IS SOMEONE SPOILING FOR A FIGHT?

From Andrew Brown at the Guardian:

The fact that Jeffrey John has been nominated as Bishop of Southwark is intriguing. That it has been leaked reveals a great deal about the civil war within the church of England. Seven years ago Rowan Williams' attempt to get his old friend into the much less important job of Bishop of Reading led to his first – and, it seemed, decisive – defeat at the hands of hardline evangelicals. He cracked after two months of pressure and asked John to withdraw his name, establishing his reputation as a man who could be bullied. If he is beaten again, he is finished. If he wins, he will have shot the rapids and the Church of England will finally emerge from the turbulence of the last 30 years with a fairly clear and fairly coherent doctrine about sex.
....

So: a church in which gays are all right if they are celibate, and women are accepted if they tolerate the people who can't stand them. Will that be the settlement of the fuss of the last 20 years? Perhaps not. Whoever leaked John's name made his appointment almost inevitable. But my sources suggest that the leak came from Evangelicals, not from the liberals. Someone is spoiling for a fight.

Please read Brown's words in between the excerpts I quoted.

Intrigue! Fighting! In the church? Heaven forbid!

Also in the Guardian by Riazat Butt:

Conservative parishes in the Church of England could seek alternative leadership from abroad if a gay man is appointed as bishop of Southwark, clerics warned today.

The argument over homosexual clergy in the Anglican communion was reignited at the weekend when it was disclosed that Dr Jeffrey John, the dean of St Albans, is among nominations for the post vacated earlier this year by the Right Rev Tom Butler. In 2003, John was forced to stand down from his appointment as suffragan bishop of Reading because of his sexuality after protests from traditionalists.

Reform, a conservative evangelical group, has warned the church could split if John, who is in a civil partnership but celibate, is made bishop for the south London diocese.
....

Writing in the Church of England newspaper last week, the Rev Ray Skinner, a rector in Morden, south London, said it did not take "a huge leap of imagination" to predict what would happen should John get the job. "As in North America, with its shrinking liberal Episcopal Church, and growing orthodox Anglican Church, there will be a formal divide. Maybe not immediately, we tend not to rush things. There are two new groups already within the Church of England, one called Inclusive Church, the other the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans linking with other Anglican provinces."

Perhaps, the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks it's time to call the bluff of the Reform folks, but why now? The whole scheme for appointing Dean John at the present time makes no sense to me, but I'm no insider. The ABC may yet come to see for himself what it's like to have foreign bishops invade his territory.

As for the Rev. Ray Skinner's words:

"As in North America, with its shrinking liberal Episcopal Church, and growing orthodox Anglican Church, there will be a formal divide."

Methinks the good Reverend is taking the words at the ACNA website too much at face value.

H/T to Thinking Anglicans for the link to the article by Riazat Butt. I found Andrew Brown's article on my own.

"A COALITION OF THE HEARTLESS, THE CLUELESS AND THE CONFUSED"

From Paul Krugman at the New York Times:

There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.

But that was then. Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits. How was that possible?

The answer is that we’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused.

Read the rest of the column and weep. It's not just Republicans.

But there are also centrist Democrats who have bought into the arguments against helping the unemployed. It’s up to them to step back, realize that they have been misled — and do the right thing by passing extended benefits.

Oh, yes indeed! As I've said elsewhere, "Oh, the heady days of 2008!" Those were the days when we had such hopes for our Democratic president and our Democratic majorities in Congress.

"But that was then."

NEW (I HOPE!) MAXINES

 

 

Thanks to Ann and Doug.

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK IN SOUTH LONDON?

The Telegraph is the original source of the story that Dean of St. Albans, Jeffrey John, is favored to be the next Bishop of Southwark. Dr. John (There is another with the same name and title in a different profession.) is in a same-sex civil partnership with another clergyman.

If you recall, some years ago, Dean John was appointed Bishop of Reading, and the date of his consecration was set, but because of the uproar amongst conservatives in the Church of England, and despite the fact that he stated that the relationship was celibate, Dean John was asked to stand down from his appointment by his good friend, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which he did.

Jim Naughton comments on the latest story at The Lead

Thinking Anglicans posted several links to commentary on the story.

