When the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church convenes June 11-14 in Parsippany, New Jersey, its members will spend time reflecting on the past, present and future shape of the Church and of the Anglican Communion, as well as considering issues of ministry and governance.
The Church’s governing body between General Conventions will, as part of its agenda, look to the past to hear a report about the effort to gather information about how the Episcopal Church may have benefited from slavery.
The Council will look to the present and the future as it discusses how the Church might reach out to Episcopalians in a small number of dioceses and parishes where the leadership is disaffected with the wider Church.
Council will consider a report and resolutions in response to portions of the communiqué issued by the Anglican Primates at the end of their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; get a summary of responses to its invitation for Episcopalians to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant; and will hear about the experience of one gay Anglican in Nigeria.
“I am sure that a number of international concerns will be the subject of our conversation and deliberation,” said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “Among them, Anglican Communion issues, of mission including the Towards Effective Anglican Mission meeting and matters of peace and justice such as our Millennium Development Goal efforts. We’ll talk about how we can grow our partnerships around the Communion; as well as relationships with our covenant partners such as Brazil, Mexico and Philippines.
“The current conflict around the draft Anglican Covenant and the process for its consideration, as well as the Lambeth Conference and the House of Bishops’ response to the Primates’ Communiqué, will be discussed. We will also include in that discussion the conflict caused by incursion into the Episcopal Church from other members of the Anglican Communion.”
“We will consider domestic issues including the federal Farm Bill and our concern about domestic poverty, as well as matters of internal governance,” she continued.
What a statement that it appears the only invited guest to present to the group is a gay rights leader from Nigeria. That certainly shows the sentiments of this council regarding homosexual behavior and the leadership of the Archbishop of Nigeria. Again, they show that their agenda is skewed by the priority of promoting the normalcy of homosexual behavior.
Not boundary-crossing but liberation theology?
#1 and #2–You’ve missed the whole point. This is a satirical article. It is the pilot outline for a new Fox Series, Star Trek 815, in which the PB and Executive Council accidentally end up in a parallel universe during a transporter malfunction. Anybody out there have a better explanation?
We know who THEY are going to be listening to…….they should have Robert Gagnon come and talk with them just for a little balance….but, I guess they are not very interested in balance.
And they are given only four days to do all this on the agenda? Either their minds are already made up on most of the outcome or their decisions will be based on very shallow discussion. Either way the average Episcopalian will get it again in the backside.
We will consider domestic issues including the federal Farm Bill
ECUSA’s house is falling apart, and it presumes to speak to legislative priorities about which it has no expertise. Plus, nobody cares what ECUSA thinks about the “Farm Bill” in the first place.
What a fraud.
ECUSA is like a horse that has taken the bit in its teeth and will not be stopped — even if it runs off a cliff.
Why not invite one of the lay leaders who have been sued by TEC. They could certainly attest to why some people are “disaffected”.
Rev. J,
Are you calling THEY unbalanced? 😆
I downloaded the PDF file referenced in the article containing “Communion Matters: A Study Document for the Episcopal Church” produced by the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops and it is difficult reading because I am trying to read between its carefully ‘word-smithed’ lines to extract some ‘truth’ from it.
Its also difficult because I am fighting to control my ‘gag reflex.’ This usually happens to me when I am reading particularly insidious propaganda.
Well I for one am delighted that TEC is finally getting around to doing something about the Farm Bill. I would like them to get Section 1103 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 7913) amended to read as follows:
“SEC. 1103. COUNTER-CYCLICAL PAYMENTS.
(a) PAYMENT REQUIRED.-The Secretary shall make counter-cyclical payments to producers on farms for which payment yields and base acres are established with respect to a covered commodity, if the Secretary determines that the national actual revenue per acre for the covered commodity (except for other oilseeds) is less than the national target revenue per acre for the covered commodity, as determined in this section.”
If TEC can pull this off, I will seriously consider rejoining The Episcopal Church.
#11 Chazaq–I thought my Star Trek comment was pretty witty, but I think I like your Twilight Zone comment even more!
