On July 10th, the Right Revd Jerry Lamb, putative bishop of the putative “Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin”, wrote this letter to the clergy of the diocese as it was constituted prior to December 8, 2007. It gave August 5th as the deadline for receiving responses from said clergy as to their intentions with respect to their future relationship to the Episcopal Church. Apparently it was not a precision operation. I know of at least two female deacons who were addressed as “Dear Father N.” I also know of two presbyters who never received the letter.
In any case, I am given to understand that the Standing Committee of the (rogue and illicit) Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is set to meet this Friday. One might reasonably presume that their agenda includes taking notice of responses received and not received by last week’s deadline. One might further presume that a goodly number of letters will be in the mail shortly informing their recipients that they have been deposed from the ordained ministry as the Episcopal Church understands ordained ministry.
I would give Bishop Lamb’s letter the attention it deserves: NONE!
I’ll simply note that perhaps the “deadline” of August 5th was really not a deadline after all. You know, like September 30th, 2007, according to ++Rowan Williams.
But while that imposter +Jerry Lamb’s letter and its bogus deadline has indeed been justly ignored by most of us, I admit that I’ve been surprised that the considerable symbolic significance of that day, August 5, 2008, has been remarkably neglected and widely overlooked. For that was the fifth anniversary of the disastrous vote to confirm Gene Robinson at the catastrophic General Convention that met in Minneapolis back in 2003.
I won’t forget that dark day, however, since I was there in the room where the HoB was assembled when the momentous results of that fateful vote were announced. No, I won’t forget. It’s the day that at the emotional level, I really began to leave TEC.
David Handy+
Slipshod is as slipshod does. There’s bound to be a canon made up by Beers to give Schori some kind of nonexistent parallel universe authority to change those inaccurate form letters to the proper sex designation so as not to offend EquiFem, the goddess of feminism avenging patriarchiality, or some such.
Perhaps these fine priests did respond…to his New Mexico address.
Intercessor