GUNSLINGERS: Who Else Would Show Up At Convention

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin ended it's three day fest with a celebration of life.  The Eucharist was sung, danced, spoken and the ship that had been wrecked was now repaired and back to sea with a full crew ready willing and able to continue the work placed before us.  

Overall the convention was a rousing success!  There was but one bit of tension.  This is a tale of caution for those diocese headed into the inevitable or maybe already there or maybe just starting. It is the tale of a gunslinger that came to convention.  A gunslinger at an Episcopal Diocesan Convention?  Yep, some of you may already recognize the person I am talking about.  It is the clergy person, usually a priest (as opposed to a bishop) that is walking a very fine line.  This person sees personal gain to be made by walking a fine line between those that are leaving and those that are staying.  (There may be one of these in the schismatic side but how would I know that?).  This person has served the original bishop/diocese in a capacity of Standing Committee or Diocesan Council of Ecclesiastical Court or some other semi-powerful position.  The person thinks that he/she (although generally a he) is smarter and faster than the rest of the diocese including the new bishop.  When asked to deliver resolutions and amendments for convention this person holds them close and then presents them in such as a fashion as to "out parliamentarian" the diocesan Parliamentarian.  See, they know procedure better than anyone else and can out maneuver all the rest at convention.  This person brings their delegates primed for "if I can't have it my way then you are all just a bunch of liberals trying to eliminate the rest of us orthodox from the diocese."  When things do not go his/her way they pout. They do not vest for services and they do not sit with the rest of the clergy during those services.  

You all must be getting the picture by now.  This person, at least on appearances, still wants to play the game by his/her rules.  For example, bested by the Chancellor now wants to out fox everyone with resolutions of incorporation.  See, I think this gunslinger suffers from delusions of grandeur.  The person wants to be "bishop" of his own flock in his own way and when he/she does not get his way he/she cries foul!  You liberals just do not appreciate what I have done for you!  

A word to the wise, I have seen this type of gunslinger in at least one other diocese in the mid-west.  They are hard to control but the good news was at convention, some of the delegates, when the gunslinger wasn't looking, filled the chamber with blanks!