Now retired, the 82-year-old New Jersey native marks the debate over the ordination of women as one of the most significant moments of his lifetime in the Episcopal Church.
“I’m very happy it has come about. The church has been blessed with all these additional priests and bishops,” he said.
This week, Shipps marked the 50th anniversary of his own ordination as a priest and 25 years since the day he was consecrated as a bishop with a Tuesday worship service at the Episcopal Church of St. Paul the Apostle.
New and equally weighty issues have followed the debate around women, such as homosexuality and evolution.
Shipps has welcomed them as opportunities to discuss and explore the meaning of faith.
I don’t trust the reporting here, but if even a portion is accurate… ugh. How do you even begin to respond?
“But as a long as (the Episcopal Church of the U.S.) said we could do it, I felt I could not impose my own feeling,” he said. “And so I did it.”
I give up.
“I’m very happy it has come about. The church has been blessed with all these additional priests and bishops,” he said.
…and so many fewer pesky lay people and Anglo-Catholics, as well, I suppose.
An interview rich in reminders of how ECUSA reached its present plight.
RE: “An interview rich in reminders of how ECUSA reached its present plight.”
Quote of the day for me.
All of this is set against concern for ecumenical matters and a covenant with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Note the end of the article. This truly is a snap shot of TEC.
Reeves; Shipps; Loutitt; who can doubt the truth of “facilis descensus Averni,” at least in Georgia?
This makes me sad. I was confirmed by +Shipps in 1986 and i still carry an article he wrote for the diocesan newspaper with a very clear, scriptural, rejection of the homosexual lifestyle. My prayer is that God will not let me outlive my Biblical faith.
Having all these additional priests and bishops was… what? the goal? the point?
Was ECUSA that short of priests and bishops?
And is that a reason to change the entrance requirements? to get more people? (As opposed to fulfill one’s mission.)
Bizarre argumentation.
The irony here is that Georgia is a Windsor diocese by vote of its convention. Every effort was made to avoid the vote. The party line has been that we are a democratic institution and we must follow the will of the majority (i.e. GC). This vote has been ignored.
Reeves was very much a compromise candidate. Harry Shipps was elected as pretty agressive candidate – very Anglo-Catholic and very liberal on almost every issue. The WO issue probably did give him great pause, as it conflicted with his Anglo-Catholicism and his otherwise very liberal political agenda.