“Among them, Anglican Communion issues, of mission including the Towards Effective Anglican Mission meeting and matters of peace and justice such as our Millennium Development Goal efforts.”
Well, this is great. Maybe TEC will double what it’s spending on the MDG from .7% of its annual budget to 1.4%.
how the Church might reach out to Episcopalians in a small number of dioceses and parishes where the leadership is disaffected with the wider Church.
Oh, I understand now – it’s those grumpy leaders who are leading those Episcopalians astray. Does TEC believe the 70% plus of the parishioners who voted to leave are sheeple? And, let’s see, CANA alone is bigger than the 50 smallest dioceses in TEC – so how are those who have left or are seeking APO “a small number”?
TEC is like a mortally wounded rhino – dangerous because it is too dumb to know it’s almost dead – still able to fall on a smaller animal and crush it.
My carefully crafted 10 page response to the Study Guide was ALL FOR THE COVENANT. But what does that matter? The issue has been decided as evidenced by the agenda. I seriously doubt there will be even a statistical analysis of the yeas or nays. BECAUSE it would abolish the misconception of the ‘smallness’ of the opposition to the GLBT? agenda of the ECUSA/TEC. We all know the Executive Committee believes in abortion (remember the alignment with the Religious Coaliton for Reproductive Choice – Episcopal shield left and center http://www.rcrc.org/about/members.cfm ). This is nothing but an aborted evaluation since it was not intended to discover reality in the first place.
Wasn’t there an all-points bulletin warning us that David Mac-Iyalla is a known con-artist and that he is not listed as a member in any of the 10,000 parishes in Nigeria? Wish I had printed this notice last time it appeared during the Dar es Salaam Primates’ Meeting! If it is true, how appropriate that he should be invited to speak to the Executive Council!
From:
http://www.anglican-nig.org/disclaimer_iyalla.htm
28th December, 2005
PRESS RELEASE – DISCLAIMER- Davis Mac- Iyalla
The general public is hereby warned of the activities of a person who goes by the name of Davis (David) Mac Iyalla. He claims to be a homosexual member of the Anglican Church but extensive searches revealed that he is NOT registered in any of our over 10,000 local parishes as of the past two years. None of our over 6000 priests recognise him as an active member in any of their parishes.
He has finally been traced to be the same person who defrauded the then dying Bishop of Otukpo under the guise of marrying his daughter. Iyalla then closed down his own C & S church and took up an appointment with his then proposed father–in-law from whom he fraudulently obtained some church documents. On the death of the bishop mid 2003, Iyalla broke off the engagement and made away with large sums of money including salaries due to some staff. Since then, he has not been seen in Otukpo where he is wanted by the Police. He claims he was sacked and victimised for his homosexuality and uses that guise to further defraud unsuspecting foreigners.
Is this really the Nigeriian they will hear from — or is this a joke?
wportbello, thank you for posting this! I have been looking for it and had lost the address.
saj, yes, this is the same guy. I believe he has already preached in some 55 TEC churches…but maybe some of those sermons are still to come.
What a perfect keynote speaker for this silly and useless assembly of the Executive Council?
They all deserve each other.
David Keller and Chazaq:
I grew up in Parsippany, so given the setting of the meeting, I think either of you may well be on to something. 🙂
Would you like your parsnips with polity, covenant, or Beers? Oh, and there’s also the guilt-edged dessert menu.
“This silly and useless assembly of the Executive Council”
Scotsreb [#20]: Parsippany is tens of miles from 815 Second Avenue. The Executive Committee is taking the pulse of America.
WPortobello [#17]: Interesting. Iyalla has so distinguished himself as to warrant the ecclesiastical equivalent of an “all-points bulletin.”
DStroudMD [#15]: The bearded man carrying the abortion banner may well be Executive Committee member John Vanderstar, who will give the slavery report at this very meeting.
Irenaeus, I am overwhelmed with the lack of diversity on the EC. There’s representation all out of proportion to reality as regards gays and pro-aborts and general wackiness. And they are unaccountable. Slavery of course is a safe issue since we don’t have slavery (officially) in the USA. Wonder if they’ll mention Islamic slavery? Nah…