Tag Archives: The Episcopal Church

The Future of "The Episcopal Church"

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Moderator: I have added the quotation marks around the name of the organisation in question.  I'm sure that Deborah just forgot…

A most interesting observation from Charlotte Hays over at The Corner at National Review about "The Episcopal Church's" 77th General Convention in Indianapolis:

Can there be anything left to change after Indianapolis? Indianapolis voted for provisional liturgies for uniting same-sex couples (rings are exchanged), ceremonies for pet funerals (I guess my little cat died too soon), the ordination of transgender people to the clergy (why not — women and ex-women welcome?), and an apology to American Indians for having introduced them to Christianity.

It is interesting that so much of what happens at the General Conventions revolves around sexual issues. Sexual behavior, almost more than any other facet of our lives, involves an urge to do what we want to do, regardless of the rules. The Primal Episcopalian, Henry VIII, split with Rome because he wanted to do what he wanted to do with regard to a sexual issue. Women were allowed to be ordained because, well, women wanted to be priests. A Gospel or Tradition that says you can’t do this must be ditched in favor of a new discernment.

The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the homosexual bishop of New Hampshire, whose consecration in 2003 almost split the Episcopal Church, looked to be everywhere at the Indianapolis convention. At one point, the Right Reverend even took to the floor to deny nasty rumors that there was trouble in paradise between himself and his “beloved Mark.”

Thanks for sharing, Gene. Glad my mother didn’t live to see it, though. The Right Reverend spoke endlessly about his pet subject: sexual identity. “One striking point, at least to this writer, was the fact that there was no reference in any of the Bishop’s comments to the one aspect of sex that is relevant to the survival of the human species, namely, human reproduction. For all we know every other aspect of ‘sexuality’ is purely the result of human socialization,” a report in Virtueonline, a traditional Anglican website, noted.

In a way, that sums up the sad proceedings in Indianapolis: sterile.

Sterile.

I was driving home today listening to CBC Radio, our public broadcaster, and the program was about "coming out" stories, told from both the side of the daughters or sons and their parents.  As I pulled into the driveway, I was in the midst of listening to a story of a young women with a lovely singing voice who decided to do a radio diary of her transition into the "male" gender through testosterone and showing what would happen to her voice.  Her mother was interviewed and so on.  All very interesting, and what was sad to me was hearing one mother say that she knew she had religious friends who consider it a sin to be gay and therefore she thought she would have to drop these friends.  People often have a very garbled idea of what being a Christian is all about… that we hate and judge and that's about it.

Sigh.  And in case you don't know what else the mainstream elite news media think of those who believe in non-sterile sex, check this bit by Mark Sandlin from Huffington Post.

Until today, I've restrained from calling people "homophobic." I've called their laws homophobic, their ideas homophobic, their words homophobic, but never them. So, today I'm coming out as a person who calls other people homophobic.

Why? Well, because they are. Homophobia is the fear of homosexuality. At this point, it is impossible for me to believe that most people who hide behind the Bible or denominational polity haven't had more than ample time to recognize that those two things simply don't support their belief that homosexuality is a sin.

I read someone somewhere say that it wasn't fear of homosexuals so much as fear of God, but I digress.  And it is not homosexuality — the inclination towards same-sex attraction that is sinful — but sexual activities that separate the procreative and unitive aspects of human sexuality outside of a life-long marriage between one man and one woman.  So we heterosexuals better get our act together — because really we are the ones who ruined marriage and have created a culture of convenience that is really a Culture of Death.

While some of us here might be a little sad or astonished at what happened in Indianapolis, there is a goodly section within Catholic circles that are probably applauding this and hoping that those old, celibate males that run things will see where the signs of the times are pointing.

Kate Childs Graham writes over at the National Catholic Reporter:

This week, when news broke that the Episcopal Church voted to approve services blessing same-sex relationships, I had a couple of thoughts. First, “Hooray!” And then — *record scratch* — “Wait. They got to vote on marriage equality?”

In the past year, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians all had the opportunity to vote on equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And though the outcome was not always favorable for the LGBT community, the fact that they voted remains the same. Each of these denominations has structures that are vastly different — and dare I say more democratic — than our own institutional Catholic church.

