Finally, I want to add to our Diocesan photo album an affirmation that we are part of a larger family, with a larger photo album. As members of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, we currently find ourselves in a place of challenge and some anxiety, due in large part to theological and ecclesial disagreements with regard to human sexuality. We have been in similar places before. Part of what is different this time is the reality of globalization, the challenge of information management and the pace with which we carry on conversations across the internet.
For example, I keep shaking my head and wondering how did the Windsor Report, a report that started out as a committee report, become in such a short time the sacred text and standard of “right” moral and ecclesial behavior that it is for many today! In my judgment, calls to be “Windsor compliant” are premature at best; and do a disservice to our Anglican heritage of faithful engagement with one another around complex issues and to the special Anglican charism of the via media, the middle way.
On this day when we remember in our liturgical calendar the great Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, we would do well to take to heart the words of the collect appointed for his commemoration. “Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.” As noted in the recent publication, Communion Matters, from the Theology Committee of House of Bishops: “Comprehension for the sake of truth has served us well. Perhaps it is our unique and essential charism as a Church.”
In the spirit of that heritage, I will continue to labor for a church that is welcoming and inclusive of all in every aspect of its life, governance and ministry. In particular, this means that I will continue to champion the justice ministry toward full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons in our church, including their full access to all orders of ministry and the liturgical blessing of the church on the committed, life long relationships of gay and lesbian couples.
I did ‘read it all’ and it leads to some sad reflections on the words:
[blockquote] “…as we embrace the mission and funding priority established by General Convention related to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.â€[/blockquote]
(Apparently, this is the new and improved Great Commission)
[blockquote]“…a diocese deeply committed to justice ministry, a place where the inclusive, embracing love of God reaches all “[/blockquote]
(no metanoia required )
[blockquote]“Grounded in the promises of the Baptismal Covenantâ€
[/blockquote]
(..which means precisely what I say it means )
[blockquote]“there were nineteen congregations in the diocese at the time of Bishop Hopkins election. Several are no longer active, but most are.â€[/blockquote]
(and still growing??)
[blockquote]“Inevitably, some will choose to leave and find their spiritual home elsewhere.â€[/blockquote]
( As in part of the Anglican Communion? )
Perhaps we should pray for the Diocese of Vermont and for them to receive the gift of the Episcopate in Christ
What’s left to say? This is tiresome stuff and deeply dishonest, a dishonesty that goes to the very core of TEC. This two-facedness has become part of TEC’s real identity.Why do we still listen to people like this? Now THIS out to be closed to comment because commenting is purposeless. Larry
The good bishop makes some worthwhile observations in the opening paragraph. However, his dismissal of the Windsor Report as a “committee report” is inaccurate and misleading. Then to counter it with a collect that grossly misrepresents the scholarship and contribution of Richard Hooker to Anglicanism, causes my stomach to turn. Worse still there are many who will regard what the bishop claims as accepted (and unquestionable) truths.
Clarity: The good bishop has excused himself from those who might be considered Windsor-compliant.
An ECUSA/TECan bishop speaking of “faithful engagement” is the modern symbol for an oxymoron, is it not? With the MDGs, we have the faithful engagtement of the ECUSA/TEC with fundraising to LOBBY the government to do more about poverty – NOT, you will note, actually engage poverty. With the Windsor Report, we have elevators of homosexuality to the bishopric complaining of the rapidity by which the Report has become significant. And, with the concerted effort of 815 to sue any and all for franchise rites, we have the calim of inclusive.
Oxymoron is getting a bad name.
Re#5 That really isn’t correct. In my experience both in Vermont and in the diocese where I work, the engagement with the MDGs is not lobbying…it is mission work, some done through Episcopal Relief and Development and some done hands on–actual engagement of poverty, actual engagement with the work Jesus called us to.
I live, not too far from both Poultney and Wells, Vermont, two of Vermont’s initial parishes. From what I can see, neither parish seems to be very active. There is also an Anglican parish in Poultney that is not part of the diocese of Vermont.
Personally, I worship in a nearby parish of the Diocese of Albany, where I can be assured of episcopal leadership that lies firmly within “the Faith once given.” I do not believe that the leadership of the Diocese of Vermont cares ‘a bit’ for “the Faith once given” if that Faith gets in the way of the Diocese of Vermont’s extremely secular and temporal policies and goals. The Dio of VT, in my opinion, departed the Anglican Communion a long time ago and only clings to its self-presumed membership because it sees such membership as a ‘societal’ status symbol.
As for MDGs. Why does a church need to embrace the MDGs of a politically corrupt organization such as the United Nations? Again, ECUSA, along the Dio of VT seem to see being connected with the UN as some sort of political status symbol.
Churches can and have established their own equivalents of the MDGs, long before there ever was a UN.
What I see missing from the Bishop of Vermont’s statement is that it is only through Jesus Christ that Salvation can be achieved and it is his and the task of the rest of the diocese to evangelise in the name of Jesus Christ in order to save souls. Souls saved through Christ experience changes that bring about changes within a church that result in charitable efforts equivalent to the MDGs.
I would like the Bishop of Vermont to tell the world just how the United Nations is attempting to save souls in the name of Jesus Christ.
Diocese seems to be typical of TEC. From 1996 through 2002 lost about 4 percent of members and from 2002 through 2006 lost another 6 percent. Had great financial times from 1996 through 2002 with Plate & Pledge increasing about 44 percent. But from 2002 through 2006 Plate & Pledge has increased only about 17 percent.
Statmann
I quote a section of this address below, concerning the Bishop of Vermont’s critical view of the Windsor Report:
[blockquote] For example, I keep shaking my head and wondering how did the Windsor Report, a report that started out as a committee report, become in such a short time the sacred text and standard of “right†moral and ecclesial behavior that it is for many today! In my judgment, calls to be “Windsor compliant†are premature at best; and do a disservice to our Anglican heritage of faithful engagement with one another around complex issues and to the special Anglican charism of the via media, the middle way. [/blockquote]
I am reminded of Ronald Knox’s mock advert in The Times:
Evangelical vicar, in want of a portable, second-hand font, would dispose, for the same, of a portrait, in frame, of the Bishop, elect, of Vermont.
W. S. Baring-Gould, ‘The Lure of the Limerick’ (1968)