TELL 'EM, KATE!

What an excellent photograph of Bishop Katharine. It's one of the best that I've seen.

From Episcopal Life:

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has described the decision by Lambeth Palace to remove Episcopalians serving on international ecumenical dialogues as "unfortunate ... It misrepresents who the Anglican Communion is."

Jefferts Schori's comments were made during a June 8 press conference at the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
....

"I don't think it helps dialogue to remove some people from the conversation," she said shortly after addressing General Synod. "We have a variety of opinions on these issues of human sexuality across the communion ... For the archbishop of Canterbury to say to the Methodists or the Lutheran [World] Federation that we only have one position is inaccurate. We have a variety of understandings and no, we don't have consensus on hot button issues at the moment."
....

Jefferts Schori said Williams' letter "really jumped" the process around the proposed Anglican Covenant, because it "imposed a number of the sanctions that were envisaged in the fourth section." The covenant is being viewed as way of addressing tensions in the communion over the issue of human sexuality.

Asked whether Williams has adequately addressed the issue of cross-border interventions, Jefferts Schori said, "I don't think he understands how difficult and how painful and destructive it's been both in the church in Canada and for us in the U.S. ... when bishops come from overseas and say, 'Well, we'll take care of you, you don't have to pay attention to your bishop.'" Such actions "destroys pastoral relationships," noted Jefferts Schori. "It's like an affair in a marriage," she said. "It destroys trust."

She added that it's "a very ancient teaching of the church that bishops are supposed to stay home and tend to the flock to which he was originally assigned."
....

Part of the church's mission is to gay and lesbian people, she added. "Where's the good news in this for them?"

Another deals with addressing human suffering, she said. "Suicide rates among gay and lesbian teenagers are much, much higher than the national average in Canada and the U.S. How do we address that? That's an aspect in these Marks of Mission."

The five marks of mission:

To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom;
To teach, baptize and nurture new believers;
To respond to human need by loving service;
To seek to transform unjust structures of society;
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

More good words from our PB. What is the Archbishop of Canterbury thinking? The Anglican Communion does not speak with one voice. Will all the members of the committees from the other denominations simply forget the existence of the Episcopal Church? The cleansing from the committee of the members of TEC looks more appalling, high-handed, and duplicitous every minute that goes by.

I suppose that if the ABC was not shamed by excluding Bishop Gene Robinson from Lambeth, he won't embarrass himself by his latest exclusions.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead for the link.

WITH DEEPEST AFFECTION

 

 

 

 

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

STORY OF THE DAY - PERFECT COMBINATION

We need a letter that's like i & u together
for when we're doing stuff like this, he
said & I hugged him & said a lot of
people want a letter like that.


From StoryPeople.

ONE PRIMATE "OVER THERE" LIKES US

From the website of the Scottish Episcopal Church:

...the Rev Rob Warren interviews The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, in which he speaks about the Anglican Covenant, the Whole Church Mission and Ministry Policy and the Gender Audit.

Bishop David warmed this American heart with his gracious words during the interview about the close relationship between the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in the US. I was delighted to hear that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be a guest at General Synod of the SEC. Ever since I learned of the history of the SEC giving us our first bishop in the Episcopal Church, Samuel Seabury, I've been forever grateful, and I'm pleased that the warm and historic ties between the two churches continue.

Bishop David's comments on Bishop Katharine's visit and the close relationship between the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in the US can be heard approximately between minutes 3:33 and 6:04 on the audio.

Bishop David blogs at Thinking Aloud.

JESUS AND MO

Click on the picture for the larger view.

From Jesus and Mo.

CAN COLD WATER CLEAN DISHES?

This is for all the germ conscious folks that worry about using cold water to clean dishes.

John went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded, rural area of Saskatchewan.

After spending a great evening chatting the night away, the next morning John's grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast.

However, John noticed a film like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, 'Are these plates clean?'

His grandfather replied, 'They're as clean as cold water can get em. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, Sonny!'

For lunch the old man made hamburgers.

Again, John was concerned about the plates, as his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, 'Are you sure these plates are clean?'

Without looking up the old man said, 'I told you before, Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don't you fret, I don't want to hear another word about it!'

Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather's dog started to growl, and wouldn't let him pass.

John yelled and said, 'Grandfather, your dog won't let me get to my car'.

Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted: 'Coldwater, go lay down now, yah hear me!'

It was time to break for a little humor, don't you think?

Thanks to Doug.

"WE HAVE A POPE!"

From Christopher Webber in the comments to Jim Naughton's post at The Lead titled "The disinvitations arrive".

There were no tendrils of smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, so far as I know, but I awoke this morning to discover that the Anglican Communion now has a Pope. He speaks and it is done. Surprise!

The Archbishop of Canterbury had sent a letter out several weeks ago on the subject of Pentecost. Pentecost, he reminded us, was the occasion on which the Holy Spirit overcame the divisions of language and understanding. The Archbishop’s letter, however, had to do with solidifying divisions. He took note of the fact that the “Instruments of Communion” had requested gracious restraint in relation to the issues that divide us until the member churches of the Anglican Communion could act on the proposed Covenant. There was, in other words, a request, not an order, for restraint, not abstinence.

Nevertheless, the Archbishop proposed (note that word) that those churches that had not been sufficiently restrained in relation to the issues that divide us should no longer be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged. How, he asked, could persons not in agreement represent the Communion? One might have thought that a Communion embracing diverse viewpoints would need to be represented by individuals with diverse views, but that seems not to have been the Archbishop’s understanding of Anglicanism. The member churches had not yet spoken as to the Covenant, but the Archbishop would enforce it anyway. He was “forced to act,” he said, because the member churches had not yet acted. “Agree with me quickly,” he said in effect, “or I will have to act for you.” Included in this proposal, said the Archbishop were not only The Episcopal Church but other churches also and not only in North America.

