The rector of a Grosse Pointe Farms church has resigned after being removed because of allegations about an inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman who was a not a church member.
Church leaders are to call an interim rector in the coming weeks and begin the search process for a new rector.
The Rev. Bradford Whitaker resigned from Christ Church Grosse Pointe effective July 17 after a complaint was made to the church, according to the office of the Rt. Rev. Wendell N. Gibbs, Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, which gave no further comment.
[blockquote]The rector of a Grosse Pointe Farms church has resigned after being removed because of allegations about an inappropriate sexual relationship [i]with a woman who was not a member of the parish[/i].[/blockquote]
Well, there’s your problem right there.
Indeed, that’s the problem. If it had been a man there would be cause for celebration. Another male priest in the very same parish is shacked up with a male in one of the parish rectories.
A dual standard is emerging. Same sex relationships have a tendency to be “open” with multiple partners permitted. One wonders how the liberals will deal with that. I predict that they will ignore it.
See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html?_r=2
http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2010/07/26/top_stories/doc4c4da11de4994768349695.txt
Hmm. This may turn out to be the Achilles heel of the “new thing.” The irony is glaring. When the heterosexual clergy who wholeheartedly supported complete “tolerance” find that the book’s being thrown at them if they transgress, it’s got to rankle.
Sure, he ought to be disciplined but an old-fashioned affair? How quaint.
What 2. and 3. said.
They remind me that one of the ironies the Episcopalians have been operating under for about 20 years (since they first ordained an openly practising and unrepentant gay*) is that, because they still technically don’t marry two men or two women, they’ve been sanctioning fornication and adultery including among the clergy as long as it’s homosexual. Now that most of their relative conservatives have left, I think they’ll resolve that next time they get together and vote.
*Robert Williams, who was such an embarrassment – saying things like ‘Mother Teresa should get laid!’ – that Bishop Spong had to quietly fire him after very publicly ordaining him. He died of Aids a few years later.
“…and a violation of his ordination vowsâ€? What does a priest have to do to be accused of that now?
Pax,
Chuck Bradshaw+
Hulls Cove, Maine