September 24, 2007
A message from The Consultation to the House of Bishops as it deliberates its message to the Church.
The thirteen constituent members of The Consultation, representative of the independent justice organizations of The Episcopal Church, meeting September 23-24 in Newark, wish to remind the members of the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans that they represent one house of the General Convention, and one constituency of the baptized in The Episcopal Church. Any message you make must be mindful of the fact that the Executive Council has made a very clear statement on the matter before you and that General Convention will not speak on this matter until its meeting in 2009. We have in mind the language of the Baptismal Covenant which calls us to respect the dignity of every human being. It is not respectful of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sisters and brothers when we tell them that they are full participants in the church and then place restrictions on their participation at any level of the church’s life.
In the preamble of the 2006 platform of The Consultation we affirm that we see the image of God and the Christ in others and ourselves. We believe that all the baptized are called to share in the governance and mission of the Church at all levels. We see the increase of power claimed by the episcopate as imbalance in The Body.
We urge you to have these things in the forefront of your minds and hearts as you craft this statement. The sacred vows of The Baptismal Covenant and the tradition and heritage of the participatory governance of The Episcopal Church must not be squandered for a single Lambeth conference.
We urge you as bishops not to walk apart from the rest of the priesthood of all believers in The Episcopal Church, and to embrace the unconditional love of God as made incarnate in the radical inclusion of Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit be with you to guide you in all strength and courage in these difficult days as ordained leaders in the Church.
The Consultation
Integrity
TransEpiscopal
Episcopal Urban Caucus
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Episcopal Women’s Caucus
Union of Black Episcopalians
Episcopal Ecological Network
National Episcopal AIDS Coalition
Province VIII Indigenous Ministries
Episcopal Church Publishing Company
Episcopal Network for Economic Justice
Episcopal Asiaamerica Ministry Advocates Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission
And the immediate response is: it isn’t clear, which is why Tanzania requested clarification and why Archbishop Aspinall spoke as he did.
the Bishops cannot even agree among themselves as to what B033 means.
Do not Bishop’s have authority over liturgies not contained in the BCP, that are to be used in their Diocese? Do they not have authority over their clergy? Are we to interpret this communication to mean that TEC has, in fact given, official approval for ssb’s and the creation of non-celebate homosexual bishops? If the answer to all these questions is “Yes” then I think we have clarity.
“Justice” – Give me what I want, when I want it.
Episcopal Church Publishing Company
Isn’t this company a part of thr Church Pension Fund? My pension dollars are going to this too?
As a founding member and builder of the Episcopal Urban Caucus, I reject this letter. All non-orthodox approaches to seeking justice, doing the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ from the local congregation of faithful Trinitarian believers and in bringing the corporal works of mercy to a broken world in need of healing and transformation by the God’s grace will fail. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Today’s forecast: clarity.
WRT #4 – ‘Tis indeed an interesting list of signatories to “The Consultation”, isn’t it?
[i]”We urge you as bishops not to walk apart from the rest of the priesthood of all believers in The Episcopal Church, and to embrace the unconditional love of God as made incarnate in the radical inclusion of Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit be with you to guide you in all strength and courage in these difficult days as ordained leaders in the Church.”[/i]
Translation:
“The important thing is to remember the constituents who got you elected. We believe that homosexuality is the perfect and pleasing will of God and any suggestion that does not support our OPINION is wrong. Once someone is baptized there are no requirements for holiness of life other than the full acceptance and blessing of everything that walks through our doors. Jesus died for that…. didn’t you know?”
Ah, the letter from the actual folks running the ECUSA/TEC. Perhaps in later days this will be inscribed on stone and kept in a Ark so all the ‘faithful’ can see and believe that every word is true that is spoken by the Glorious Leaders.
[blockquote]
The Consultation
Integrity
TransEpiscopal
Episcopal Urban Caucus
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Episcopal Women’s Caucus
Union of Black Episcopalians
Episcopal Ecological Network
National Episcopal AIDS Coalition
Province VIII Indigenous Ministries
Episcopal Church Publishing Company
Episcopal Network for Economic Justice
Episcopal Asiaamerica Ministry Advocates Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission
[/blockquote]
Hey, I see a million dollars or more iof usless funding in 815’s budget that could go to the MDG’s
Oh stop being so pick R S – just look at how pretty the arrangement of all those names in nice stepped fashion, I bet it took hours of special word arrangers to make such a display. I’m so moved by it’s beauty 🙂
[blockquote]Any message you make must be mindful of the fact that the Executive Council has made a very clear statement …[/blockquote]
Linguistic digression — It just occurred to me that whenever I’ve seen “mindful” in anything written in about the last 50 years, the author has been either clergy or a church bureaucrat of some sort. Any other (non-theological) expressions like that? Any counterexamples?
Guess we should all have known that the Executive Council is now the ones who get to decide for all of us in this Church of Bishops. And telling the bishops that a rise in their power is an “imbalance in The Body” (whatever that is supposed to be) is probably not the best approach when writing persuasive discourse.
