Will The Real Thomas Cranmer Please Answer His Phone!

"Now we need another movement to keep the Church faithful. I want to keep orthodox Anglicans together."

The Bishop of Rochester told clergy that the new movement was equivalent to the Reformation in the sixteenth century, which led to the establishment of the Church of England.

Traditionalists have been upset that the Episcopal Church escaped punishment despite consecrating Gene Robinson as Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop.

-- Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

The picture is coming clearer.  There are a number of bishops who are suffering from the disease I can only characterize "as delusions of grandeur".  We have a growing number of ego-maniacal folks who want desperately and are willing to give up everything and everyone to become the next "Thomas Cranmer".  

Who are these people?  Well we know for sure the numbers include ++Venables, ++Orambi,  ++Akinola, +Nazir-Ali, Mr. Schofield, Mr. Duncan, soon to be Mr. Iker, maybe retired Mr. Ackerman, and a few others.

Now, you may want to know how to tell who is the next person to vie for the coveted title of the New and Improved Thomas Cranmer.  Well, I do not know by name but I can tell you a little about the person.  The person hates women, thinks that women have a place in church, it just happens to be way in the back.  The person hates anyone that is not wealthy and can contribute large sums of money to this person's expense account.  This person wants to maintain second class citizenship for all those who do not think or act or live like they do. The person preaches repentance and punishment instead of reconciliation and love.  This person is interested in big church instead of Christianity.  This person preaches exclusivity rather than inclusivity.  The person tends to throw friends, colleagues and neighbors "under the bus" in order to further their own agenda.  Yes, these are some of the characteristics of the man who would be "Thomas Cranmer".  

Here is where the rubber hits the road.  All of these identified "Cranmer in-waiting" have signed on to the GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration identifying the Archbishop of Canterbury as being colonial and outdated and therefore superfluous to the Anglican Communion (never mind the seeming oxymoron for the moment).  But is Thomas Cranmer who we need or do we need someone else?  I think we need a bishop who is willing to go to all lengths to include everyone in their flock.  Jesus looked for that 99th sheep that went wandering away can a bishop do less?  I think we need a bishop who reconciles like Jesus did when the group of pharisees wanted to stone the woman for adultery and Jesus said "Hey there is no one else here to condemn you so neither shall I ('cept he said it in his own language).  Isn't that the bishop we want?  I think we need a bishop who shares the Eucharist with everyone just as Jesus did when he was at the last supper.  I want a bishop who is willing to sweat blood for his flock like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I want a loving bishop who says to the doubting , "here put your hand in the holes" instead of let's all go to GAFCON.  I want a bishop that builds on the cornerstone not tears apart the fabric of the communion. 

Think about it.  What do you want?

So, in essence these identified bishops want to become the person that they have already identified as being obsolete?  Here is my suggestion, why wait?  Let's just declare all of these fine older gentlemen to be obsolete and be done with it!  Then we go find bishops that know what bishops are all about.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR

Reading Katie Sherrod's blog http://wildernessgarden.blogspot.com/2008/11/prayer-vigil-saturday.html over the last few days has brought tears to my eyes.  This weekend there will be the diocesan convention for the diocese of Forth Worth.  I believe this is +Iker's diocese.  It has been almost exactly one year to the date when Mr. Schofield (then Bishop Schofield) decided to move his diocese from Fresno, California to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  That was December 7, 1941 oops 2007.  Then in March there was a convention here in Lodi in which our ++Katherine came and visited.  She wanted to know what questions we had.  One question that was posed was, "What is the National Church doing/learning in order to stop this from happening in other diocese?".  The answer now is apparently no better than it was then.  The answer is NOTHING!  

We have seen Pittsburgh and Quincy both fly south for the winter.  We have in fact seen the Moderator, Mr. Duncan also fly east for a conversation with ++Rowan Williams.  Please do not try to convince anyone that ++Williams would have seen any old Mr. because that would be just foolish.  Now, the diocese of Fort Worth is about to "hop on board the train to Buenos Aires".  And there is to be one more day of weeping and gnashing of teeth as once again the "purple-shirted thugs" are allowed to do what they please with impunity.  Don't get me wrong, there will be lots of help as the diocese splits into little pieces and the laity is forced to pick up those pieces and find that one cannot "put humpty dumpty together again".  It seems that those of us in the outer reaches of The Episcopal Church are left to go through this process over and over and over and over again until there is but a shell left and the people are broken and property is stolen and the history and love that we have all had is laid to waste by these power hungry purple shirted folks who proclaim the love of Christ all the while laying waste to everything in their paths and those that could help stand idly by and send us money and support for the long journey into night.  

