David Virtue, the internet, websites, and blogs continue to rip the TEC effectively. The level of self-deception and blindness in the TEC leaders continues to stagger close observers. Oh what 10 years has brought them, a 23% decline in attendance (2000-2010) with no let-up in sight. It's a difficult issue for older folks. (Never mind, there aren't many youths these days.)
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16326
Dear Brothers and Sisters www.virtueonline.org
July 20, 2012
The Anglican/Episcopal drama is quite possibly the most riveting story in contemporary Christianity. The power of the Internet via websites, blogs and social media including, VIRTUEONLINE www.virtueonline.org, has brought this vividly to light, most recently at the Episcopal Church's 77th General Convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Never in history has the little media guy had a chance to rise up and challenge the ecclesiastical powers and ask if the emperors (read bishops) have legitimate theological clothes. Never before has it been the place to challenge those in authority over us and to ask the hard tough questions. We at V OL won't settle for easy answers.
With the help of the Internet, Anglicans in African provinces can get the word instantly and spread the word that there is an alternative to the revisionist Episcopal Church. Although the ACNA and other Anglican bodies have their issues, that they exist at all in the strength they have–including old Episcopal congregations and dioceses, with or without the property–is a testament to the power of the Internet and our persistent voices.
At General Convention this past week in Indianapolis, I challenged the new incoming House of Deputies president, Gay Jennings who had raged on and on about how we need to get the youth back in the church and promote them. I stood up at a press conference and point blank asked her why the youth of the conservative Diocese of Dallas had not attended the last five years of national Episcopal Youth Events. They feel alienated, been publicly abused, called homophobic and other names because they are evangelicals and believe in the authority of Scripture. She almost strangled on the question and fobbed it off. Later, Bishop Leo Frade of Southeast Florida came up to me to say he was ashamed that was the case and that he would look into it.
When I asked Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori at another press conference why the national church headquarters might have to be sold off to pay the $37.5 million mortgage owing on it for legal fees, she replied that the building was worth substantially more than that. (815 2nd Avenue costs $8.7 million annually just to maintain.) Of course she didn't reply to the deeper question as to why endless lawsuits are being fought and litigated over property that most bishops can never hope to maintain even if they win them. Is it any wonder there is a huge disconnect between what goes on in parishes and what bishops and clergy pass at General Conventions?
Can anyone imagine 99% of Episcopal parishes deliberately hiring a transgendered priest? "Hi, I'm Laura, I used to be Lauren. I had a sex change operation two years ago and the Bishop of San Diego said I was fit to be a priest, so I want to be your priest. Let me in." You can't parody this stuff. Malcolm Muggeridge once told me that when he was editor of PUNCH magazine, they had a parody edition planned on the Soviet Union's collectivization being the Kingdom of God of Earth, when up jumped Dean Hewlett Johnson and actually said it was. They killed that edition.
The real hero of this General Convention was not the adoption of a long list of resolutions including asking the U.S. Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), rejecting the Covenant, voting for gay marriage, seriously reducing funding to the Anglican Communion Office, providing rites for pet funerals, the need for new structures owing to lower income into church coffers, the passage of the predictable provisional liturgies for same sex marriage or even the possibility that PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison will hire a trannie, as a priest of say, St. Clements, Philadelphia. The true face of courage came from one single bishop - Mark Lawrence of South Carolina who, in the face of the mostly revisionist House of Bishops and the 22 Communion Partner bishops stood up and said, "We here by repudiate, denounce and reject any action of The Episcopal Church which purports to bless what or Lord clearly does not bless. We declare any rite which purports to bless same-gender unions to be beyond the authority and jurisdiction of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and without force or effect."
It was an unprecedented shot across the bows of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and her cohort of sycophantic bishops who would not oppose her even if the Holy Spirit hit them over the head with a 1928 Prayer Book.
