Matt Kennedy's Former Parish Sold to Muslims by the Diocese of Central New York
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Episcopal Church (TEC),
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TEC Conflicts: Central New York,
TEC Conflicts: Milwaukee,
TEC Departing Parishes
Can you imagine the thoughts of the parishioners who donated various items in that building in memory of loved ones? Knowing that those items are now being used in worship by another religion? Has the bishop no sense of decency?
Held in trust by the Episcopal Church for future generations, huh?
This just truly turns the stomach, and I do not say that lightly.
1. No, Dorpsgek, he doesn’t! Not even A MODICUM OF DECENCY.
This has nothing to do with being inclusive but rather has all to do with ratcheting up the pain for former Good Shepherd members. Whether this is intentional on the part of Bishop Adams and the Standing Committee is not clear to me, as I don’t know all the details. (“Lord forgive them for they know not what they do.”) However, what is clear to me is the way the powers of evil are using this incident which only reinforces the apparent spirit of abuse running rampant among the HOB and TEC leaders. Again, economically and pastorally this decision makes no sense at all.
Also sad is the forcing of evangelical and high-church orthodox in different directions and out of contact/communion with each other by the revisionists. One senses the church is being destroyed of the destroyer.
TEc is not preserving anything for any future generation and anyone who bought into that was being blindly trusting and naive. We are called by God to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. So for those who really believe that TEc is following the law and practicing good stewardship need to wake up smell the coffee and remove the blinders from their eyes and see that that is a falsehood lest they take you to the pit with them. TEc would rather see an organization/other religion that is focused only on wiping out Christians & infidels from the face of the earth buy this property than allow the stewards of decades to purchase it…..who offered to do so. Sick! Just sick!
As always, the Curmudgeon is delightfully incisive and as lucid as can be. The allusion to Aesop’s Fable of the Dog in the Manger is just brilliant. One senses anger as well as disgust in this analysis of the blatnat hypocrisy shown by the diocesan leadership, and of course it’s fully deserved.
Shame on the diocesan leaders in CNY!!
David Handy+
I wonder who might have legal standing to sue the diocese for failure to conserve the value of the property.
Tom,
You actually raise a good point. If all these lawsuits are motivated by TEC’s fiduciary responsibility to future generations of Episcopalians, this sale is a failure to uphold that.
But we all know that the fiduciary responsibility is a mask for something else – power, intimidation, and control – whether TEC recognizes it or not.
Nevertheless, this is all so very sad and as a pastor this just breaks my heart.
This masterful real estate deal was undertaken by the same people who plowed “Thornfield,” their Diocesan retreat center, into the ground a couple of years ago.
Tell me, how is it that all those Progressive dioceses are so . . . shall we say, regressive? It would appear to be that Central New York is just another stellar example of the old water circling the drain in the tub.
I don’t want to minimize the pain that the Kennedys and the other people at Good Shepherd have experienced. I also belong to a parish whose status is being litigated (along with that of our diocese), and the thought of having to leave the building where members of my family have worshipped for over 30 years is intensely painful. And like what has happened to Good Shepherd, if TEC and the TEC-loyalist diocese wins the lawsuit, our building will probably end up being sold because it’s unlikely that there will be enough TEC loyalists to pay for its upkeep.
That being said, has the end result for Good Shepherd been all that bad? From what I have read, they have moved into a larger facility with more room for growth and expansion. Their ministry, including their soup kitchen, was able to continue with little or no interruption. And most important they were able to experience the love and charity of their Baptist, Catholic and other Christian neighbors. It’s like the Spanish saying that God writes straight with crooked line.
As for selling it to a Muslim group, it could have been worse. At least it wasn’t sold to an abortion clinic.
Paul Powers I am in the same boat as you are ..in fact for all I know you and I maybe in the same diocese. But I have to disagree with you on your last sentence…Selling to an Abortion Clinic is on the same level as selling to a Muslim group. Both want to wipe out some kind of humanity…one is infants and the other anyone who professes Christianity or those they deem infidels…shoot Muslims will even stone to death their own wives and daughters…so both are equally horrific IMHO.
Aren’t we all the same? What difference does it make?
“Aren’t we all the same?”
“we” are all sinners. Yes. In that sense “we” are all the same. But Islam and Christianity are quite different and, in fact, in a direct conflict over the question: Who is Jesus?
“What difference does it make?”
An eternal difference. Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” John 14:6.
Or to be more direct, belief in Islam will not save you from eternal damnation. For there is only one God, and He ain’t Allah!
#8 and 9,
Precisely what I was thinking. TEC played its hand here for all to see and, in doing so, may have given an interesting precedent others can use. My heart breaks for our Anglican brothers and sisters in Binghamton. But maybe, just maybe, this sale to the Muslims, which flagrantly violates all of TEC’s prosaic speech about holding Episcopal property “in trust” and upholding the wishes of its generations of benefactors, can be used in the other cases pending and in the appeals of previous decisions. I hope Ft. Worth, in particular, is taking note!
This case is TEC unmasked. As the bard wrote: “The false face doth hide what the false heart doth know.”
The fact that the Good Shepherd has gone on to be blessed by God and is flourishing is wonderful news….a happy ending and clear, clear proof that God blesses the faithful. The reason we need to dwell on the other side is because it exposes the dog in the manger, the wolf in sheeps clothing. People need to understand that the Anglican church is in peril for it is in the power of those who have abandoned the Gospel. This explains the fall in numbers, wealth, peace and joy. Yes it really is that simple.
The Good Shepherd parish grows in faithfulness
The DIocese shrinks in bitterness
As I put in the adjoining thread….Question for all in the Episcopal church in America. Why do you feed the hand that prefers buidlings sold to Islam than used to God’s glory?
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That being said, has the end result for Good Shepherd been all that bad?
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How would you like to be in Matt’s shoes explaining to a parishioner that the pew she gave in memory of her late mother (the pew the bishop insisted remain with the property) is now being used as a boot rack in a mosque? Disclaimer: I have no specific knowledge; a hypothetical example. However, I do know from Matt’s comments there were many donated items left behind at the bishop’s insistence.