Sunday, March 29, 2009

Short and Sweet

We were treated today with a sermon from the Rev. Mary Cat Enockson. Coming in at 10 minutes, she again proved that ideas are most clearly presented in the fewest words. Drawing from her youth ministry, she explained the new covenant to us oldsters as she would to the youth. And as an added bonus, we heard the name "Jesus" several times during the sermon. For a moment, I thought I might be in the big Presbyterian church down the road. Indeed, as I drove home, I listened to the service broadcast from Davidson College Presbyterian Church (courtesy WDAV which is also available on-line), and I caught the tail end of their sermon. A female voice was presenting an exposition on the new covenant, and for a moment, I thought I was listening to an Episcopal service.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Can't Stop Talkin About Em.

Who can't stop talking about sex in the T.E.C.? We have heard that the problem with the Episcopal Church is that those rwascally conserwatives won't stop talking about it. A commenter read through all the proposed resolutions for the 2009 General Convention of T.E.C. and had the following revelation.

Ralinda wrote on T19 on 03/27/2009,

"To save you from having to tally them up: of the 46 resolutions filed, 19 advance the agenda of homosexual activists in the church. One resolution adds gender identity or the expression of gender identity to “protected categories” for ordination (C001). Nine resolutions conform the marriage canons to the language of civil laws permitting same sex unions (C019, C025, C028, C041, C042) or remove restrictions and/or authorize the development of liturgies for same sex blessings (C004, C009, C017, C031). Seven resolutions (C007, C010, C015, C024, C033, C036, C039) repudiate and reverse Resolution B033 from GC ‘06, which asked TEC to observe the Communion moratorium on any further consecrations of non-celibate homosexuals as bishops in the Church. In response to the 2008 elections in states where the traditional definition of marriage was affirmed, one resolution (C023) calls for Episcopalians to reject and work against Defense of Marriage statutes, and another (C014) authorizes a new Theological Study (i.e. revision) of Christian Marriage. There are no resolutions filed to support the consideration of the Anglican Covenant."

Thank you Ralinda.

I bet they won't stop talking about Anaheim 09, and it hasn't even happened yet!


(Betty Hutton and Fred Astaire)...enjoy!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

R.I.P. Lewis Green, or Excommunication Episcopal Style


(Gregory VII (Hildebrand or Hellebrand) issuing a ban of excommunication on the clergy and the King in lower left panel.)


Lewis W. Green who passed away on October 24, 2008 had the distinction of being excommunicated from All Souls Episcopal Cathedral in Asheville. He had in 2000 reportedly,
" made some very personal accusations about the Rev. Todd Donatelli, and at communion at one service, he walked up and gave the right reverend the finger right there in church."

Maybe Mr. Lewis Green had a trigger finger due to arthritis and had to keep that finger extended.

Read on from beliefnet.com...
"'Due to your refusal to seek reconciliation with the parish of All Souls and its members, and your continued efforts to attack this parish and its members, I hereby place you excommunicate,' wrote the cathedral's pastor, the Very Rev. Todd Donatelli.

Green was warned that if he sets foot on church property and refuses to leave, 'a warrant for trespass will be issued and a restraining order obtained,' Donatelli wrote.

Green has refused to back down: 'I said, It'll be a cold day in hell before I apologize. I don't look at this as a church; it's a liberal Democrat precinct.'"

and from highbeam.com...
"'I've been writing bad things about gays for some time, deleterious things, and that's what this is about,' said Green, 68. 'What I'm doing is exercising my First Amendment rights, and if it's about them, too bad. There's nothing they can do about it.'"

Recall Jeremiah 7:27-30
27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
28 You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
29 Cut off your hair and throw it away;
raise a lamentation on the bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation that provoked his wrath.
30 For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it.


In a review of "Of Human Interest" by Lewis Green at Amazon.com, T. Patrick Killough writes,
"In an appreciation of Green the novelist by Dr. Donald Secrest (reproduced pp. 227 - 235), Lewis Green is affectionately denoted as 'A Sainted Crazy.' Green does not so much plot his stories as bait traps for the unsuspecting reader. In other words, things are never as simple as they first seem. Green is seen as 'practicing to become a prophet,' deeply spiritual in a tradition no flatlander can ever grasp. But then, 'A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?'"

