I am pleased to announce that Bishop Carol Gallagher has accepted my invitation to assist in providing episcopal pastoral care in the Diocese of North Dakota. She has agreed to reach out especially to congregations and clergy who feel alienated and hurt by me due to different understandings of human sexuality. I am most grateful for Bishop Gallagher’s assistance. She can be contacted at revcjg@aol.com or 201.438.1209. View her blog at www.mamabishop.blogspot.com.
We find ourselves in the midst of a discernment process, seeking the mind of Christ, about whether the Holy Spirit is leading us to new understandings of human sexuality or not. As this discernment continues through the canonical processes of The Episcopal Church and the conciliar processes of the Anglican Communion, I urge patience, kindness and respect in our dealings with one another. I also pray our energies will be focused on engaging the mission of the church as we are sent into the world to serve the poor and to share our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sorry, but I don’t believe that a woman can be a priest or a bishop.
I just love how people give the insulted tones whenever anyone calls attention to race or ethnicity, and yet one of the bragging points of Mama Bishop is how she is the first Native American bishop.
Is that a badge or something?
Cennydd,
To the story’s announcement, your logical conclusion will be that Bp Smith has been deceived.
?
Choir Stall.
It appears you fail to understand one of the primary components of Native American culture in dialogue: she’s telling her story. It is acceptable, and encouraged.
Well, here’s one more bishop who has ‘wimped out’ in the face of his church dissolving into the greater culture. Goodbye, North Dakota! Hope those of you who remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ quickly find a new home, because your bishop has abandoned the Faith!
ps to above post: The ordination of women can be solidly supported from Scripture and Tradition. I’m talking about his requesting ‘alternative’ supervision, when it means he’s really caving in to the revisionists!
That’s awfully big of you Smitty, but you’ve just allowed cancer to come into your diocese.
So, Little Cabbage, you have exchanged deceived with caved.
Bp Smith ends up the fall guy one way or the other. And just the other day we were saying how wonderful it was to see a bishop -this bishop – uphold biblical teaching and canons.
My opinion is that he has not caved — he has freed himself up to carry on. There is, as you imply, the danger of letting loose a revisionist, if that is what she is. +Smith will need to keep her on task so there’s no repeat of what happened to her before.
The greater danger, however, would be where she comes to the point of declaring that she represents all the Native American Episcopalians in North Dakota because she is Native American, and that her revisionist faith is their faith. I don’t mean necessarily that SHE would say that, but “others” would.
YUP, he did ‘cave’. And he has freed himself to ‘carry on’. Each day brings him closer to his coveted goal of a fully-funded CPF pension. The Great Danger has already come to the diocese; he happened to choose a bishop who is female; he could have easily chosen a bishop whose genitalia is male to bring the revisionist ‘gospel’. It’s all the same: he CAVED and his people are DECEIVED.
I stand by what I have said.
Cennydd, s’right.
Minor point: is not Bp Smith Native American?
Hey, Bill.
Bp Smith is a registered member of the Potawatomi’s in Oklahoma; I’ve never heard “how much.” BTW, he and his wife, an Episcopal priest, served on OK’s White Earth rez for many years before he was elected ND.
+Duncan gave liberal parishes in Pittsburgh the option of alternative oversight some years ago and while most declined to follow that path, St. Brendan’s Church in Franklin Park has been receiving episcopal ministrations from the Bishop of West Virginia in recent years. What is the Bishop of North Dakota doing that’s so different?
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
[blockquote]We find ourselves in the midst of a discernment process, seeking the mind of Christ, about whether the Holy Spirit is leading us to new understandings of human sexuality or not.[/blockquote]
By saying this, Bp Smith shows that he may be conservative in personality, and so reluctant to make major changes quickly, but that he has bought into the core concept of the “progressives.” He has heard the Serpent say, “has God really said..?” and he has entertained that question as a valid one. Bp Smith does not believe that Scripture is God’s Word, reliable and authoritative. He thinks that perhaps the Prophets and Apostles misheard the Holy Spirit as they wrote, or that perhaps the Holy Spirit has smacked Himself in the forehead, asking Himself, “What was I thinking when I said same-sex sexual activity was wrong?!”
When someone begins to talk of “discernment” when the Scriptural record is clear, we have someone who is not conservative in theology, however conservative such a person may be in personality. “Discernment” in such an instance is an abandonment of Scripture as the foundational authority of the Church. That is not an orthodox position.
On another note, I think that this is Bp Gallagher’s third position. I suspect that she may encounter difficulties in ND like those she met in SVa. Maybe not — but I would not be surprised.
Bishop Smith is being consistant and is offering revisionists in his diocese what the orthodox have asked for in revisionists diocese. You can’t ask for what you are not willing to give. This is no more than what Bishop Duncan has done.
To Rob Eaton,
Native American culture story telling is not unique. We all have stories and tell them. Story telling is not sacredly restricted and mysterious. I just hope that I don’t drop the race bomb or the race sympathy card to give me credibility more than another. If race isn’t important…if there is no East and West…male or female…WHY does race get you a badge of privilege or honor anymore?
#15. – Yes, buying in to the idea of a reception process on this issue is the major problem with this piece.
PS – I found this on “mamabishop”‘s blog…
Today is also the birthday of Barbara Harris, a saint among us. She has offered herself to the whole church as one who also stands before the people, fighting for justice and inclusion across all boundaries in the Church and beyond.
[i] Comment deleted by elf. Commenter has been warned many times about taking a thread off topic by adding comments about WO. [/i]
Cennyd, my friend, the issue of the ordination of women has been amply covered over the years in this and many, many other venues. I’m not taking this thread off topic, and hope no one else will, either.
aNow, when one reads “discernment,” one needs to become immediately suspicious and we all do when we read “process of listening.” The cant and jargon multiply steadily, and language becomes a means of obfuscation , rather than clarification. LM