Mr. [Peter] Frank reported little to no additional communication to the diocesan office after the Presiding Bishop’s letter became public late yesterday. Support for Bishop Duncan and the direction in which he is leading the diocese is both broad and deep, Mr. Frank said.
Although a public response to the Presiding Bishop’s letter is not expected until tomorrow, Mr. Frank said there have been no changes to the convention agenda and none are anticipated. Following his address, Bishop Duncan will read aloud to convention his response to Bishop Jefferts Schori, he added.
When all is said and done, Bishop Duncan’s reply will most likely boil down to two words: bug off!
[blockquote] the direction in which he is leading the diocese [/blockquote] is indeed the subject of the PB’s letter, regardless of how “broad and deep” his support is in the diocese. We can look forward to +Duncan’s presentment letter as a matter of some certainty.
And when that presentment comes, how many will stand up and declare “I am Sparticus”…….
If Bishop Duncan is brought before judgement by the heretical-revisionist bishops that have insidiously seized control of ECUSA and he and his diocese are subjected to an overt attempt to disenfranchise him as a bishop and a majority of his diocese for following his leadership, then those controlling ECUSAN bishops will have created a ‘martyr.’
Now, if the ECUSAN bishops have any historical sense of the power of martyrdom within the Church Catholic, then they should take pause and reconsider their actions.
Martyrs have provided the rallying point for those who have been meek to become militant, for those who have been non-observant of their faith to become observant, for those who have avoided issues to face those issues ‘head-on.’
Once the dynamic of martyrdom has been unleashed within ECUSA, it is quite probable that its dynamic will fall outside ECUSA’s ability to effect some sort of damage control.
So, my advice to ECUSA is, to quote a biblical phrase, “let my people go!”
Is anyone else troubled by the fact that the institutional leadership of the denominational structures in the mainline/oldline churches *want* all of us traditional-conservative-evangelical-orthodox to leave? That alone isn’t a reason to stay, but it is part of the reason for many of us not to go . . . giving them what they want, which is the sight of me walking out the door, doesn’t feel like a godly move. They seem to have counted the cost, and decided that they’d rather have a smaller (they’d say “leaner”) church with fewer little places they have go visit out in the countryside, just the big steeples in the capitals and college towns, where the hotels have broadband and the likelihood of a wine list is assured.
But there’s an honorable place to be the Jeremiah, the Isaiah, the Ezekiel, wandering through the waste places and breaking the occasional illustrative piece of crockery to make a homiletic point about the policies of the denominational leadership.
Sigh. I’ll go back to lurking, now. . .
Please all of us, keep +Duncan, and ALL the faithful bishops in our constant prayer.
Its imperative, no matter what our “reformation”, high church or low, and ALL the faithful to call on Our Saviour and all the saints that have gone before to surround him with angels and arch-angels, and all the company of heaven while he witnesses to the love of our God, and gives thanks to our savior.
Gloria in SC
I doubt that a presentment will come after this meeting. Nothing will have been decided so the PB will wait until later. But maybe I am wrong?
Peeps+, despite the fact that there is no provision in either the national (or any diocesan canons I am aware of) for the discipline/removal of laity from their offices, that does not stop TEC from purporting to do so. Out here in the California litigation, whenever a church disaffiliates, the bishop simply “declares” the Vestry vacant — without citation to canon or custom. Then, before the civil courts, the bishop simply repeats over and over that he has made an “ecclesiastical determination” which cannot be second-guessed.
I feel sometimes like I’ve followed the white rabbit…
Bishop Duncan is less likely to say “Bug off” than to say “Off buggery and on to mission”. It is the failure to adhere to the ECUSA/TEC doctrine of sanctified and blessed and holy and matrimonial buggery gospel that is the problem. The PB and General Convention Church have made that point abundantly clear on a worldwide unavoidable basis which even the ABC must realise by now.