Those pesky prophets, they are always at odds with the high priests. Mr. Lewis Green seems like he was a crusty curmudgeon who poked at the weak spot of the priestly class and got kicked out of the church. Or maybe it was because he had renamed the church "All Souls Lesbyterian." You may be thinking, "Well he asked for it." Was his offense any more offensive than what the good rev. may have done to him? (ie moving on with the GLBT agenda) After all, to Mr. Lewis Green, the Rev. Donatelli may have been the one profaning the sacraments. And what would Mr. Green have done or said if he were around on March 15, 2009 when Bishop Gene Robinson spoke at All Souls?

Good thing he didn't live to hear that one. In fact, I have heard from a reputable source in Asheville that since Mr. Green,
"...died about a year ago. I have since met a few people from All Souls who greatly rejoiced to know him gone. Much, perhaps, as some Athenians did when Socrates took the helmlock."
Kinda makes me glad I don't go to that "inclusive" church.

Addendum: I came across this detailed description of how that church went downhill from an ex-member.

Excommunication is rare in the Episcopal Church, and a good thing too, because when it is applied it may be misapplied as in the case of Beverly Moore of Charleston back in 2001. Beverly Moore's crime? "Destroying the Church" by calling out a sexual predator in their midst.

Seems to me that not just us pewsters but certain priests might be guilty of the same accusation, "destroying the Church," but the wayward priest is given speaking engagements and a Bishopric instead of being excommunicated. Is there no justice? On second thought, justice may still be seen as having been served because the Bishop job might be a punishment greater than excommunication.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Snake on a Stick


On my way to church today, I had a thought. "Okay, for the past few weeks the sermons have been short, but nature abhors a vacuum, so this week the sermon will be at least 20 minutes long."

Nature is happy. Balance has been restored.

Actually, the sermon wasn't bad. Charlie focused on the good works we as a parish are doing, and he rightly gave credit to God from which they come. By choosing ten of these works, I knew that time would be an issue as it would be difficult to limit each effort to a mere sixty seconds. I was encouraged in the thought that the subject matter would be changing regularly and digressions would be minimized.

I will disagree with Charlie in that I cannot give unflagging support to the Episcopal Relief and Development contribution basket because I have seen how these monies can be misused. There was the ugly letter written by a certain Dr. Louie Crew in 2004 to to Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi and Other Bishops of Uganda after Uganda announced they were going to distance themselves from monies from the Episcopal Church USA (following the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. The letter and discussion can be found at StandFirm. Here is an excerpt:

"We have been a major contributor to your Planning, Development, and Rehabilitation (PDR) Department, an arrangement that lets you identify the needs and put the gifts where they will be most effective. Most of ERD's grant to Uganda of $284,000 in 2001 and of $138,500 in 2001 were funneled through your PDR.

Should ERD stop making those appeals and stop making these grants?

Should ERD screen its donors to find out who consented and who did not consent to the consecration of Bishop Robinson?

Is the Church of Uganda cutting itself off from the Episcopal Church's funding of numerous Communion networks, such as our major funding for the provincial secretaries conference currently taking place in Johannesburg?

Will the Church of Uganda continue to contribute only .5% to the costs of the Anglican Consultative Council, or will it increase that amount to offset subsidies by The Episcopal Church, which contributes 29.3% of the costs of the Anglican Consultative Council? (See the contributions of all 38 provinces at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/accrequests99-02.htm)."


Comments noted that in the ERD’s Form 990 filed in 2006 for the fiscal year 2005, ERD spent roughly $4.5Million in expenses to dispense $11.6Million in charity.

Rest assured that some of your ERD dollars will go to the needy. Don't be so sure that the ERD won't be used for political reasons.

This is why I wanted to hear something about the snake on a stick. Recall today's O.T. reading from Numbers 21:4-9,
"From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live."

