" today, and I sneaked in the few minutes required to post the story before moving on.

"CANTERBURY 2010 - A VISION AND LAMENT"

In the light of the setting sun
I saw the stones of the cathedral
seemed to be made of gold, pure gold.

And the great white crane flew by
on wings that beat so slow, so slow,
much slower than the beating of my heart,
and turned not, but flew on, flew on.

And after sunset, in the dim gray light of evening
I touched the stones of the cathedral
and found they were not gold at all;
not gold but only stone, cold stone.

And the great white crane still flew,
and turned not back
past Canterbury’s cold, cold stone.

Tobias Stanislas Haller

June 10,2010

Of all the words I've read and written about this letter or that letter, or this statement or that statement, the words of Tobias' elegy speak most closely to what is in my heart. Thank you, my dear brother, Tobias.

THEMETHATISME'S LETTER TO THE ABC

From Conscientisation:

My Lord Archbishop,

Peace and blessings in our Lord.

I am delighted to read press reports over the weekend in respect of changing the current provisions regarding divorce and the appointment of Bishops. Not simply because I believe this to be just, but because I believe The House itself would benefit from the presence of persons who have a greater experience of livelihoods which have not been 'the norm'. I further note the comments recorded by Fr. Geoffrey Look At ME Kirk and trust that in such vein he and his FiF brethren will consequently be subject to the same strictures you have chosen to underline with The Episcopal Church in America and will be relegated from the premiership division, for not toeing the line in accordance with the provisions of Windsor and the forthcoming covenant.

The covenant is by the way, an extremely bad idea. I could make biblically based comments about swords and eyes for eyes but you are much more aware of these things than I and I have never wasted much time in teaching grandmothers (or grandfathers) to suck eggs. I have also never really been into the kind of biblical literalism that the folly of Cpt. Look At ME Kirk expresses as wisdom nor do I truly believe that he should suffer its consequences. Nor should TEC, nor our gay and lesbian brethren throughout the world. Human beings are exceptionally bad at covenants; they should remain the prerogative of God alone. We are not possessed of the capacity for one-sided sacrifice, have not the omni-conscience required to exercise forgiveness on the scale required to mirror the great covenants of our faith history. (Rabbi Sachs knows about this, you should ask him next time you have a chat.) In our hands covenants can only be blunt swords which wielded even with the best of intentions will only disable, removing eyes in exchange for big left toes and such.

I regret to inform and am sincerely sorry that my progressing ill-health has necessitated my standing down as church-warden in my parish. But this has at least allowed my now more sedentary habit of letter writing to be extended and you may hear from me more often now. Every cloud...


I remain your servant,

A gem, isn't it? I had to have the letter, and TheMe gave me permission.

GOOD NEWS FOR TEC

From The Lead:

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled this morning in favor of the Diocese of Virginia in the property dispute between the diocese and CANA. In its ruling the court reversed and remanded the case.

Read the opinion and a statement from the Diocese of Virginia at The Lead.

BISHOP DREXEL GOMEZ KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT ALBANY DIOCESAN CONVENTION

The Most Reverend Drexel Gomez will be the keynote speaker at the Albany Diocesan Convention which begins this Friday. Archbishop Gomez is the retired Bishop of Diocese of the Bahamas. He sat on the Lambeth Commission which produced the Lambeth Report in 2004. He was chair of the Covenant Design Group which produced the Anglican Covenant. The selection of Archbishop Gomez as speaker was a shrewd move, as his presence will do much to awe the delegates and help ram through approval of the Anglican Covenant, which is a priority of our diocesan leadership.

Read the rest at Openly Episcopal in Albany.

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE GULF....

Rich Matthews dives into the oil without a Hazmat suit south of Venice, Louisiana. None the other divers in the boat join him without the protective diving suits. Surprise!




From The Huffington Post:

Some 40 miles out into the Gulf Of Mexico, I jump off the boat into the thickest patch of red oil I've ever seen. I open my eyes and realize my mask is already smeared. I can't see anything and we're just five seconds into the dive.

Dropping beneath the surface the only thing I see is oil. To the left, right, up and down – it sits on top of the water in giant pools, and hangs suspended fifteen feet beneath the surface in softball sized blobs. There is nothing alive under the slick, although I see a dead jellyfish and handful of small bait fish.
....

I make my way to the back of the boat unaware of just how covered I am. To be honest, I look a little like one of those poor pelicans we've all been seeing for days now. The oil is so thick and sticky, almost like a cake batter. It does not wipe off. You have to scrape it off, in layers until you finally get close to the skin. Then you pour on some Dawn dishwashing soap and scrub. I think to myself: No fish, no bird, no turtle would ever be able to clean this off of themselves. If any animal, any were to end up in this same puddle there is almost no way they could escape.

Triste. Les pauvres animaux.

