Episcopal Weirdness From the Blue Book

The Blue Book  is a collection of reports created for the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal church. This will take place from June 25 - July 3, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The big deal this time is the push to remove gender specific language in any of the church's documents that refer to marriage so that same sex marriages can be performed in the church, but there are other gems to be found, you just have to dig through several hundreds of pages to find 'em.

Most of what follows comes from the SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS From the STANDING COMMISSION ON LITURGY AND MUSIC (SCLM)

A Litany for the Planet: 

On rocks and minerals that form the foundations for life,
Creator, have mercy.
On volcanoes and lava flows that reveal the power of earth’s core,
Creator, have mercy...

I for one pray that God will show no mercy on volcanoes and lava flows. Was that prayer written by the guys who run the lava flow cruises or helicopter rides in Hawaii?

On micro-organisms of endless variety, the complex and the simple,
Creator, have mercy (pp 248-9)

I hoped this one would go away when I pointed it out three years ago, but I guess we will soon be praying for multidrug resistant tuberculosis along with botulism, salmonella, and HIV.

And how about a little bit of PETA prayer in the following "Liturgy in Thanksgiving for Creation and in Honor of the Feast of St. Francis, with the Blessing of Animals",

Deacon:
Remember all in captivity and those who are hunted, trapped, deserted, or abused, that they may find safety in homes of loving care;
People:
Shower your blessing on earth, O God.
or We beseech you to hear us, good Lord. (p 259)

When I go hunting or fishing, I am praying that the Lord remembers to send the critter my way so that it can find a new home in my loving refrigerator and freezer.

Last but not least we have this example of syncretism found in "Prayers of the People Honoring God in Creation",  Form 2,  found on page 243,

[Gichi Manidoo,] Great Spirit God,
we give you thanks for another day on this earth.
We give you thanks for this day
to enjoy the compassionate goodness of you, our Creator.
We acknowledge with one mind
our respect and gratefulness to all the sacred cycle of life.
Bind us together in the circle of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and one another. Amen. p 243

From native-languages.org we see that

Gitchi Manitou is the great creator god of the Anishinaabe and many neighboring Algonquian tribes. The name literally means Great Spirit, a common phrase used to address God in many Native American cultures.
As in other Algonquian tribes, the Great Spirit is abstract, benevolent, does not directly interact with humans, and is rarely if ever personified in Anishinabe myths--

That pretty much describes the god of many Episcopalians.

originally, Gitchi Manitou did not even have a gender (although with the introduction of English and its gender-specific pronouns, Gitchi Manitou began to be referred to as "he.")

That's one way to create a gender neutral liturgy.

It is Gitchi Manitou who created the world, though some details of making the world as we know it today were delegated to the culture hero Nanabozho. "Gitchi Manitou" (or one of its many variant spellings) was used as a translation for "God" in early translations of the Bible into Ojibway, and today many Ojibway people consider Gitchi Manitou and the Christian God to be one and the same.

I doubt that most Christians would consider Gitchi Manitou to be one and the same, but I suspect a majority of those voting at General Convention will have no problem elevating Gitchi Manitou to become a part of the divine tetralogy.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the same SCLM geniuses who are foisting Gitchi Manitou on us are the ones who prepared the liturgies for same sex marriages? (pp 2-159)