The Rt. Rev. David Colin Jones, the bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, has accepted an invitation from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to serve as a “consulting bishop” as it rebuilds.
Bishop Jones will provide the Pittsburgh diocesan Standing Committee, the current leadership team, with practical advice on the details of diocesan administration, clergy deployment, and support for congregations remaining in the Episcopal Church in the United States.
“Bishop Jones’s experience in Virginia, especially his pastoral care for congregations that continued with the Episcopal Church, provides us a great resource and guiding hand,” said the Rev. James Simons, President of Pittsburgh’s Standing Committee.
It is interesting to me that a bishop from a center experiencing property upheavals is ministering to another area where such has been threatened. Coincidence?
Bishop Jones is a decent evangelical/centrist who does have a great deal of pastoral experience to bring to the table.
I hope that he can work with sympathy to both side of the divided diocese and parishes in Pitt.
Remember it is those who have had their Church stolen from them by the liberal ascendancy at 815 who have suffered the most across the episcopal Church. This includes Duncan ET. all.
http://www.pwcweb.com/ecw
Just love those ‘decent evangelical/centrists’, especially those uttering sweet words of reassurance that they will never use lawsuits against fellow Christians. Adam 12’s comment deserves more attention because it is based on past ‘evangelical/centrist’ behavior. And it should be noted that Fr. Simons now views the lawsuit possibility as “more complicated”. Now he wants as a “consultant” someone who has participated in the great VA bait and switch scam. Yeah, I too pray that the ‘evangelical-centrist’ can “work with sympathy”, but I can’t believe it will ever happen. Not on the basis of what has already happened.
Bishop Jone may be a decent man, but he is no centrist
Well, as someone who has lived in VA for about 20 years and has had a chance to watch +David Jones in action for a long time, let me add a comment or two. I used to have great respect for him. He has done more than any other single bishop in TEC to promote church planting, for which he has a genuine passion. I would have described him as an admirable centrist in the past, but not anymore.
It’s notable that at the recent HoB meeting in Salt Lake City, +Jones voted to go along with the scandalous attempt to depose +Duncan, even though +Peter Lee and the Co-Adjutor, +Shannon Johnston, did NOT. Such a breaking of ranks with his boss is significant.
Similarly, I was there at the annual diocesan council after the 11 CANA churches left the diocese, and while +Lee used very measured, non-inflammatory language in talking about the departed churches that were now absent from the council, +David Jones acted like an attack dog, and used fierce language in angrily denying the charge that the Diocese of VA had departed from the historic VA tradition of broad evangelicalism. I tried to engage him in polite conversation during a break and when I objected to his angry speech, he glowered at me, very upset.
And it’s worth remembering, when +Jones was the rector of Good Shepherd, Burke, in northern VA before his election to be Suffragan Bishop, he did choose none other than the notorious liberal, Jane Dixon, to be his assistant.
He is indeed a fine man, and a dedicated Christian leader, but he is totally deceived and has genuinely bought into the lie that “gay is OK.” And so, I would have to say that he is no longer a centrist. He has turned on the conservative clergy in VA with whom he used to have quite good rapport. I now would trust him even less than +Lee. He has turned quite partisan.
David Handy+
Thanks #5 Without mentioning names but something sounds very famililar, I think Bishop Jones’ twin brother might reside in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Deleted for inappropriate content-ed
RS Bunker
I was ordained through the Dio of Va, and I got to know Bp Jones quite well (he was not yet a bishop). I was blessed to know him – but from observation, he knew which way the wind was blowing and tended to trim his sails accordingly. He was a supportive pastor to those in pain – but a bulldog when crossed. I am saddened by his appointment, but not surprised. I am wondering, too, how much Mr Simons will lean to the left now that he has gotten himself stuck to the tarbaby of revisionist clergy.
A [url=http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/2008/10/suffragan-bishop-david-jones-to-act-as.html#8586119558113883534]reader[/url]
at BabyBlue’s found this about the “centrist” bishop (from Louie Crew’s sometimes very helpful pages):
[blockquote] Courtesy of Louie Crew’s website.
Bishop David Jones voted yes on the following:
In support of Bishop Walter Righter (1995)
To force women’s ordination in every diocese (1997)
To include in the Book of Occasional Services a rite for blessing homosexual unions (2000)
To consider blessing committed same-gender relationships (2003)
hmmm…. intriguing days ahead.[/blockquote]
#8
It’s not “how much” but “how much more”
Fr. Wilson (#6),
You are welcome. I have no idea who the “twin brother” to +David Jones might be in Pittsburgh, but perhaps many of us could think of similar people we’ve known who used to be centrists or “moderates,” but who have now become antagonistic or even embittered and treat us orthodox clergy worse than the rank liberals do. Such are the tragedies of any civil war, whether political or ecclesiastical; they are inherently polarizing and often end up bitterly dividing former friends and family members.
