One of the most critical leadership strategies I have tried to live day in and day out as your Rector is to make sure that our theology drives every single thing we do together. Gospel-Holy Spirit driven theology that is clearly evident in our preaching, teaching and all we do. For instance, the goal of our instructed Eucharist was to enrich our worship by realizing the theological ”˜whys’ of why we do what we do in worship.
One of the most profound learnings for me during our day of Clarity and Charity was a simple vacuum of any coherent theology coming from the Presiding Bishop. There was no there-there, no center of theological gravity. The most often repeated word from her was experience. Re-evaluating marriage, Scripture, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ through our own experience. I felt as if the head of the Unitarian church was at the microphone and not the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
This idea of our own experience kept coming up to the point that finally at the end of the question and answer session I went to the microphone and stated to the P.B. that I am a happily married man of twelve years, but that as a priest in a very difficult ecclesiastical marriage with the church, feeling as if the Bride of Christ (the church) has become completely unfaithful with little or no fidelity. Imagine if my wife were to come home and say”¦. “Al, I think we should abandon the marital vows and base our marriage on our experiences of what feels right and wrong, in fact out of that experience Al, I think we should have an open marriage. I know it’s out of the box thinking but experientially it just feels like the right thing to do!” If that were agreed to, our marriage would inevitably end in destruction, not to mention the damage done to the countless relationships surrounding the marriage. So it is when we use our experience to trump Scriptural authority. I ended my time at the microphone asking the question of where in the world do we go from here now that we have once again and with clarity been exposed to our massive differences? The question was never answered.
Well, where do we go from here? How can we together move forward if one side of the relationship has no theological moorings? This juncture should drive each one of us to our knees in prayer, praying that Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit would make clear our future. As you pray that prayer, please pray for the Gospel unity of this Diocese and the leadership of Bishop Mark Lawrence.
This is my favorite part:
[blockquote] …Bishop [Lawrence] communicated to the Presiding Bishop (P.B.) about the amazing health and vitality of the Diocese of South Carolina. He stated:
We are one of the very few growing dioceses in the Episcopal Church, growing not just through transfers, but growing brand new Disciples in the faith! I can only say that because I have had nothing to do with it. There are five reasons that the Diocese of South Carolina is growing faster than the population….
(1) The strategic leadership of Bishop Edward Salmon
(2) The Theological leadership of Bishop FitzSimons Allison
(3) The Social leadership of Bishop Gray Temple
(4) The clergy in this diocese who are the most gifted and talented I’ve ever worked with
(5) The unwavering commitment to the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His Headship [i]and[/i] Lordship and the powerful witness of it [/blockquote] Amen!
I must say I was stunned by this piece, and I didn’t think that could happen anymore. Bp. Lawrence was truly remarkable. Knowing people from South Carolina I am certain there was charity; but it is just as obvious that there was also clarity.
One, truly should read the ENS article just out. Even more “remarkable” than one could imagine..
If you know how one makes cotton candy, you’ll know why my head is spinning.
Blessings, and I am truly proud of our clergy and Bishop.
Gloria Reidinger
(so there)
Don R wrote on the Lumpkin thread,
[blockquote]The Church cannot have a self-contradictory teaching; it cannot say that it’s both good and bad, or both important and not important.[/blockquote]
We have come to a place where the clergy of the diocese of South Carolina practice an entirely different religion. The visit sounds like an ecumenical visit with a Hindu leader. What is the point?
Do you suppose that Schori learned anything? I’ll wager she didn’t, because she did not come there to learn, but to persuade.
Oh, how long, how long, are we going to bear this woman and her minions? When do we say, “No more. Let us see and hear you no more!”
LM
Does not this visit end up affixing the Diocese of South Caroling more firmly in the cross hairs of those wielding the TEC CWMDs (canonical weapons of mass destruction)?
Here’s the link to the ENS article
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_95407_ENG_HTM.htm
The PB apparently grasped enough of the words spoken to her to realize that what she regards as “communication” was not occurring, as she observed she was struck by the failure to do so. ’nuff said.
Re#7 Thank you, Jennie TCO, for the ENS link. Neva Rae Fox, program officer for public affairs who accompanied the Presiding Bishop on her South Carolina visit, certainly saw the statement
by +Lawrence and how +Schori responded to the questions differently than Al Zadig+.
The Rev. Zadig’s and ENS’s accounts are revealing. One hopes that a full transcript is forthcoming from some quarter or another in a publishable format. It’s long past time to demonstrate, and broadly, using her own words in aggregate and at one time and place, the barren theological desert that Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori’s statements come from. Relative emotive individualistic situational ethics transferred to the theological realm. Experience trumps all. There is indeed, no there There, not even a smidge, hmm?
I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Everyone has a center of authority. For Christians, that center is located in Scripture and the Teaching of the Church (which itself is based on Scripture), not in themselves. Among the reappraisers, the center of authority seems to rest in experience (either individual or communal). Thus, the authority is focused within the self or within the community. There is no check to see if any action or belief will be wrong before it is undertaken.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Phil highlighted the fundamental flaw with reappraiser theology. The reliance on “experience” as the highest form of authority [see Bp. Bennison’s comments for GC 2000 D-039 in Blue Book] allows for Griswoldian “pluriform truths”, which inherently negates the ossibility of absolute truths that form the basis of Christianity. Indeed, there are two different faiths.
Now that it has been confirmed by the diocese of S.C. in person by Schori that she cannot or will not answer straight forward questions put to her and that there are two different religions within TEc……what now? Business as usual? We practice two different religions within TEc? That’s a great witness for the unchurched! NOT!!!!!
Two different religions. And that is precisely why our diocese is now part of the Province of the Southern Cone.
#14, some are called to leave and some are called to stay and witness to the world around them that Christ is still Lord within TEC. We need bastions around which to rally, if we are to continue the Great Commission, even within TEC. D. of SC is such a bastion. Individual churches within revisionist dioceses are and can be such bastions. Sorry, this fight for the soul of TEC is not over yet and probably won’t be over in the lifetime of anyone on this blog. But I pray that the Lord will continue to raise up those who will stay and evangelize within TEC, because the Word is needed there as much as it is by the unchurched.