The Rev. Canon Stephen Taylor Lane believes that he will begin the “grand adventure” of a lifetime today when he becomes the spiritual leader of the state’s 17,000 Episcopalians.
Members of Lane’s new flock will gather at St. Luke’s Cathedral today to participate in his consecration as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefforts Schori, the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, will lead the event. The Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, bishop of the Maine diocese, will participate in the service that is expected to be similar to the one held in the same church a decade ago when she became the diocese’s first woman bishop.
Technically, Lane, 58, will be the bishop coadjutor until his installation in September when Knudsen, 61, will retire. He and his wife, Gretchen, a high school science teacher, live in Portland and have three grown children, who are scheduled to attend today’s consecration.
[blockquote]”I have a sense that we’re really learning to talk to one another,” Lane said of the controversy. “The church across the provinces has recognized that we need to be in conversation. It’s pretty uncomfortable … but once the conversation starts, it’s harder to stay mad.”[/blockquote]
It is not a matter of emotions, Bp Lane — it is a matter of faithfulness to God’s revealed will. Yes, we are passionate about our commitment to the historic faith and moral values of the Christian faith — but we are not simply angry.
When will the reappraisers understand that we reasserters are neither ignorant nor emotionally driven?
Here is Maine, there is little open resentment at what Schori and TEC are becoming. Maine has turned into one of the bluest of all possible blue states. And yet I note that St. Marks, here in Augusta, closed the church and held its meetings in the vestry during the winter because the congregation has shrunk so much. Still, as this state was once so conservative, it is now equally as far left, although I suspect that standard church asa is falling steadily because the state is as secular as it is blue. Larry
Hakkatan — depends on what mood they are in.
The moment they acknowledge we are not emotionally driven is when they bleat about how unfeeling we are.
Just one of the many options of rhetorical devices that they have, depending on the audience, etc. ; > )
Kinda like the “you are nothing, you are a tiny minority” speech which neatly pendulum swings over to the “vast right-wing conspiracy of mighty savages beating up on the sad victimized tiny gay minority who never meant any harm” speech.
One day they use Option A, and the other, Option B. ; > )
[i] Off topic. Deleted by elf. [/i]
~Elf Lady