One of the mysteries of severe conflicts is that they bring out the best in some people, and the worst in others. Alas, I think this vexed controversy has brought out the worst in +Jones. And if I may be allowed some room to speculate, my hunch (as an armchair psychologist viewing from afar) is that part of the reason why +David Jones has turned on us conservatives so harshly is because he was deeply hurt, and felt betrayed, by the fact that so many of the new churches that he had helped to plant through his enthusiastic promotion of the cause of church planting in VA ended up leaving TEC.
After all, +Jones had a huge investment in those churches, emotionally, professionally, and otherwise, and I suspect that has played a role in why he has become so angry and defensive. I’m sure there is more to it than that, but I’d be willing to bet that his severe disappointment with those new babies he had helped to birth is part of it.
Also, it should be noted that in order to help pay for its huge legal costs in the property lawsuits, the Diocese of VA has been forced to sell lots of land that he had personally helped to acquire as future sites for new church plants. I’m sure +Jones hates the thought of that. He knows full well that in selling that valuable land in promising areas where new churches are needed for future growth, the diocese is shooting itself in the foot and badly damaging its future prospects.
Anyway, let me take this opportunity to thank you for your admirable work as president of the Standing Committee in Pittsburgh, and especially for your brave recent letter to the PB, responding to her outrageous attempt to depose all of you currently functioning as the temporary Ecclesiastical Authority there.
Keep up the good work, Fr. Wilson!
David Handy+
#11
Thanks you David for the kind words. Your insights into things Anglican are always clear and hopeful. I, for one, welcome them. This has been a challenging time for us here in Pittsburgh but I am sure we are doing what God is calling us to do. It is the fellow conservatives whom we worked side by side with over the last 20 years who not just broke ranks with us but who now work against us that is particularly painful these days.
Thanks to all for the insights into our new “consulting” bishop. This is of course the first hint as to the direction the new “reorganized” diocese of Pittsburgh will take. How will the 12 conservative priests who publicly declared both their orthodoxy and dissent tell their congregations that the new bishop, albeit merely temporary and consulting, is a gay-affirming revisionist with little tolerance for conservatives? These priests have assured their congregations that all would be ok and that there should be not concern that the new bishop would be a liberal tolerant of the gay agenda and all the heretical theology rampant in TEC. After this selection I think there is reason for concern by all conservatives remaining TEC in Pittsburgh.
david jones was leading the sr camp at peterkin, the episcopal church camp for the diocese of wv when i was a high school student…his words and actions were such a blessing at a time when i was searching to understand a god that seemed so out of reach for a teenager who felt worthless and unloveable…i’m grateful to many people from my summer camp experiences who helped me in my decision to give my heart to jesus…so many people from those days at peterkin come to mind…like frank wade and jim bradley and gavin mcgrath and chris seitz…and david jones…and today…many are viewed on different “sides” as we seek to serve god…praise god that they stood together and showed me “jesus christ” as i was choosing what side to stand on…
I completely agree that Bishop Jones is not a conservative, and that he’s entirely untrustworthy. He’s been in the thick of suing Christians, he voted for the deposition of Duncan, and the only way he gets the mantle of “conservative” is in contrast to his liberal Bishop Lee, whose entire “Center Aisle” approach of careful movements to the left was upended by the radical progressives who didn’t give a hoot about appearances. Furthermore, there are numerous anecdotal stories of direct interactions with this man that indicate that he is no conservative but rather an angry revisionist who “got caught” in turmoil that is now rather poor publicity.
All of that being said, I don’t understand why the commenter at BB would simply not tell the truth about Bishop Jones’s past votes in the HOB.
According to Louie Crew’s website profile on his votes — found here — http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/bishops/0148.html — Bishop Jones didn’t vote in the Righter trial [he didn’t, after all, become a bishop until 1995], he did not vote for blessing same-gender unions in 2000 — he voted against — and he voted “yes” to Bishop Ackerman’s FAILED resolution to endorse certain historic orthodox doctrines in 2003 — an excellent resolution that essentially highlighted just how radically unChristian the doctrine of so many of our bishops are.
It really doesn’t do our side any good when “information” that is so radically wrong is spread as fact throughout the blogosphere by whomever the commenter was at BB. There is plenty of bad stuff to say about Bishop Jones without saying the wrong things about his votes.