JONATHAN CLATWORTHY ON THE PAPER DOLL

At Modern Church, Jonathan Clatworthy, General Secretary to the organization, wrote an excellent response to Peter Doll's inaccurate and downright insulting essay on the Episcopal Church in the United States and its relationship to the Anglican Communion and to the proposed Anglican Covenant. Doll is originally from the US, but he has served in the Church of England since his ordination. Still, Doll claims to know the church which he says nurtured him well. Peter Doll is Canon Librarian at Norwich Cathedral in England, therefore one would expect the fruits of his personal knowledge and research to exhibit a result that paints an accurate and evenhanded picture of the Episcopal Church, rather than the biased views expressed in the essay.

Keep in mind that Clatworthy is English and that it is entirely possible to arrive at a more realistic and balanced view of the Episcopal Church from across the big pond in the Green and Pleasant Land. That Doll's paper was sent to all the bishops in the Church of England with the stamp of approval from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is astounding to me.

Wait! On second thought, as I remember certain of Rowan's statements about the Episcopal Church, I am not so surprised, because Doll and Rowan come to seem more like birds of a feather, which makes me even more grateful for Clatworthy's admirable rebuttal.

I met Jonathan when I was in England, and we had a wonderful, long, chatty lunch in London between his trains, and I speak from personal knowledge when I say that he's all right.

Disclosure: Jonathan and I are both members of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition.

Jonathan Clatworthy lives in Liverpool and is Modern Church General Secretary. He has worked as a parish priest, university chaplain and lecturer in Ethics.

APHORISM OF THE DAY - A BETTER WORLD

I dream of that better world, too. Poor chickens.

Thanks to MM for my first laugh of the day.

WAXING CRESCENT MOON

Bright hornéd crescent
Suspended in darkened sky
Upward facing points

SATURDAY UPDATE: Tonight at twilight, the sky was a beautiful, clear midnight blue, with the very bright crescent somewhat larger than last night, again poised between the shining planets, Venus and Jupiter, with Orion overhead, slightly to the east. Lovely.

STORY OF THE DAY - QUIET PRIDE

There has never been a day when I have
not been proud of you, I said, though
some days I'm louder about other stuff
so it's easy to miss that.

From StoryPeople.

The story is for Grandpère as a late birthday gift. I'm sad to say the story applies, more often than I'd like.

SOUL REBELS BRASS BAND - LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2010

Oh, I love this video of the Soul Rebels marching and playing their way across the Golden Jubilee Bridge, a pedestrian bridge which crosses the River Thames, linking the Embankment with the Royal Festival Hall. Now if this group had been marching in New Orleans, a number of folks would have joined the band and made the march a parade. Ah, but the Londoners heading across the bridge were in a hurry to get on with their very important business. I can read their thoughts, 'Who are these black dudes on our bridge playing jazz and blocking our way?' What can I say? I kinda like it that the band 'took the bridge', so to speak, but then, I am from New Orleans, and I have the soul of a rebel. Since applause is audible at the end of the video, I gather some folks 'got it'. The comments at YouTube are...um...interesting.

Last summer I heard the Soul Rebels play at the music festival at the Sage in Newcastle upon Tyne, fronting for Soul Queen, Irma Thomas, and they were terrific, a taste of home upon the River Tyne.

When I was in London last summer, after a bit of difficulty in finding the stairs, with help from my friend Cathy by cell phone, I walked the London Millenium Footbridge from the Bankside to meet Cathy on the City side to view the Miró exhibit at the Tate Modern, which was fantastic.

Oh dear! I feel a wave of nostalgia coming on.

WOUNDED BIRD IS FIVE YEARS OLD...

...and a few days. My first post was on January 22, 2007. I meant to mark the anniversary, but the day slipped past me. Anyway, it's been a good run.

No. of posts: 5869
No. of visits: 858,629 (plus a few lost when my counter went down for a couple of days)

To everyone who visits, reads, and comments, thank you. To my stringers who send me links and material to post, another thank you. My life would be much the poorer without the friends I've made online, many of whom I've met in real life. I can say, in all truth, that those I've met face to face were as I expected, but for two. I thought Tobias Haller would be an introvert, and I expected Fr Jake to be an extrovert, and the two were just the opposite, which was a surprise. If I liked you online, I liked you when I met you. As George W said:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

The old saying is in Louisiana now, too.

These here intertubes are a wonder, indeed. Hugs and kisses all around.

IF LOOKS COULD KILL...

Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Presov Slovakia
Lukáš Kmiť plays the viola
by Milan Ferencik/Greatmilan & Jakub Hasko/CTZ Films

Thanks to Paul (A.).

