Wednesday, May 06, 2015

1000th Post!

While this milestone may go unnoticed by the rest of the world, it shouldn't! I try to publish new posts on this blog twice weekly (Sundays and Wednesdays), and usually there is more than enough material out there to comment on, and this week is no exception.

For one thing, we have the never ending tragi-drama played out as the great ship TEc slips slowly beneath the waves.

One example: Is General Convention going to recommend to amend the marriage canon to make it gender neutral?

From the Episcopal News Service:
The A050 Task Force on the Study of Marriage is recommending that the 2015 meeting of General Convention authorize Episcopal Church clergy to officiate at same-sex marriages.
The task force proposes the change in its just-released Blue Book report by way of a resolution (numbered A036) that would revise Canon I.18 titled “Of the Solemnization of Holy Matrimony” (page 58 of The Episcopal Church’s canons here).
The revision removes, among many edits, the language of I.18.2(b) that requires couples to “understand that Holy Matrimony is a physical and spiritual union of a man and a woman.” Removing that and other gender-specific language from the canon, the report says, addresses the mandate in the group’s enabling resolution that it “address the pastoral need for priests to officiate at a civil marriage of a same-sex couple in states that authorize such.”
Section 3 of Canon 18 would be rewritten to, in part, remove the requirement that the couple sign a declaration stating they “solemnly declare that we hold marriage to be a lifelong union of husband and wife as it is set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.”

Need more? Let's take a look at "priests behaving badly" (some of these are recent; others go back a couple of years).

Episcopal Church council meets amid bishop's arrest (The Baltimore Sun) 
Priest at famed Manhattan church charged with DWI after exiting Holland Tunnel in Jersey City (NJ.com) 
A Wilmington Island priest and a former teacher arrested for child pornography (WJCL News) 
Episcopal priest gets 45 days for smuggling drugs into jail (Bangor Daily News) 
Former Ben Avon Episcopal priest sentenced in child pornography case (TribLive.com) 
So. Pines (NC) police step up park monitoring, charge priest (Episcopal) with indecent exposure (more like public sex with another man, ed.) (WNCN) 
Somerville priest arrested on charges of repeated indecent assault of a child parishioner over ten years (Boston.com)

And lastly we have from "High Church" Episcopalians,
Priest Preaches 'Thank God for Marijuana' (Patch.com)
“Thanking God for weed might feel a little awkward at first,” Schuller said in the video. “Thanking God is going to feel so much better than throwing stones at people who are already stoned.”
With so much material, can there be any doubt that someday I may be working on my 2000th post?


  

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the milestone! Keep up the fine work.

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  2. Congrats Pewster.
    "With so much material, can there be any doubt that someday I may be working on my 2000th post?" Make it so number one.

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  3. Congratulations... for your longsuffering as much as for your output!

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  4. Anonymous6:34 PM

    Congratulations on your 1,000 post!

    Along with your other readers, I look forward to reading your 2,000th! Keep it going!

    Enjoy your weekend!

    Churchmouse

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