From an interview with the Presiding Bishop

Posted on by

or, as my wife is fond of saying “the peanut butter lady!”

I have to ask, how can you take anyone seriously who presents such willful misrepresentation without batting an eye? Here’s what she said:

“Obviously a handful of our church leaders are still upset and would like to see the church never ordain and never baptize a gay or lesbian person,” Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in Burlington. “We need to refocus on more life-and-death issues like starvation, education, medical care.”

{read it all}

  • Tregonsee

    The final straw which caused my departure from TEC was not the election of +VGR, or even the election of ++KJS. It was the election of ++KJS, surely the most unqualified priest, and individual, ever to be PB, and nobody but a tiny number of conservatives spoke out. That was when I knew it was all over.

  • http://nonce.blogspot.com Sam Keyes

    If she’s just referring to sexuality as not a “life and death issue,” all right; but I marvel that a bishop of the Church could talk about Baptism and orders (which means, indirectly, Eucharist) as something that is not “life and death.”

  • http://adamantius.net Jody+

    Sam,

    I agree with you, however, I think there are times that sexuality may indeed be of more importance than a life or death issue, because sexual sin, like all other sin, concerns spiritual death. We need to be reminded of Matt. 10:28 at times in our society…we are so focused on the material and practical.

    Tregonsee,

    I think you’re right of course. One of the most frustrating things about our current conflict is not simply that we disagree, it’s that it is so hard to take so many of those who disagree with orthodoxy seriously. Certainly there are those who are extreme and irritating on the orthodox side, but I’ve never seen the level of frivolity and sheer silliness among the orthodox (I suppose our sins run more into the realm of bitterness etc…)

    But still… I would like to see anyone argue that the Episcopal Church, particularly our national leadership and those in the revisionist wing have become anything but a parody or caricature of our most unimpressive, spiritually bankrupt and completely silly folk. The fruits and nuts with their Ashera Rasin cakes are winning the day, and one has to laugh to keep from crying.

  • Tom Foolery

    Wow. Just wow. I am dumbfounded.

  • http://adamantius.net Jody+

    I know… it boggles the mind.

  • Richard Cook

    Don’t mattter to me no more. Joined the APA. You can only conclude those that want to stay there have stayed, those who want to leave have left or are in the midst of leaving. I cannot believ that anyone with eyes and ears is suprised by this. Unitarians in drag. How apt a phrase.

  • Tom Foolery

    Richard, I suppose I fall into the category “in the midst of leaving.” For me, talking about it has been one thing, but actually having the courage to walk away from the church which I’ve loved since I was a child has been difficult and I have truly grieved. On the flip side, I’m learning some valuable lessons about faith, institution, bureaucracy, and real/enhanced relationship with God. So, despite the struggle, grief and sorrow, this process has been good for me as a Christian and good for the development of my faith into something more passionate and palpable.

    Luckily, I can still comfortably identify myself as “Anglican,” at least for the time being…

  • http://adamantius.net Jody+

    Tom,

    I would encourage you, if you’re in a solid parish, to support that congregation’s ministry however you can. I’m biased of course, but I still think all is not lost.

    That doesn’t mean I think TEC is salvageable (though all things are possible with God). Instead, I think it means that we are all going to be in different life boats, some of which may never depart TEC before whatever endgame occurs. I suppose I look at some situations as a bit like being in an English Parish church during the Reformation–the institution shifted all around them and yet they continued in their worship.

    Perhaps I’m just more pessimistic about the ability of further protestant-style fragmentation to provide a real solution to our present crisis–it hasn’t really helped to date in the Church Catholic.