I just wanted to say to those that can do something to stop this insanity -- "Hey, wake up!  There are thousands of people out here that need your help.  That want your help.  When ya'll gonna stop messin' around and do something proactive?  Life is tough out here and it is getting tougher.  People are hurting and yet the program of dis-information and hatred continues. "  I do not want to belittle that which has been done for the diocese of San Joaquin but we were first, caught you off guard maybe.  But crimenee sakes folks, this is number 4 -- NUMBER 4 how about you do something in advance so there is no number 5?

Rowan Williams and Neville Chamberlain

Archbishop Rowan Williams                            Neville Chamberlain

I have struggled with this posting for sometime.  It gives me no great pleasure to now write this but write it I must.  Why do you ask?  Well, here, in a nutshell form is the answer:

Dissident Anglican churches in Canada and the United States say they will form a new conservative jurisdiction in the next year, adding that the Archbishop of Canterbury has lost the moral authority to have any real say in blocking the radical move.

You may read the entire article here:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=947756

The Archbishop of Canterbury has, through a series of appeasement moves, given away the Anglican Communion.  More specifically, The Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church in the United States of America.  

Lets take the above statement and dissect it for just a brief moment.  We know where ++Rowan Williams personally stands on the issues that separate.   That being said he has had a series of meetings with all sides but most recently with Moderator Duncan in an attempt to keep everyone together.  On the final day of the Lambeth Conference he gave up our LGBT brothers.  On the other hand he has steadfastly refused, according to the conservative fold, to replace all of the apostate churches with the "real deal".  He stands neither for TEC/ACoC, nor for his own beliefs and not for the reasseerters.  In effect, he has given up all the moral ground and so it is easy to see how the conservative blowhards can utter the words above.

It is way past time to make a decision and to act on that decision.  It is time to declare those interloping archbishops inside North America to be legally and morally out of bounds - literally. Furthermore, they each must relinquish ANY claim real or imaginary, permanent or temporary immediately.   It is time to declare those bishops that have been deposed to in fact be deposed throughout the Anglican Communion.  It is time to take a stand and tell those who would destroy the Episcopal Church in the United States that they have 60 days to be reconciled or to be gone -- yes gone.  Out of the Anglican Communion.  Don't go away mad just go away.  If you all want to start a Church of your own then please do, we wish you well.  Just be sure you do it on your time and with your money and not with ours.  Mssrs. Duncan, Iker, Ackerman, Schofield, if you want to evangelize then do it the old fashion way -- earn it, stop stealing it.  And, by the way, do it without the benefit of orders.

Archbishop Rowan Williams you have been had.  Appeasement does not become you any more than it became Mr. Chamberlain.  You know it, they know it  and we know it.   

Let's Talk? No Let's Act!

There is an article in the Living Church on the results of the Executive Council meeting in Helena, Montana.  This was the lead paragraph:

"Executive Council has called for a reconciliation-oriented conversation with members of Common Cause Partnership, according to the two top officials of The Episcopal Church. They spoke to members of the media Oct. 23 during a brief conference call at the conclusion of the council’s four-day meeting in Helena, Mont."

Now, I enjoy a good meeting as much as the next guy.  A reconciliation conversation with folks who want to reconcile would be a truly great thing.  Now, if we could find three people in Common Cause that would like to reconcile with the Episcopal Church one might be able to have a meeting with a reconciliation conversation.  As it stands there are not three people, in fact there is not one person in the Common Cause Partnership that wants to reconcile with The Episcopal Church.    The Moderator ,aka Mr. Robert Duncan, went to Canterbury about a week or so ago to have a reconciliation conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury and it did not include The Episcopal Church.  