AND ONE MORE THING - OR TWO OR THREE

Southwark Cathedral - South London

 

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Presiding Bishop Katharine's visit to Southwark Cathedral is in addition to her recent presence as a guest at General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and her impending visit to General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which begins tomorrow.

Go Kate!

Photo from Wiki.

H/T via Lapin to John Chilton at The Lead for the link to the service at Southwark Cathedral.

LETTER TO THE PRESIDING BISHOP FROM INCLUSIVE CHURCH IN ENGLAND

Inclusive Church sends an open letter to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

09 June 2010

Dear Bishop Katharine,

We rejoice that in your Pentecost Letter the Episcopal Church has reaffirmed its strong affirmation of gay and lesbian people as part of God's good creation and your continued commitment to recognising, led by the Spirit, that God is calling and fitting gay and lesbian people to be ordained leaders of the Church.

We regret that the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested in his letter to the Anglican Communion that The Episcopal Church should not be a participant in Ecumenical Dialogue on behalf of the Communion and should serve only as consultants on IASCUFO. The Archbishop may experience ecumenical partners saying they "need to know who it is they are talking to” but our experience is of ecumenical partners saying we are carrying forward this difficult discernment process for the whole church, that they have similar or more contentious issues to deal with themselves, and that they are appreciative of the open way we are facing this issue.

We do not support the Archbishop's position that only those in agreement with the majority view can be participants as Anglicans in ecumenical dialogue or for that matter any other representative body of the Anglican Communion. Indeed, the Episcopal Church's diligence in undertaking "deep and dispassionate study of the question of homosexuality, which would take seriously both the teaching of Scripture and the results of scientific and medical research” with gay and lesbian people, as resolved at the 1978 Lambeth Conference, and in upholding their human rights, as emphasised at the 1988 Lambeth Conference, has been in marked contrast to the position of other provinces whose status as representative participants is unchallenged. We ask you to have the courage, commitment and humility to "remain at the table" not just until you are asked to leave but indeed until the table is removed from you. We recognise this is asking you to be in an uncomfortable place but the self-denial being asked of you is not for a gracious withdrawal but a silencing of voices that need to be heard.

The 1979 Anglican Consultative Council Resolution on Human Rights specifically called on member churches "to rigorously assess their own structures, attitudes and modes of working to ensure the promotion of human rights within them, and to seek to make the church truly an image of God's just Kingdom and witness in today's world”. In 1990 the ACC resolution on Christian Spirituality urged "every Diocese in our Communion to consider how through its structures it may encourage its members to see that a true Christian spirituality involves a concern for God's justice in the world, particularly in its own community”. We recognise that developments in the life of the Episcopal Church have been in line with and, in part, a response to this call.

In 2005 The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada were asked to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council. Inclusive Church appealed to you not to accede to this request. We argued that "The Anglican Consultative Council, consisting of Bishops, Clergy and Laity is currently the most representative body in the Anglican Communion; were you to withdraw your participation it would no longer be a fully representative body. It is our belief that your actions, taken in response to the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian people and the justice of their claim to full participation in the life of the church, do not justify the breaking of "the bonds of communion” or any moves to exclude you from the conciliar life of the Communion. On the contrary it means you bring to the Anglican Consultative Council experience and counsel that would otherwise be absent and without which the Anglican Communion can not progress to a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding sexuality or ever achieve reconciliation."

We hold to that view still today and ask that you resist this process of excluding those Provinces of the Communion most committed to the visible inclusion of all Anglicans in the life of the Church. This process and the proposed Anglican Covenant are not building unity, they are turning disagreement into institutionalised disunity - even inventing mechanisms of exclusion to facilitate the process.

To agree to a voluntary self exclusion would not be to agree to a self- denying ordinance for the good of the whole. Gay Anglicans are part of the Anglican Communion in every province. Some are facing persecution by their own churches because of their courageous witness. By remaining at the table, the Episcopal Church has the opportunity to remind those who serve on representative bodies of their existence and to raise their voice. We ask that you resist this misguided process that is formally excluding those who speak for people the Communion should urgently be seeking to include. (My bolding)

Yours sincerely,

Canon Giles Goddard

Chair, Inclusive Church

I believe that we must pay close attention to this plea from Inclusive Church, especially to the words which I have bolded. LGTB members and their supporters in many of the churches in the Anglican Communion and Christian churches outside the Anglican Communion see the Episcopal Church as a lifeline, as a leader in promoting what we are required to do in the words of the prophet Micah.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

And in the words of Jesus.

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:12

I am convinced that in any decisions about our relationship with the Anglican Communion, those of us in the Episcopal Church must give great weight to the situation of our brothers and sisters outside our church, where no meaningful discussions of justice for LGTB persons in the church occur, but especially to those in churches in which the leadership not only does not speak against the persecution of LGTB persons, but whose leaders actually promote their persecution. In other words, our decisions are not simply about us but have far-ranging consequences.

H/T to Thinking Anglicans for the link to the letter.