All week long, Bishop Lawrence had been a voice crying in the wilderness. He and his colleague, Bishop William Love of Albany, were the only two Episcopal bishops who put up a scrap in the House of Bishops when their brother and sister bishops debated Resolution D002 which called for the inclusion all of persons to all ministry regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, thereby embracing transgenderedness. At one point, the newly anointed Bishop of Central Florida, Gregory O. Brewer rose to say that the passage of Rites for same sex marriage would impact Global South evangelistic efforts, perhaps even endangering lives. This had zero impact on the self-absorbed, narcissistic openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, V. Gene Robinson who continually bewailed the endless homophobia of those who oppose his behavior.
The good bishop of South Carolina voiced his disapproval over similar Resolution D019 calling for the total inclusion of all persons regardless of the sexual orientation, gender identity or expression in the life, worship and governance of the church.
Bishop Lawrence's pleas fell on deaf ears and hardened hearts and "T" -- transgender -- was added to the list of The Episcopal Church's protected sexual deviations: LGBT.
Altogether the passage of Resolutions D002 and D016 along with the concurrence of A049, the Convention's spiritual decay became just too much for the sensibilities of the South Carolina delegation. On Tuesday night, the entire membership of the deputation, including Bishop Lawrence, walked out. He left behind just two members to say that his diocese had not left The Episcopal Church. He is now consulting with his diocese on how he will move forward.
As he has won in the courts over property issues and has offered a "quit claim" to parishes to decide their own future, would anybody really be surprised if he and the diocese upped and left TEC? Time will tell. For the moment, he says he has no intention of leaving The Episcopal Church.
Ironically, what emerged from this litany of evil resolutions has been the excoriation of TEC by the secular press of TEC's actions. That in itself is unprecedented.
Take for example what Ross Douthart wrote in the New York Times: "the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don't seem to be offering anything you can't already get from a purely secular liberalism, which suggests that perhaps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world. Absent such a reconsideration, their fate is nearly certain: they will change, and change, and die."
Or consider what William Murchison of Creators Syndicate wrote: "The mistake of Christian bodies like the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, and even the Roman Catholics has been to woo the culture by pretending that Truth at bottom is just personal opinion; that religious viewpoint admits prejudice more often than heavenly light."
Jay Akasie of the Wall Street Journal wrote in an article, What Ails the Episcopalians. A sub head ran, "Its numbers and coffers shrinking, the church votes for pet funerals but offers little to the traditional faithful."
He ripped her a real one when he said, "Bishop (Jefferts) Schori is known for brazenly carrying a metropolitan cross during church processions. With its double horizontal bars, the metropolitan cross is a liturgical accouterment that's typically reserved for Old World bishops. And her reign as presiding bishop has been characterized by actions more akin to a potentate than a clergywoman watching over a flock.
"In recent years she's sued breakaway, traditionalist dioceses which find the mother church increasingly radical. Church legislators have asked publicly how much the legal crusades have cost, to no avail. In the week before this summer's convention, Bishop (Jefferts) Schori sent shock waves through the church by putting forth her own national budget without consulting the convention's budget committee-consisting partly of laymen-which until now has traditionally drafted the document." He had much more to say which you can read in today's digest.
This was the final straw for the newly anointed Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies who rushed out a piece for the Washington Post in which she opined that Episcopal churches are really short on politics, sexuality debates and long on Jesus. Such fictional writing defies everything that this and previous General Conventions are about. 99% of all resolutions passed never mention Jesus (except to use him to support whatever lunacy they have in mind) and will mercifully be forgotten except, of course, the sexuality ones that will continue to drill holes directly into the underwater hull of the SS TEC.
The deeper truth is that her piece shows that TEC leaders feel a need to respond to the sudden negative media attention. Elite Episcopal leaders like Jefferts Schori and V. Gene Robinson are accustomed to secular praise for their brave and "holy" stands. Ridicule from the likes of VOL is one thing, but public ridicule from outside the church is new territory for them. They don't like it one little bit. In the coming days, will we see an op-ed piece in the New York Times coming directly from Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori on the progressive stance of her church in the face of its orthodox despisers?
The one man who must surely be enjoying all this is, of course, the shadowy figure of David Booth Beers, Jefferts Schori's attorney who picks up millions of dollars in legal enough fees from every property lawsuit. Even if TEC sells the national headquarters, he will go on colleting his legal pound of flesh...in the name of (property) inclusivity of course.