Note to the Executive Council, "When you find yourself in a hole the first thing one needs to do is stop digging."  Members of the Executive Council, San Joaquin, Pittsburgh and now Quincy have "decided to leave" the Episcopal Church.  While the concept of " a diocese cannot leave the Episcopal Church" is a great legal argument, but  as a practical matter, can we "get past that issue".   Folks, there is the Fort Worth Diocese standing in the wings and if you think for one minute that a "reconciliation conversation with Common Cause Partnership members" is going to stem the bleeding then you folks have not studied the diplomatic negotiations leading up to World War II.  I suggest that you ask +Cantuar for the tapes from Chamberlain. 

 Keep this in mind, you guys smacked the stuffing out of the Moderator of the Common Cause Partnership.  He is a proud and an arrogant man.  Do you think for one moment that he is now going to come and have a reconciling conversation with the very persons who publicly beat the crap out of him?  Please, this would be an embarrassment to him.  Oh sure, someone may show up because we want to talk and the more we talk the more they get done and the less we are prepared for the inevitable.

Here is an idea -- how about we develop and execute a plan of action that begins the long process back of rebuilding the Episcopal Church?  How about we stop talking with those that would bury us (see the Chapman Memorandum for a refresher)  and start some form of an proactive plan the brings us all together and then rebuilds the "big tent" that we once had. 

If we do what we have always done we will get what we always got.

Moderator Duncan's "Re-election"

It has been a week for elections, hasn't it? Today's news is that a group of clergy and laity in the Western Pennsylvania area have elected Robert Duncan as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

There is one small problem, however. This same group of people voted to separate themselves from said Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and affiliate with the Province of the Southern Cone. If this group has decided they do not wish to leave the Episcopal Church, we can celebrate that reconciliation has begun in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. But that leaves one little step in the selection process: the Diocese's choice must be approved by the TEC House of Bishops. This might be difficult because Robert Duncan was recently deposed by that same body.

Yes, we know that Moderator Duncan's deposition is not recognized by the leadership of some churches in the Anglican Communion - and those churches have a very large number of members. However, they have no power to decide who is a bishop in the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. And TEC has no power to select their bishops, either.

Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, another of your flock has gone astray. Are you going to make an announcement similar to the one you issued when John-David Schofield pulled the same maneuver in the San Joaquin Valley of California?

THE SAN JOAQUIN EQUITY COMMISSION

On the eve of one of the most important elections held in the State of California ever the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin made a statement to the rest of the church.  That statement is that this church will no longer be the refuge of the "few privileged".  That the Episcopal Church in San Joaquin has for too long marginalized every class of people they do not understand and do not like and the time is now to begin to unravel that intricate and insidious process we have used to exclude people. The continuing diocese of San Joaquin, in convention, approved the creation of an Equity Commission.   Here is what the Episcopal Life On-line wrote last week:

The commission is to include at least nine lay and (nine)(added for clarity) clergy members to support, engage and affirm marginalized communities within the diocese. Echoing the baptismal promise to "respect the dignity of every human being" the resolution identified the marginalized as "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender persons; women; various ethnic communities; the disabled and those adversely affected by socioeconomic circumstance in the life and worship of the Church, as the Diocese works toward justice, reconciliation and peace."
 
Commission members would also partner with congregations and other dioceses, provinces and organizations, identify resources and meet the pastoral needs of the marginalized, according to Cindy Smith, president of the diocesan standing committee.
 
"We look at it as creating a structure that encourages the gathering of information, dialogue and gives a means for making recommendations for us to move forward," said Smith, a parishioner at Grace Church, Bakersfield

Here is the link for the entire article:

 http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_101963_ENG_HTM.htm

What does that mean?  Well ,we could surely focus on the issue about to be decided in California on Proposition 8.  An entire class of people has been pushed into a closet and left there to die of suffocation.  This resolution means that the Episcopal diocese of San Joaquin will explore those ways in which the church has had a hand in this despicable process and remove the impediments to full inclusivity in our church.  But the resolution does way more than that! First it deals with the issue of marginalized women. Here is a quote directly from Mr. Schofield, "Even women have a place in the Episcopal church." But apparently not in any capacity that could be seen and valued. It deals with those ethnic minority groups that have been locked out of our churches and it deals with the disabled and the poor.  No longer can we simply send a buck to ERD and believe we have "done our fair share to help the poor and homeless."  Think back to when you went to Church today -- was your building completely handicap accessible?  Many, many are not.  And I don't mean did you all throw up a ramp to appease your discomfort with those in wheel chairs and scooters. Your altar rails and your aisles and your restrooms and the ability for the hearing impaired to hear the word of God and the blind to see the word of God. Time to really create handicap accessibility.  

