Who are we kidding?
What an amazing concept. Something is in effect until it is not. That is exactly what the leadership and many other bishops of the Episcopal Church are saying. They, in effect, are stating that General Convention 2009 did not effect B033, which says that the Episcopal Church will abide by the moratorium on ordaining a partnered homosexual person bishop, asked of it by the Anglican Communion, while at the same time it passed resolutions which enable the ordinations of gays and lesbians to all orders of ordained ministry without obstruction. In effect, what was done was a further step in ordaining a gay or lesbian to the Episcopate of the Anglican Communion. And the only real response to the world’s analysis is, the moratorium is not over until it is over. My goodness! A response truly worthy of Yogi Berra, “It’s not over till it’s over.”
How interesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury, all the major world press, both secular and religious, bishops and priests in the Communion and at home, agree with Integrity, Inc., the gay and lesbian voice in the Episcopal Church about the meaning of the two key resolutions of B056 and B025. Some of the bishops, including the leadership of the Episcopal Church, believes everybody misinterpreted what General Convention did in these two resolutions, which not only remove all obstacles to gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bi-sexual and now transgender people to the ordination processes, it allows bishops to respond both pastorally and liturgically to gay and lesbian sexual relationships. In other words to bless noncelibate same sex relationships.
Does the Episcopal Church really expect people to think that nothing has changed, nothing moved? The train is moving forward as rapidly as it is able and to all others, who might believe differently due to theology or biology, the Episcopal Church says, give us a chance to change you, or get off the train. They are confident that everyone will fall in line eventually. But the sooner, the better.
–The Rt. Rev. James M. Adams is Bishop of Western Kansas
Have I missed a comment by the archbishop of Canterbury, such as Bishop Adams alludes to in his third paragraph? I have seen only silence?
Has the ABC actually said anything? I was under the impression that so far he has said nothing.
Dear Bishop,
We are kidding no one but we have decided to lie to ourselves and the rest of the Christian World…and no, the ABC has said nothing and is not likely to do so….
+Adams has nailed it….as long as we say it hasn’t changed (until something actually happens) it hasn’t…but as soon as someone is elected that falls into that category, it will be, “We changed that at GC 2009…don’t you remember?”
I think that if they wanted the world to think nothing has changed, they should perhaps have stopped all those people tweeting at GC2009 about how happy they were with the change.
Hey – the good bishop is merely trying to join all others in following what scripture says:
[blockquote] Jas 5:12 … let your “yes” be no and your “no” be yes, [/blockquote]
… so he just got a couple of words mixed up.
You know, I don’t think TEC cares any more about what its own people say or what others say about them. Alea iacta est, and from this point on, the more confusion, the better, because it will become harder and harder to pin down, in some incontrovertible way, where A or B stands on issue C, because D and E have said the very reverse and all of the speakers are creditable officers of TEC. In short, if you muddy the watters sufficiently, sooner or later no one will even try to swim therein. And this may be for TEC, a sound strategy. Larry
Indeed, Ann #5, my recollection was that any number of deputies arose during the “debate” over D025 to express their delight that that bad ol’ B033 would be history, overturned by this Valiant Move Forward, and not a single person leapt to his/her feet to refute them. Now why would that be?
[b]To help understand the resolutions of General Convention[/b]
Recommended Reading:
1. [i]Nineteen Eighty-four[/i] by George Orwell
2. [i]Animal Farm[/i] by George Orwell
3. [i]The Abolition of Main[/i] by C. S. Lewis
4. [i]That Hideous Strength[/i] by C. S. Lewis
5. [i]The Silver Chair[/i] by C. S. Lews
6. [i]The Last Battle[/i] by C. S. Lewis
#’s 1 and 2.
The comments by the ABC were preemptive. “Don’t do it.” He has not responded to the accomplished fact.
The history of the diocese over the past 20 years is rather sad. John Ashby, bishop 1981 to 1995, was somewhat conservative and somewhat Anglo-Catholic, and in the 80s he attracted some conservative clergy on that basis. But around 1989 or 90 he changed his mind on WO, and about 1992 or 93 there was a big altercation with the Dean of his cathedral, Fr. Richard Hatfield, over the issue and over Ashby’s insistence that his male clergy had to accept the Orders of the (first) woman he had ordained. Eventually Hatfield quit and took half of the congregation of the cathedral parish over into Orthodoxy (he is now, as Fr. Chad Hatfield, chancellor of St. Valdimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY).
Ashby was followed as bishop by Vernon Strickland (1995-2002), who seems to have been a middle-of-the-road institutionalist, who in turn was followed by Adams. The fight in the early 90s apparently had the effect of clearing out “firm†or “dogmatic†conservatives from positions of bureaucratic or institutonal significance in the diocese, with the result that Adams has been loggerheads with his Standing Committee virtually from the get-go of his episcopate: the SC is determined to remain in TEâ€C†come what may, and has been anything but supportive of Adams’ conservative stance on SS in general and +VGR of NH in particular. This is the most notable contrast between WK and SC; another might be the precarious financial state of Adams’ diocese.
#9, you forgot the most important: “The Prince” by Machiavelli.
I’m reminded of
1. “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
2. “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum
There is a certain unreality to the events of GenCon09 and both of these books portray rationale and good ordinary folks attempting to make sense out of a world that does not make sense.
The new Episcopal marriage vows:
Priest: “Do you promise to be faithful until that time you are not?”
Spouse #1 and #2: “We will.”
(You gotta love that “neutral” terminology! Though we will need to revisit it and change it from “Spouse #1 and #2” to more simply, “Spouses”…of indeterminate number.)
Robroy, you’ve got it right.
I’ve decided I’m oriented to have four more spouses, and if the church doesn’t bless that and call those marriages, too, then it’s bigoted and I am oppressed.
And, who cares what my current spouse thinks?