Read it all, it is lengthy pdf file containing photos, autobiographies, and the nominees’ answers to four essay questions posed by the Search and Nomination Committee
Read it all, it is lengthy pdf file containing photos, autobiographies, and the nominees’ answers to four essay questions posed by the Search and Nomination Committee
Did I download the joke version, or did one candidate really conclude an essay with “Walt Disney was a bishop.”?
So it readeth on page 5 of the overall document.
It looks like they got softball questions.
I see that Nicholas Knisely was … and is involved on the editorial board of Episcopal Cafe and Covenant Communion.
RE: “I see that Nicholas Knisely was … and is involved on the editorial board of Episcopal Cafe and Covenant Communion.”
Yup — and he’s a revisionist too.
What a piece of work.
It’s not quite as bad in context, but still I sense a certain lack of gravitas.
Still, I’m concerned about the “Buddha brought me to Jesus” guy.
What a spectacularly dreadful slate of nominees.
Good heavens.
You’ve got the presider of the utter devastation of the Diocese of Florida, Kurt Dunkle, too.
Love his little snippy line: “The real and imagined evolutions in the Episcopal Church left our diocese divided and angry.”
[snort]
RE: “There was little time for indecision or inaction. Instead, the work of re-membering had to begin quickly.”
Heh — “[i]dismembering[/i]” would be the better word. And no, Kurt Dunkle certainly wasn’t “inactive.” No sir!
RE: “Within two years, 15 percent of the people and 30 percent of the clergy in the diocese had left the Episcopal Church … but our diocese remained Episcopal. It was time to rebuild, and we had churches in dire need.”
Yes, it was “time to rebuild” — except . . . [i]that did not happen[/i]. In 2005, ASA for the Diocese of Florida was around 12,000. In 2010, ASA was at [i]its lowest point of the past decade[/i], around 8700. That’s not “15 percent of the people” — that’s far far more. But how clever of Dunkle to leave out what happened after the first two years of his and Bishop Howard’s reign — which was . . . [i]even more decline[/i]!
RE: “Quickly into the ministry, I realized that prob- lems, however sticky, can always be solved with God’s help. Then the intense joy follows.”
Mmm hmmm . . . and what wonderful “solutions” they were, too.
How very sad to have such on the ballot to succeed Geralyn Wolf, who is a member of Communion Partners.
“Walt Disney was a bishop”.
And now it seems Daffy Duck is trying to become one too.
Actually, #7, whatever Bp Wolf’s good work outside the diocese, within Rhode Island her tenure met with only mixed success.
A recent survey found that in RI in the last decade the number of Episcopalians has declined over 25% … not so impressive.
At the end of Bp Wolf’s tenure, our 200 year-old cathedral closed because of basic maintenance issues: after nearly 300 years the congregation was dispersed. The bishop herself was not a regular Sunday worshipper at the cathedral (on her “off days”) and she was instrumental in some dubious staffing choices there.
As an Anglo-Catholic who enjoyed acceptance and validation from the RC church, she was much, much too cozy wth the local RC bishop : if TEC is going to grow in RI it needs to underscore what makes us a distinctive alternative tradition to them, in the best sense. In RI, there is tremendous opportunity for church growth, mission and evangelization among the thousands of disaffected RCs who’ve become permanently disenchanted with their church. Perhaps the bishop enjoyed being photographed with her opposite number in the RC Church more than in pioneering our version of the Anglican Ordinariate.
Wingate,
Not just a lack of gravitas — a conclusion that Walt Disney had more of a gift of apostleship (as described in the quote) than most of those who are elected to be bishops. Sad, eh? Indeed, bishops do travel from parish to parish; but without a gift of apostleship (and even if gifted in administration or even leadership) — and again, there is nothing to suggest that overseer and apostle are synonymous — bishops do not always bring or leave piles of pollen.
It is one of the great misnomers of our denomination, brought about from a clear mis-reading and misappropriation of scripture, and one of the great failings of bishop search committees.
That is, given the job description from the BCP, we want a bishop who is both overseer AND apostle; but we fail singularly in nominating those with any sense of gift of apostle, even though they are out there.