That was alarming enough, but today we have learned that what the Archbishop proposes, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion disposes. A letter has been sent by the SG to the members of The Episcopal Church representing the Anglican Communion in ecumenical discussions thanking them for their past contributions but informing them that they will no longer serve in that capacity. They may continue to be consultants but their membership has been “discontinued.” They were not appointed by the Archbishop, but he seems to feel that he can, nevertheless, discontinue their membership.

The Archbishop had not indicted The Episcopal Church alone for its waywardness but other churches as well and specifically not only in North America. The Secretary General has, therefore, written to the Church of Canada and the Province of the Southern Cone inquiring whether they would like to be disciplined as well. No time limit was suggested for their response but the SG does not seem to like to wait so they had better hurry. One might have thought from the Archbishop’s letter that he was also concerned about certain African provinces and dioceses, but these have not engaged the SG’s attention.

It is interesting to remember that Archbishop Longley of Canterbury was reluctant in 1868 to invite the first assembly of Anglican Bishops to Lambeth and made it clear in doing so that they would make no decisions relating to the Communion. “I should refuse,” he wrote, “to convene any assembly which pretended to enact any canons, or affected to make any decisions binding on the Church.” We have come a long way since then. We have moved in not much over 150 years from a church moving tentatively toward communion-wide consultations to one with a presiding officer who speaks and it is done.

Has Archbishop Williams, then, smoothed the path toward reunion with Rome? If we are to have a bishop with papal authority, why not the real thing?

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH GETS LETTERS

Letters of disinvitation from the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion arrive:

Last Thursday I sent letters to members of the Inter Anglican ecumenical dialogues who are from the Episcopal Church informing them that their membership of these dialogues has been discontinued. In doing so I want to emphasise again as I did in those letters the exceptional service of each and every person to that important work and to acknowledge without exception the enormous contribution each person has made.

I have also written to the person from the Episcopal Church who is a member of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO), withdrawing that person’s membership and inviting her to serve as a Consultant to that body.

Read more at The Lead, including Jim Naughton's commentary and the opinions in the comments that follow the post.

UPDATE: See also Marshall Scott's post.

I have come to the conclusion that the Episcopal Church should concentrate on maintaining communion with the Church of England and membership on the Anglican Consultative Council, and if not signing this Covenant results in a “second-tier” membership, so be it. However, having so narrowly applied the consequences of all the actions that have divided the Communion, when so many have participated, can only seriously undermine trust in Canterbury, not only in the Anglican provinces in North America, but throughout the Communion.

UPDATE 2: Also Saintly Ramblings' muscular response.

How does the phrase "I am therefore proposing ..." in the Archbishop's letter get translated into action by Kenneth Kearon. Where the hell does he get the authority to take such a move? He is Secretary General of a federation of churches that are simply bound together by the "three-legged stool" of tradition, scripture and reason. He is not the overseer of a single entity that has a single set of rules, interpretations and practices.

DOCUMENTING THE ATROCITIES

From News Inferno:

BP reported some progress in containing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill over the weekend, saying Saturday that its latest fix had captured 10,500 barrels of crude coming from the gushing well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, crude is still pouring into the Gulf, as government scientists have estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil a day, at a minimum, to be leaking from the well. [Other experts estimate that the leak could be spewing as much as 25,000 barrels of oil a day.]

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20, when the oil rig exploded, killing 11 crew. Since then, roughly 23 million to 49 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf. The spill has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster, and ranks as the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
....

BP CEO Tony Hayward told the BBC that the company hopes a second containment system will be in place by next weekend. Once the cap is fully operational it could capture a maximum of 630,000 gallons of oil a day if it is successful. But the oil leak won’t be permanently stopped until BP completes one of two relief wells it is drilling nearby. The earliest that will occur is mid-August.

The oil has already fouled stretches of coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Tar balls have been reported on beaches along the Florida panhandle, and the slick is just a few miles from shore there. According to a report on MSNBC, officials along the Texas Gulf Coast have also reported that dead birds with oil on them were found for the first time in that state.

From ABC News:

BP, the very company responsible for the oil spill that is already the worst in U.S. history, has purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company's official website.

A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.

The live stream from the well.

Photo from The Huffington Post.

D-Day - In Remembrance

In remembrance of all who fought and all who died in the Normandy beach landings which began on June 6, 1944, and in the battles to secure territory that followed the landings.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

From the American Battle Monuments Commission.

It's amazing that the plan for an invasion of this magnitude by the Allied Forces was kept secret and completely surprised the German forces in the area.

Grandpère and I visited in the late 1980s. The cemeteries are sad and beautiful. The ghosts linger on the hallowed ground. I remember seeing old veterans searching for the graves of their comrades in arms, and family members searching for the graves of their loved ones, and the quiet tears that often followed once they found the markers.

Until I visited the site, movies notwithstanding, I never quite realized the difficulty of the landing at Omaha Beach, the steepness of the cliffs, the exposure once the troops reached the top, not to mention those who were shot or drowned when they left the landing boats. More than 4,400 Allied troops died in a single day.

For Those who have died in service of their countries.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of their countries. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou has begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. AMEN.

(Book of Common Prayer, p. 42)

Note: Reposted from last year.