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."