We'll know quite soon whether the story is true or simply misguided speculation, for the meetings to decide upon a candidate for the position of Bishop of Southwark take place today and tomorrow.

Adrian at Pluralist Speaks in his post titled "Restoration" gives us his words of wisdom. Of course, Adrian's post is not really about Dr. Jeffery John, but about Dr. John John. However, there are parallels....

"WE NEED...TO BE FEARLESS AND OBNOXIOUS"

At The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan posted rather splendid words for the Fourth of July, when we celebrate our liberation from the tyrannical rule of the British Empire. (Slight irony alert here, since I have a good many English friends, and Andrew himself is an immigrant from Merrie Olde England - God save the Queen, and all that.)

Initially, I planned to excerpt from Andrew's post, but I did not find a logical cut-off spot. I hope he doesn't mind that I use his entire commentary. Pop on over to Andrew's site to read the words he quotes from Thomas Jefferson, who is no longer included in the recent revision of the social studies curriculum by the Texas Board of Education.

"I believe the blogosphere first truly gained traction in America for a good reason. There is something about blogging's freedom from the constraints of conventional journalism that captures an American ideal: civic engagement totally free of anyone else's influence. It is an ideal of a fourth estate hostile to authorities public and private, suspicious of conventional wisdom, and, above all, confident, even when confidence seems absurd, in the power of the word and the argument to make a difference ... in the end. The rise of this type of citizen journalism has, in my view, increasingly exposed some of the laziness and corruption in the professional version - even as there is still a huge amount to treasure and value in the legacy media, and a huge amount of partisan, mendacious claptrap on the blogs.

But what distinguishes the best of the new media is what could still be recaptured by the old: the mischievous spirit of journalism and free, unfettered inquiry. Journalism has gotten too pompous, too affluent, too self-loving, and too entwined with the establishment of both wings of American politics to be what we need it to be.

We need it to be fearless and obnoxious, out of a conviction that more speech, however much vulgarity and nonsense it creates, is always better than less speech. In America, this is a liberal spirit in the grandest sense of that word - but also a conservative one, since retaining that rebelliousness is tending to an ancient American tradition, from the Founders onward. (My emphasis)

....

Here at the Dish, we try and we fail at this every day. But we have never for a second doubted the imperative of this complicated, difficult and exhilarating task."

I echo Andrew's final paragraph, except for the part about never doubting, for I doubt, on occasion.

Andrew's post is heartening to me, since I've heard and read much about the approaching death of the blogosphere. If blogs die, then they die, and so be it. The new online gathering spots, which appear with the speed of storms off the west coast of Africa during hurricane season, are not much to my taste, I'm sad to say, since many of my friends are there.

If Andrew is correct about "fearless and obnoxious", then I have a way to go.

BISHOP KATHARINE'S FREEDOM SERMON IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

On June 27 Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, in the morning, and at evensong at St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch.

The readings for the day were: 2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77: 1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9: 51-62.

From Bishop Katharine's sermon:

All the hoopla around the World Cup brings to mind another athletic celebration. In 1968 two American athletes stood on the podium in Mexico City and raised their fists. They wanted to make a statement about freedom and their lack of it, for they were black.

Even though the law insists that all people are equal, people of color continue to suffer injustice, in my homeland and, I think, in yours. Their salute got them thrown out of the summer Olympic Games, but it raised the consciousness of a lot of people, and helped the cause of freedom for many, many others.

In one of the biblical languages, the word for prayer means opening a clenched fist. That black power salute began another petition in a continuing prayer across the world, that all people might be free. The crucifixion is a cosmic version of that same prayer – Jesus’ arms and hands open so wide they take in the whole world, indeed, the whole creation.
....

‘For freedom Christ has set us free. So stand up and stop being a slave,’ Paul says (Gal 5:1). But freedom isn’t only freedom from ; it’s freedom for – for loving self and others. We have been set free in order that we might become that same sort of liberating love in the world, setting others free.
....

The freedom we have received in Christ is meant to give us larger hearts and wider-seeing eyes that don’t focus so much on our own fears. That sort of freedom gives us the ability to look for the larger good, rather than only our own.
....

