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Friday, August 22, 2014

If this is Friday then we must be in the Southern Code

Yes, you read the lead in to this edition correctly.  Much of the results (of the tactics currently being used) remind me of the shift south to the Southern Cone.  Life is tough, then you get out of bed.

There is a move afoot to merge Christ the King (Riverbank) with Saint Paul's Modesto.  Here are at least some questions that have not been answered sufficiently.
     1, Which of the two (CTK and SP) is worse off financially?
     2, How will the diocese help the merger financially?
     3, What are the long term goals and objectives of the Diocese?
     4, Where are the long term financial plans that this merger will further?
     5, Where are the long term plans for returning property to the diocese and how is the diocese
         going to merge, keep open, close, and or sell property to further to goals and objectives of the
         diocese?
         a) long term plan for the large amount of cash that will be returned to the diocese?
         b) long term plan for the ECCO conference Center that will be returned shortly?
     6, the long range plan for clergy training, staffing and working.
     7, long range plan for outreach to grow the San Joaquin diocese?

These are the issues I can think of prior to any merger or anything else in the diocese.  Can you, the readers think of any more?  Just enter it in the comments section..

Saturday will be our day of rest and Sunday is the target date for a whole lot of movin' and shakin'.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Things are beginning to heat up here at Christ the King in the diocese of San Joaquin.  It is the summer and the temperatures have hovered around 95 - 102 degrees over the last few weeks.  Once in a while in cools off to 91 or so.  But for the parish of Christ the King I am reminder of a song verse/line, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

So, we begin with a little cartoon from the San Francisco Chronicle

Please see COMICS on Page U4 of Sunday, August 17, 2014 issue of San Francisco Chronicle

I suspect because of copyright issues you will have to go the the sfgate.com website and view the Sunday paper, the comic this refers to is titled Non Sequiter

Now, Bishop David Rice, our Bishop from New Zealand is coming to Christ the King to celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, August 24, 2014. After the celebration, Bishop Lewis will address the parish and then we will "dialogue".  I suspect the Chancellor will accompany Bishop Rice (ugh, oh!).  Here is some of the information that has been gathered.  Deacon Steve Bentley, has been reassigned to another parish within the diocese as of September 1.  That leaves us with our longstanding but retired Deacon, George Cano;  Rector Glenn Kanestrom, and Associate Rector Stan Collins.  By the way, as most of you know, deacons serve strictly at the pleasure of the Bishop.  The vestry of Christ the King has already discussed the issue of returning to St. Paul's in Modesto and approved of the idea.  Bishop Rice has served for many years as an Anglican in New Zealand and as such is not used to the democratic process/convention system we Episcopalians guard so jealously.  The decision comes at a time when   Christ the King is having financial difficulty (as are almost all the other parishes in the diocese).  I believe that the diocese has decided to cut their losses and we are the first pilot project.
The rector/priest in charge at St. Paul's will be taking a disability retirement and by naming our rector as the new rector for the newly combined parishes the diocese saves on at least the benefits from reducing by one the total number of clergy.  Did I mention the diocese is in financial straits with a debt equity ratio that would collapse even Apple computers.  This is a way of demonstrating to the National Church their desire to stay in existence.

Tomorrow, I will set out the negative side of this question. Until then, this is Fred signing off and saying, "Good night and good news."

Monday, August 18, 2014

THE VACATION HAS COME TO AN ABRUPT END


Welcome to the re-opening of Real Anglicans.  It has been enough time and as you might suspect, I am Real Anglican "upset".  Here is a quote from my very first post in Sept. 2009:

A personal note in closing. We are madly, wildly and passionately in love with our Lord, Jesus Christ. We came to this conclusion through our beloved Episcopal Church. Truly we struggle from time to time but scripture, reason and tradition bring us through every time. Our God is madly, wildly passionately in love with us and sent Jesus to make sure we knew that. Trust us when we say we will no longer stand idly by and allow some group of thugs parading around as God's chosen stealing from us God's poem of love to us. Forewarned is forearmed

This blog was open from then until about two years ago when I discovered (among other things) I was writing to much about political things and too little about the diocese of San Joaquin and the Episcopal issues in general.

Since our diocese began anew in March of 2008 money (yep the root of all evil) has plagued us like the frogs in Egypt.  Since 2008 this diocese has had no real set of plans, for recovery of the property or for our renewed spiritual journey.  I have called  publicly for diocesan plans from this blog and our sister blog, Off-topic at least 14 different times from 2009 through 2014.  I have had a number of opportunities to speak with diocesan administrators and given outlines of how to begin a collaboration with representatives from all our parishes and one of two things have happened.  First, and is usual, I have been patted on my head, told that "sure, we will start that soon", and never again does that topic come up in Diocesan dialogue.  Second, I have been told that the "outline is too radical" for a loving, welcoming church.  (this loving welcoming church on a macro level has kicked the crap out of any and every parish that went "South".  Seems talk is cheap.

I have been told there is a sustainability committee but our parish has not seen any sustainability plans.  We have been told, it was offered in Deanery meetings.  Oh really, where are the CTK updates? 

Recently, in April of 2014 I asked for an official audit at both the Diocesan level and the Christ the King Parish level.  See, issues with cash accounting, separation of duties, gifts to restricted funds, large loans and large accounts recovered from the old diocese and who the heck knows where we are?  For example, the parish was told that the vestry had brought funds in from our restricted bell tower fund to augment an anemic operating budget.  When asked about who drafted the due to and due from entries and who had approved the actual transfer of funds the person who had been asked the question was hung up at "due...".  Did not understand a word and yet this is good financial leadership.  It was then that I called for an audit.  Once again, patted on the head and told to press on.
Our financial accounting is rife with  not bad accounting but inept accounting. 

Now, with no better idea of where we or the diocese are the diocese has decided to "discuss" with Christ the King the OPPORTUNITIES that would be presented if we only merged back with St. Paul Episcopal Church in Modesto.  St. Paul's Church, one of the leading parishes to not only break away from the Episcopal Church but then breakaway from the Anglican doctrine.  St. Paul Church whose parishioners were arrogant and nasty as they went out the door.  St. Paul's Episcopal Church who has a more spacious facility and the Bishop has setup a Cathedral there (instead of Fresno).  Can you, our Episcopal readers fathom a more spiteful gesture than having a stalwart leading parish in the fight to remain Episcopal, a parish that was out on a limb for three months while everyone in New York debated in what appeared to be a cold and calculating manner what to do for three months. 

Now, because the diocese has been so wrapped up in a singular quest to merely "recover property" Christ the King is faced with paying for mistakes that we never committed.  Where are the diocesan plans drafted by a collaborative body from the diocese and approved by the convention?  Where is all the money?  How much did we/have we/ will we spend on property recovery and how on God's green earth is this diocese going to repay all those loans? (Remember if the National Church refers to these as loans the National Church is carrying these loans as due to/due from and as a result there is no paper loss since there is a loan.  However, to forgive a loan, all at once or over a period of time will ultimately reduce the assets of the church by the amount loaned.  If you just sucked in a whole lot of air you would have read that last line correctly.

And finally, in an ironic conclusion to all this happy news - The Bishop has decided he needs a new car.  And, he has asked us (in addition to every other parish in the diocese to kick in some buks to buy him a new car.  I have but one word for that : BRASSY.

If you can help by spreading the news around, especially to see if other "jacked up" diocese are feeling the same way help us out.

Stay tuned.  Fred is once again open for business!!!