Frankly, this feels like a game of chicken or like there is a gun to the bishops’ heads. If the other side did this, it would have been shot down by this “Consultation” as fearmongering.
Jesus, have mercy on us!
#10 KAR
Looking at the pretty arrangement of all of the self-proclaimed justice ministries of the Episcopal Church reminded me of a shape poem by George Herbert titled, “The Altar”. It is a reminder to me of where real justice originates and how we have a tendency to demand justice when we really need mercy . Since this blog format won’t hold the shape, I’ve given a link to it. http://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Altar.html
Respecting the dignity of every human being is one of many attributes of those who are baptized. The primary attitude is one of repentance….turning away from our sinful behavior and with the help of the Holy Spirit attempting to walk a different path. The Covenant: “Repent and I will forgive.”
What kind of love or respect is it that allows someone to continue sinning without speaking truthfully to them? What kind of love or respect for every human being is it when we bless and condone their sinful behavior instead of calling them to turn and walk in holiness? —-That is not love, nor is it respect.
This is ridiculous. It reads more like New Age psychobabble than something that might be theologically correct. It is hard not to be reduced to using all sorts of pejorative adjectives to describe it.
[blockquote]We see the increase of power claimed by the episcopate as imbalance in The Body[/blockquote]
If it were not obvious that this is a statement that the Big”C” thinks that TEC is not democratic enough, it could also be used to show that TEC is really congregational rather than hierarchical. Mr. Beers had better rein in these folks. But then, maybe what they really mean is that the bishops don’t have the right kind of crystals to balance their energy flow.
[blockquote]made incarnate in the radical inclusion of Jesus Christ[/blockquote]
What on earth does this mean? It sounds like something from the 1960s Free Speech Movement at Bezerkeley. It is obvious that I am separated from these people by what is supposedly a common language. May God have mercy on all of us.
I’m sorry, I’m about to set a bad example and post a snarky and almost off-topic comment. But I just can’t help it. (Sorry Kendall.)
Episcopal Church Publishing Company is a JUSTICE ministry?
um…
–elfgirl
George+,
[url=http://www.thewitness.org/about.php]Episcopal Church Publishing Company[/url] doesn’t appear to be the same organization as [url=http://www.churchpublishing.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=aboutus]Church Publishing Incorporated[/url].
Episcopal Church Publishing Company is The Witness.
[url=http://www.theconsultation.org/]The Consultation[/url] site offers the links that clear it up.
==========
[i]THANKS for doing the research and providing this clarification. This elf didn’t even think to check the links. Bad elf. VERY bad elf! I wonder what they publish now that the Witness has shut down?[/i]
Now can anyone tell me why this is called the EPISCOPAL Church?
I am afraid to ask what TransEpiscopal is…
…Sincerely,
The United Lost Souls of TEC…..
Is it me or does this read as a threat? Or maybe a shakedown letter? The HOB has just been issued an “offer it can’t refuse” from The Consultation. Perhaps a Star Trek reference is in order. The Consultation seems a lot like The Collective: “You will be assimilated.”
The ironic thing about this letter is that bishops like Jon Bruno, even though they might agree with some of the agenda of “The Consultation” (it’s sad that phrase has been co-opted), will read the first paragraphs and snort.
What a defamation of the canonical authority and responsibilities afforded to bishops.
RGEaton
#11
As far as I know, Craig, “mindful” or “mindfulness” is a Buddhist phrase… one element on the 8 fold path to enlightenment.
By the way… anyone look ahead to the Epistle text for this Sunday? Right before the appointed text are these words…
“If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. But he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” I Timothy 6:3-5
#19 — From their blog…
“TransEpiscopal is a group of transgender Episcopalians and our significant others, families, friends and allies dedicated to enriching our spiritual lives and to making the Episcopal Church a welcoming and empowering place that all of us truly can call our spiritual home.”
Their highlighted scripture passage is Gal 3:27-29 “There is neither male nor female” of course is one of the sections of this passage.
What a rogue’s gallery of knee-jerk leftists. Every pet “-ism” has its own organization in TEC and, as an earlier comment stated, they appear to be the ones calling the shots.
Yes — thanks #25.
The analogy I would use is something like this:
A fine university was for years headed by deans and presidents taken from the realms of science, history, classics, mathematics, philosophy — it had a few less-than-credible “trendy” departments since the sixties, but they never actually ran the place on that basis.
Well, now “Gender Studies” or “Gay Studies” or so-called “Cultural Studies” runs the institution. It’s like when the hippies took over Low Library at Columbia — they weren’t actually in a position to keep a credible institution running. They needed the grown-ups to come back and take charge.
So it is now, only those same hippies are bishops on short leashes tugged by the Gender Studies lobby if not right from the department themselves.
I’m impressed that Integrity lists itself SECOND in the signatories. That emphasizes their humility.
Wonder why they felt it necessary to take off the gloves like that?
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
#20My remarks are none-too-kind, but that kind of thing is over the top.
Mt. 7:2.
Indeed, I’d better watch it also.