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16326
Dear Brothers and Sisters www.virtueonline.org
July 20, 2012
The Anglican/Episcopal drama is quite possibly the most riveting story in contemporary Christianity. The power of the Internet via websites, blogs and social media including, VIRTUEONLINE www.virtueonline.org, has brought this vividly to light, most recently at the Episcopal Church's 77th General Convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Never in history has the little media guy had a chance to rise up and challenge the ecclesiastical powers and ask if the emperors (read bishops) have legitimate theological clothes. Never before has it been the place to challenge those in authority over us and to ask the hard tough questions. We at V OL won't settle for easy answers.
With the help of the Internet, Anglicans in African provinces can get the word instantly and spread the word that there is an alternative to the revisionist Episcopal Church. Although the ACNA and other Anglican bodies have their issues, that they exist at all in the strength they have–including old Episcopal congregations and dioceses, with or without the property–is a testament to the power of the Internet and our persistent voices.
At General Convention this past week in Indianapolis, I challenged the new incoming House of Deputies president, Gay Jennings who had raged on and on about how we need to get the youth back in the church and promote them. I stood up at a press conference and point blank asked her why the youth of the conservative Diocese of Dallas had not attended the last five years of national Episcopal Youth Events. They feel alienated, been publicly abused, called homophobic and other names because they are evangelicals and believe in the authority of Scripture. She almost strangled on the question and fobbed it off. Later, Bishop Leo Frade of Southeast Florida came up to me to say he was ashamed that was the case and that he would look into it.
When I asked Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori at another press conference why the national church headquarters might have to be sold off to pay the $37.5 million mortgage owing on it for legal fees, she replied that the building was worth substantially more than that. (815 2nd Avenue costs $8.7 million annually just to maintain.) Of course she didn't reply to the deeper question as to why endless lawsuits are being fought and litigated over property that most bishops can never hope to maintain even if they win them. Is it any wonder there is a huge disconnect between what goes on in parishes and what bishops and clergy pass at General Conventions?
Can anyone imagine 99% of Episcopal parishes deliberately hiring a transgendered priest? "Hi, I'm Laura, I used to be Lauren. I had a sex change operation two years ago and the Bishop of San Diego said I was fit to be a priest, so I want to be your priest. Let me in." You can't parody this stuff. Malcolm Muggeridge once told me that when he was editor of PUNCH magazine, they had a parody edition planned on the Soviet Union's collectivization being the Kingdom of God of Earth, when up jumped Dean Hewlett Johnson and actually said it was. They killed that edition.
The real hero of this General Convention was not the adoption of a long list of resolutions including asking the U.S. Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), rejecting the Covenant, voting for gay marriage, seriously reducing funding to the Anglican Communion Office, providing rites for pet funerals, the need for new structures owing to lower income into church coffers, the passage of the predictable provisional liturgies for same sex marriage or even the possibility that PA Bishop Charles E. Bennison will hire a trannie, as a priest of say, St. Clements, Philadelphia. The true face of courage came from one single bishop - Mark Lawrence of South Carolina who, in the face of the mostly revisionist House of Bishops and the 22 Communion Partner bishops stood up and said, "We here by repudiate, denounce and reject any action of The Episcopal Church which purports to bless what or Lord clearly does not bless. We declare any rite which purports to bless same-gender unions to be beyond the authority and jurisdiction of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and without force or effect."
It was an unprecedented shot across the bows of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and her cohort of sycophantic bishops who would not oppose her even if the Holy Spirit hit them over the head with a 1928 Prayer Book.
All week long, Bishop Lawrence had been a voice crying in the wilderness. He and his colleague, Bishop William Love of Albany, were the only two Episcopal bishops who put up a scrap in the House of Bishops when their brother and sister bishops debated Resolution D002 which called for the inclusion all of persons to all ministry regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, thereby embracing transgenderedness. At one point, the newly anointed Bishop of Central Florida, Gregory O. Brewer rose to say that the passage of Rites for same sex marriage would impact Global South evangelistic efforts, perhaps even endangering lives. This had zero impact on the self-absorbed, narcissistic openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, V. Gene Robinson who continually bewailed the endless homophobia of those who oppose his behavior.