I wonder if the Archbishop of Uganda has a bronze Dr. Crew on a pole somewhere?

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Adherence to Principle

This was found at the daily lectionary pages for March 21. It was written by James Kiefer at is quoted in its entirety, but I added some emphasis.

THOMAS KEN
BISHOP AND NON-JUROR (21 MAR 1711)

"Thomas Ken in the course of his lifetime was both rewarded and punished for his firm adherence to principle. He was born in 1637 and reared by his half-sister Anne and her husband the well-known angler Izaak Walton. He became a clergyman and served for a year at the Hague as chaplain to Mary, Princess of England and Queen of Holland, niece of King Charles II of England and wife of the Dutch King William of Orange. During this year he publicly rebuked King William for his treatment of his wife the said Mary, which may be why he was chaplain there for only a year. Upon his return to England, he was made Royal Chaplain to King Charles. The King had a mistress, Nell Gwyn, and for his convenience wished to lodge her in his chaplain's residence. Thomas sent the King a sharp refusal, saying that it was not suitable that the Royal Chaplain should double as the Royal Pimp. Charles admired his honesty and bluntness, and when the bishopric of Bath and Wells became available soon after, he declared, 'None shall have it but that little man who refused lodging to poor Nellie!' Ken was accordingly made a bishop. When Charles was on his deathbed, it was Ken whom he asked to be with him and prepare him for death.
Under the next king, James II, brother of Charles, matters were different. James converted to Roman Catholicism, the religion of his mother, and political turmoil followed. James issued a decree known as the Declaration of Indulgence, which decreed that various public offices formerly open only to Anglicans, should thereafter be open to all persons. It was feared that the King would appoint large numbers of Roman Catholics to positions of power, and eventually transfer to them the control of the government. When the King commanded the bishops to proclaim the Declaration of Indulgence, seven of them refused to do so and were by the King's command imprisoned in the Tower of London. The people of London rioted, and the bishops were freed and carried in triumph through the streets of the city. Soon after, Parliament offered the crown to the King's daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange (see above) and James fled into exile.

William and Mary naturally began their reign by demanding oaths of allegiance from all persons holding public positions, including the bishops. Thomas Ken and others (known as the Non-Jurors -- the older meaning of 'juror' is 'one who takes an oath,' hence 'perjurer' as 'one who swears falsely') refused to take the oath, on the grounds that they had sworn allegiance to James, and could not during his lifetime swear allegiance to another monarch without making such oaths a mockery. They were accordingly put out of office.

The bishops of Scotland also refused the oath, and William and Mary retaliated by disestablishing the Church in Scotland and making the Presbyterians the official state Church there instead. Therefore, we have in Scotland today the Kirk of Scotland (a Presbyterian Calvinist group which is the established Church there), The Episcopal Kirk of Scotland (an Anglican Church, what is known as a 'free' Church in the sense of having no ties with the government), the Free Kirk of Scotland (broken off from the Kirk of Scotland), and the Wee Free Kirk of Scotland (broken off from the Free Kirk--everyone calls them the "Wee Frees" and I do not remember their official name).

Thomas Ken became a private tutor and spent the rest of his life in retirement. He died 19 March 1711 and is usually commemorated on 21 March. During his lifetime he was known for his books of sermons. Today, he is best known for several hymns that he wrote, such as those beginning:

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
thy daily course of duty run.
Cast off dull sloth, and joyful rise
to pay thy morning sacrifice.

All praise to thee, who safe hast kept
and hast refreshed me while I slept!
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless life partake.

All praise to thee, my God, this night
for all the blessings of the light.
Keep me, oh keep me, King of Kings,
beneath Thine own almighty wings.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."


by James Kiefer


I love that part about being the Royal Pimp, or should that be the Pimp Royal?
One thing I don't understand is that he died on March 19 but we don't get around to him until March 21. Maybe that is because St. Joe grabbed that day first. And Cuthbert nabbed March 20. Maybe he is still being "both rewarded and punished for his firm adherence to principle."