Will we see those self-centered responses that Paul calls works of the flesh: “strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy” – or together can we encourage works of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”? Even the simple act of attending, paying attention to the suffering of others, begins to unclench the fist.
....

There’s something about the freedom we know in Jesus that cures our paralyzing fear of those on the margins. You know how that sort of clenching goes: “there but for the grace of God go I. Don’t let that happen to me – keep me far away from any hint of the possibility of homelessness or disability or disaster. Thank God I wasn’t born to that culture.” May the unclenching prayer in us be more like, “dear God, I see this suffering. Help me see you in my neighbor.”
....

The freedom we have is to choose for those on the margins, to be in solidarity with the friendless and forgotten, the despised and the demonized. Exercising that freedom is almost always challenging – it annoys people who don’t see any need to change the status quo, it offends those in power, it challenges the ways of the world that say, “me first.”

Crossing those boundaries sent God into human flesh. Crossing those boundaries is the heart of God’s mission. It’s not for the faint of heart, but we find courage from our elder brother who has already opened his hands and arms wide enough for the whole world. We find strength in his body gathered here, and through all time and space. May we claim the freedom that is ours. May our fists open for all!

Read the entire sermon. It's all good. Sadly, there are those within our own Episcopal Church who label Bishop Katharine a heretic - those who will not even allow that she is a Christian. I think, "How can this be?" Her sermon gets to the heart of Jesus' message and Paul's message that we are set free, not to turn inward, but to look outward to serve our neighbors and build the Kingdom of God here on earth.

And who is my neighbor?

BANG!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

(Declaration of Independence)


HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

ANOTHER PRAYER CALL

From David@Montreal:

Before anything else I'd wish a blessed Independence Day to my American siblings in prayer and practice.
Such sad and complicated times we live in
but I truly believe we are living on a transformative cusp
and as a certain beloved Giant has reminded me more than once we are a people of hope.

I'd ask for travelling mercies for my cherished Mam for Sunday July 4
On Friday,. Mam had a fall while visiting her sister in Hamilton Ontario with my sister and her husband
two breaks on her lower left arm- one of them irregular so an operation and two plates will be required.
Waiting time at Hamilton General for this surgery would be until Thurs or Friday of next week, so Cathy and Yves will be driving Mam back tomorrow- stopping every hour to get out of the car and walk about to avoid bloodclots. Normally a six hour trip it will end up much longer, and Mam is to be admitted directly to hospital here in Quebec- thankfully it will be the hospital where one of my nieces is in charge of emergency medicine.

I'd beg your prayers for Kirstin, undergoing aggressive treatment for her second bout with cancer- a rough one with multiple sites. But hey I've got the Giants on the case!
Prayers for John, whose esophagial cancer appears to be out of control again.
For Rosemary, one of the most determined people battling cancer I've seen in some time. She tells me she's doing it for her husband and two young sons, but I think it's her Armenian genes!
For Frank & Carol.
For Dorian.
For Juan Manuel and his incredible parents M. & J.
For those who are walking the path of discernment at this time
and for those working, aching, dreaming or studying to bring about a better way of doing things in our suffering world, particularly this evening I'd ask for those who are laboring or fighting to better the lives of women- most particularly in the developing world.

For the minds and hearts of those responsible for healing the Gulf, that they will be moved to the courage, vision and resolve the situation requires.
For those who armor their fear with hatred- wether it's the people of Arizona, those who rush to follow their ugly example, certain cowardly bishops, or wall-building individual and nations. 'Emotional midgets trying to throw a giants shadow.'

with my love, gratitude for each of you Giants, and my prayers for those on your hearts

love always- always Love

David@Montreal

Lord, hear our prayers.

THE TOMATO GARDEN

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

"Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love,
Papa"

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

"Dear Pop,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie"

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

"Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie"

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

FOR KIRSTIN

Kirstin is presently undergoing chemotherapy for melanoma.

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servant Kirstin, and give your power of healing to those who minister to her needs, that she may be strengthened in her weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer, p. 459)

Please leave comments at Kirstin's blog, Barefoot and Laughing.

Thanks to Caminante for the burning candle image.