There is a Church in Southern California, Messiah of Santa Ana and the rector is Fr. Brad Karileus.  This parish is in the heart of the city with the most Spanish speaking individuals outside of the Mexico City in the world.  This parish has held up as part of their mission the full inclusion of everyone including Spanish speakers.  It should be a beacon to the rest of us to get our act together.  We need to reach out to everyone -- to make our house of worship friendly for everyone.

Now, the soap box is done but for one more issue.  This commission is charged with ONLY conducting a survey to explore the reasons for marginalization and create recommendations on how to correct these past sins.  It does not put into action anything!  It will bring back to the next convention the commission recommendations for the entire assembly to review and perhaps act upon. 

While I applaud the movement forward we need to keep in mind that these classes of people continue to suffer from second class citizenship. With voting around the corner, how would you like it if when you went to vote the precinct officer said, "Sorry, you cannot vote.  We are studying the problem and may act on it in the future but right now, sorry!"    

WHIPLASH!

Well, the newest edition of the San Joaquin Star is out and I now have my neck in a brace!  That is correct, my neck is in a brace.  Ex-bishop now Mr. John David Mercer Schofield has made  a couple of statements that snapped my neck so hard that I may sue him for my whiplash injuries. Get this:

"Despite constant opposition and attempts to confuse the people of San Joaquin, deceit and scare tactics have been revealed for what they are."

I do not suppose that he has thrown open the doors (of information) and allowed all the people of San Joaquin to look and read the Episcopal News? The deceit and scare tactics like: bringing in a defrocked priest to "takeover" a parish in Turlock, CA?  The deceit and scare tactics of locking out a mission from it's own premises?  The deceit and scare tactics of selling a parish out from underneath the mission so he could finance his personal legal wranglings to keep him out of court?  Maybe he meant the scare tactics he tried to use in Taft to screw his faithful people down there.

That was the first time my neck snapped faster around than a broken clock.  Our dear Mr. Schofield says, 

"By initiating law suits against those who for conscience sake know they must leave an unfaithful church -  . . . - leaders of the Episcopal Church have instead chosen to intensify their legal efforts to gain control over property and money.   Such material things are not essential, but they are helpful tools in reaching out to a world especially at this time when we face greater turmoil than we have in living memory."

Let me just say that he ruined a large number of peoples lives by selling property to build a legal war chest in order to steal all the property and and all the money and then "blows this off" by saying "such material things are not necessary" ?  Say big guy, why not just give all that non-essential stuff back?  Ya know St. Francis lived in a cave and went around begging for food and contributions.  How's it going in Fresno in your bought and paid for home with 40 different types of silver and china?

Well, my neck is nearly a pile of mush when this gem comes out:

"Not unlike the diocese of Pittsburgh we have kept the changes to a minimum, we too will await the coming together of the larger body of  a new province where common canons and and Liturgy will be among the many things that bind us together"

Well let's see 'bout them changes.  Elsewhere in the STAR is the GAFCON nonsense so the people can read those minimum changes for themselves but for whiplash purposes let's see:

The Archbishop of Canterbury is out! Mr. ex-bishop John David Schofield promised everyone that we needed to make the move to the Southern Cone in order to stay in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury but that is now gone.  

Whose constitution and canons ya'll going to use?  The ones from the Southern Cone that say you cannot be there or that JDS had to retire 2 years ago?  How about your own? You know, the ones that you ignored in order to move to the Southern Cone?  Or how about Pittsburgh's?  Or Quincy's? or Forth Worth?  I know, you are just going to make it up on the fly.  That would be in keeping with your minimum changes.

And remember you promised the people of San Joaquin that they would still be using the good old prayer book? Nothing would change there.  Nope, it is still the good old prayer book - ya right - from 1662.  The people get to pray for the Queen of England as the head of State!  Gee whiz, that's not much of a change!  Let's keep in mind that you wanted the 1928 prayer book but what you got was something that predates even you!  Certainly no change there.

I really did get whiplash and I am thinking about adding my damaged and scarred neck to the myriad of lawsuits since "material things are not essential".