The good bishop of South Carolina voiced his disapproval over similar Resolution D019 calling for the total inclusion of all persons regardless of the sexual orientation, gender identity or expression in the life, worship and governance of the church.
Bishop Lawrence's pleas fell on deaf ears and hardened hearts and "T" -- transgender -- was added to the list of The Episcopal Church's protected sexual deviations: LGBT.
Altogether the passage of Resolutions D002 and D016 along with the concurrence of A049, the Convention's spiritual decay became just too much for the sensibilities of the South Carolina delegation. On Tuesday night, the entire membership of the deputation, including Bishop Lawrence, walked out. He left behind just two members to say that his diocese had not left The Episcopal Church. He is now consulting with his diocese on how he will move forward.
As he has won in the courts over property issues and has offered a "quit claim" to parishes to decide their own future, would anybody really be surprised if he and the diocese upped and left TEC? Time will tell. For the moment, he says he has no intention of leaving The Episcopal Church.
Ironically, what emerged from this litany of evil resolutions has been the excoriation of TEC by the secular press of TEC's actions. That in itself is unprecedented.
Take for example what Ross Douthart wrote in the New York Times: "the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don't seem to be offering anything you can't already get from a purely secular liberalism, which suggests that perhaps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world. Absent such a reconsideration, their fate is nearly certain: they will change, and change, and die."
Or consider what William Murchison of Creators Syndicate wrote: "The mistake of Christian bodies like the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, and even the Roman Catholics has been to woo the culture by pretending that Truth at bottom is just personal opinion; that religious viewpoint admits prejudice more often than heavenly light."
Jay Akasie of the Wall Street Journal wrote in an article, What Ails the Episcopalians. A sub head ran, "Its numbers and coffers shrinking, the church votes for pet funerals but offers little to the traditional faithful."
He ripped her a real one when he said, "Bishop (Jefferts) Schori is known for brazenly carrying a metropolitan cross during church processions. With its double horizontal bars, the metropolitan cross is a liturgical accouterment that's typically reserved for Old World bishops. And her reign as presiding bishop has been characterized by actions more akin to a potentate than a clergywoman watching over a flock.
"In recent years she's sued breakaway, traditionalist dioceses which find the mother church increasingly radical. Church legislators have asked publicly how much the legal crusades have cost, to no avail. In the week before this summer's convention, Bishop (Jefferts) Schori sent shock waves through the church by putting forth her own national budget without consulting the convention's budget committee-consisting partly of laymen-which until now has traditionally drafted the document." He had much more to say which you can read in today's digest.
This was the final straw for the newly anointed Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies who rushed out a piece for the Washington Post in which she opined that Episcopal churches are really short on politics, sexuality debates and long on Jesus. Such fictional writing defies everything that this and previous General Conventions are about. 99% of all resolutions passed never mention Jesus (except to use him to support whatever lunacy they have in mind) and will mercifully be forgotten except, of course, the sexuality ones that will continue to drill holes directly into the underwater hull of the SS TEC.
The deeper truth is that her piece shows that TEC leaders feel a need to respond to the sudden negative media attention. Elite Episcopal leaders like Jefferts Schori and V. Gene Robinson are accustomed to secular praise for their brave and "holy" stands. Ridicule from the likes of VOL is one thing, but public ridicule from outside the church is new territory for them. They don't like it one little bit. In the coming days, will we see an op-ed piece in the New York Times coming directly from Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori on the progressive stance of her church in the face of its orthodox despisers?
The one man who must surely be enjoying all this is, of course, the shadowy figure of David Booth Beers, Jefferts Schori's attorney who picks up millions of dollars in legal enough fees from every property lawsuit. Even if TEC sells the national headquarters, he will go on colleting his legal pound of flesh...in the name of (property) inclusivity of course.
When the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson took a private communication one of my staff sent him and made its contents public inside the House of Bishops this week, he opened a can of worms that he has only himself to blame for. No one asked him to do that; he did it on his own recognizance. He did not ask my permission.