Your thoughts?  Because mine, when I first started working for Catholic newspapers back in 2004, were that if there were democracy inside the Catholic Church it would be in as much disarray as the Anglican or United or any other mainstream denomination battling the big sexual issues.  I thank God for the fact that the Catholic Church has a Pope and bishops in communion with him.  But I'm also glad in some ways that there are many mansions within the Catholic Church where people can find God in Jesus Christ and come to know what true discipleship means at their own pace.

I wish we all did a better job of helping people with same-sex attraction or gender identity issues feel loved and welcome — without changing what God has revealed through Jesus Christ.

Ditto for finding ways for women to flourish and manifest their spiritual gifts and callings within the Church, without bending on issues such as ordination.

Been thinking a lot about virtue lately and character and that pesky issue of self-control, whether it is of sexual appetites or gluttony — or simply the fact that most of us in North America eat too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right things, like kale (definitely an acquired taste, but with lemon, olive oil and lots of fresh garlic, a kale salad with pumpkin and sunflower seeds is not only edible but good-tasting) and such.  It is now risky and "homophobic" in institutional settings to talk about the virtue of sexual restraint.  How sad.

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A Sad But Inevitable End

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It's hard to believe that we sprang from this. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say we were sprung out of this mess by the Holy Spirit. The following article appeared in the Wall Street Journal, and as I read it from a thirty-year distance, it's like coming across an old acquaintance, once an important and dear friend, who's now laying drunk in a gutter.

How could such a thing happen to what seemed to be such a solid and venerable institution? It's probably more reasonable to ask, "How could it not happen?" When a tree is uprooted, it cannot live for long. A body cannot live without a head. When there is no legitimate authority to guide, chaos will take over. Even what seems to be beautiful, when separated from discipline, eventually grows ugly.

As you read the article, you might be tempted to shake your head in disbelief. Rather, we should give thanks to God that nearly thirty years ago, with the establishment of the Anglican Use parishes of the Pastoral Provision, He allowed us to begin to preserve what was true and beautiful and holy in Anglicanism by bringing it back to its birthplace; namely, Christ's Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. May God bless and multiply the Ordinariates in continuing the work begun.

OB TT016 howaka G 20120712174831 A Sad But Inevitable End

What Ails the Episcopalians

By Jay Akasie

Indianapolis

Episcopalians from around the country gathered here this week for their church's 77th triennial General Convention, which ended Thursday. Although other Protestant denominations have national governing councils, the Episcopal Church's triennial gathering stands apart. For starters, it's one of the world's largest such legislative entities, with more than 1,000 members.

General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.

During the day, legislators in the lower chamber, the House of Deputies, and the upper chamber, the House of Bishops, discussed such weighty topics as whether to develop funeral rites for dogs and cats, and whether to ratify resolutions condemning genetically modified foods. Both were approved by a vote, along with a resolution to "dismantle the effects of the doctrine of discovery," in effect an apology to Native Americans for exposing them to Christianity.

But the party may be over for the Episcopal Church, and so, probably, its experiment with democratic governance. Among the pieces of legislation that came before their convention was a resolution calling for a task force to study transforming the event into a unicameral—that is, a one-house—body. On Wednesday, a resolution to "re-imagine" the church's governing body passed unanimously.

Formally changing the structure of General Convention will most likely formalize the reality that many Episcopalians already know: a church in the grip of executive committees under the direct supervision of the church's secretive and authoritarian presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. They now set the agenda and decide well in advance what kind of legislation comes before the two houses.

Bishop 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 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.

Whatever its cost, the litigation against breakaway dioceses—generally, demanding that they return church buildings and other assets—has added to the national church's financial problems. Many dioceses are no longer willing or able to cough up money to support the national organization, and its bank accounts are running dry. On Monday, for example, the church announced that its headquarters at 815 2nd Avenue in midtown Manhattan—which includes a presiding bishop's full-floor penthouse with wraparound terrace—is up for sale.

In the past, General Convention, for all its excesses, at least gave ordinary laymen a sense that they had a democratic voice in governing the church. But many Episcopal leaders have chosen to focus more on secular politics than on religion over the years. Donald Hook, author of "The Plight of the Church Traditionalist: A Last Apology," estimates that church membership has declined to fewer than one million today from three million in 1970. This is another reason, along with financial woes, to save money with a slimmed-down legislature.