DAVID KATO - 1964-2011 - WE REMEMBER...

David Kato, Ugandan LGBT rights activist, was beaten to death one year ago today (Jan. 26). He is considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement.

Some blame religious rhetoric for his death. American evangelicals helped stir up the hostility that led to Kato’s death because they promoted a law imposing the death penalty for homosexuality. Shortly before his murder Kato won a lawsuit against a Ugandan magazine for identifying him as gay and calling for his execution.

More at Jesus in Love.

Blessed are you, gracious God,
creator of heaven and earth;
you are glorified in the assembly of your saints.
David Kato and all your martyrs bless you and praise you,
confessing before the powers of this world
the great name of your only Son.
Therefore we join our voices with theirs,
and with all who have served you in every age,
to proclaim the glory of your name.

(Preface of a Martyr, Book of Alternative Services, Canada)

THE NEW BOSS

If you've ever worked for a boss who reacts before getting the facts and thinking things through, you will love this!

Hamson Metal-Steel, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"

A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, "I make $400 a week. Why?"

The CEO said, "Wait right here." He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back."

Feeling pretty good about himself the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"

From across the room a voice said, "Pizza delivery guy.”

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

PREJUDICE IS PREJUDICE IS PREJUDICE

Andrew Brown in the Guardian:

The Church of England's House of Bishops – for which, read the archbishops of Canterbury and York – has explained how they hope to mollify the opponents of female clergy. The proposals are breathtaking.

From the Code of Practice suggested by the two archbishops:

The House of Bishops does not wish to see any outcome that would entrench radical division or give any impression of a 'two-tier‘ episcopate. Because of their commitment both to this principle and to the most adequate and sustainable provision for theological dissent over the ordination of women, they are seeking a balanced provision within the overall framework that will allow all members of the Church of England to flourish and to pursue the mission to our nation and society that we share.

We are aware as bishops that there are very difficult decisions ahead for many of our clergy and faithful; we want to honour the desire of all who wish to remain loyal Anglicans, fully engaged in this mission. And we are not thinking in terms of a time-limited provision, mindful that such a suggestion was rejected at the Revision stage of amending the legislation under discussion.

Despite the statement above, in the suggested 'Code of Practice' the two archbishops in the Church of England are quite determined to enable prejudice against women bishops and, further, to assure that prejudicial attitudes and practices remain entrenched in the church.

Andrew Brown:

The archbishops envisage that the Church of England, once it has female bishops, will continue ordaining men who do not accept these women, finding them jobs they will deign to accept, and promoting some of them to be bishops who will work to ensure the continued supply of male priests who refuse to accept female clergy. In fact, the church will pay three bishops (the formerly "flying" sees of Ebbsfleet, Richborough, and Beverley) to work full time against their female colleagues, and to nourish the resistance.

Funds are scarce, and yet the CofE will support three bishops to continue to ordain priests who would not consider ordination by a female bishop as valid, because, not only would the women not be real bishops, but they were never even real priests in the first place. How is the support of bishops to prevent candidates for ordination from besmirchment by the laying on of hands by a woman bishop not entrenchment of division?

Code of Practice

In the light of our discussion, the House will continue to uphold these three principles:

• Bishops will continue not to discriminate in selecting candidates for ordination on the grounds of their theological convictions regarding the admission of women to Holy Orders;

• In choosing bishops to provide episcopal ministry under diocesan schemes for parishes requesting this provision, diocesan bishops will seek to identify those whose ministry will be consistent with the theological convictions concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate underlying the Letter of Request;

• The archbishops and bishops commit themselves to seeking to maintain a supply of bishops able to minister on this basis. This will obviously have a bearing on decisions about appointments and on the role of bishops occupying the sees of Beverley, Ebbsfleet and Richborough (which will, as a matter of law, continue to exist even after the Episcopal Ministry Act of Synod has been rescinded).

Andrew Brown

Despite all these concessions, there will be female bishops, as there are already female priests, and these will be treated exactly the same as male ones – except by the men who don't want to treat them equally and who believe that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears.

This is apparently Rowan Williams's idea of justice.

The two archbishops could not get their desired legislation through the previous General Synod and are aware that church members, bishops, and clergy are embarrassed and weary of efforts to cater to the prejudicial "theological convictions" of the squeamish, so now they attempt a new tactic by calling the effort to prolong discrimination against women by a different name, a 'Code of Practice'. Do the archbishops think that by this blatant attempt at subterfuge through name change, they will get the code passed? Perhaps they will. I hope not.

UPDATE: The official title is 'The Illustrative Draft Code of Practice'. I was tempted to omit the letter 'r' from one of the words in the title. The word starts with 'D'.