And yet there are important issues at stake if laymen are further squeezed out of what was once a transparent legislative process. A long-standing quest by laymen to celebrate the Eucharist—even taking on functions of ordained ministers to consecrate bread and wine for Holy Communion, which is a favorite cause of the church's left wing—would likely be snuffed out in a unicameral convention in which senior clergy held sway.

Also in jeopardy would be the ability of ordinary laymen to stop the rewriting, in blunt modern language and with politically correct intent, of the church's historic Book of Common Prayer. The revisionist bishops who would hold sway over a unicameral convention in the future haven't hid their desire to do away with all connections to Thomas Cranmer, who was appointed archbishop of Canterbury by Henry VIII. He was a classic figure in the English Reformation. But today the man and his prayer book are deemed too traditional by some church bishops.

For some, the writing on the wall is already clear. On Wednesday, the entire delegation from the diocese of South Carolina—among the very last of the traditionalist holdouts—stormed out of the convention.

Mr. Akasie, a journalist and Episcopalian, lives in New York City.

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84 Groups of Anglicans on the Map and a Viable U.S. Ordinariate by Anglican Standards

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Ordinariate Google Map 11 02 12 300x192 84 Groups of Anglicans on the Map and a Viable U.S. Ordinariate by Anglican Standards

The Emerging Anglican Catholic Ordinariates Google Map as of February 12, 2011

It has been two weeks since we visited the Ordinariate Google Map and, as usual, the pins have kept coming.  As of this morning, the count by country is:

Canada:                  30

United States:      36

United Kingdom  18

TOTAL                     84

More groups seem to be on the way in the three countries we have on the board and Australia is yet to come.

Most of you know that I am usually reluctant to speculate, but I thought a quick look at some statistics might be reassuring to those who worry about what the future might hold.

Let’s take a look at what these numbers might mean in the United States.

Let’s assume that the 36 groups currently on the map in the U.S. would enter a newly erected American Ordinariate with an average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 2500, which I think would be an incredibly conservative estimate.

This number assumes that:

  • no new groups form,
  • no more existing groups vote to enter,
  • the current groups do not grow,
  • Anglicans who have already entered the full communion of the Catholic Church show no interest in the Ordinariates, and
  • no cradle Catholics attend Ordinariate services on a regular basis.

All of these assumptions would run contrary to our experience thus far.

Given these Malthusian parameters, here's what an ASA of 2500 would look like in comparison with The Episcopal Church:

  • The average parish attendance would be 69, three larger than the 2009 Episcopal Church parochial ASA of 66.  (67% of Episcopal parishes had an ASA of 100 or fewer in 2009.  Only 5% had an ASA of 300 or more.)
  • The average Sunday attendance of the American Ordinariate would be approximately 15% larger than that of the combined ASA of the three Episcopal Dioceses of North Dakota, Northern Michigan, and Western Kansas.
  • It would be 25% larger than the combined ASA of the two old Biretta Belt dioceses of Eau Claire and the portion of the Diocese of Quincy that remained in the Episcopal Church.
  • The Ordinariate ASA would be more than one-third larger than the TEC Dioceses of Montana, Eastern Oregon, and San Joaquin.
  • The American Ordinariate would be one-quarter larger than the Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania, the Utah, Idaho, and Alaska
  • It would be at least ten percent larger than the Dioceses of Springfield, Spokane, Northwest Texas, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Fond du Lac.
  • It would be slightly larger than the TEC Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Northern Indiana.

In all, this would make an American Ordinariate—in a worst case scenario—larger than 21 of the domestic dioceses of The Episcopal Church.

If an American Ordinariate were to launch with an ASA of 3,000, it would be approximately the same size as the Dioceses of Iowa, Lexington, Eastern Michigan, Easton, Vermont, Nebraska, and Hawaii.

If an American Ordinariate were to grow to an ASA of 5000, it would be either larger than or roughly the same size as 59 of the domestic dioceses of The Episcopal Church.

These are still very small numbers in Catholic terms, but, in Anglican terms, I would say that an American Ordinariate looks quite credible.

(For those who want to look at the raw numbers, TEC's 2008 and 2009 ASA data are available here.)

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