If You Wonder What I'm Doing
I'm currently reading the transcript of the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut's meeting with the parishioners of St. Paul's in Darien in late 2003. I'm doing so in order to figure out what I should think in charity about the Connecticut Six . And despite my severe misgivings about the theological worldview at St. Paul's, (the direct homology of the Old and New Testaments with Jesus Christ on page 8 was especially frightening [and I will debate all comers on this one].), I am in great sympathy with the Connecticut Six (parishes or priests).
To show you what I mean, here's a brief synopsis of the exchange at this meeting.
St. Paul's Parishioner: What you're doing is wrong. It says so right here in the Bible.
Bishop Smith: Thank you.
From what I can tell, the two sides have reached no further understanding of each other's positions since that time. Nor is Bishop Smith very clear on why he's doing those wrong things he's doing. He's dealing with people who are obviously eager to learn. When their questions are not somewhat insulting, they are certainly very insightful. And he rarely tries to teach them.
I also am very mystified by this speech by Reg Jones, "To posit that same sex marriages or relationships which you may be forced to employ by the government in some day to come is not a minor thing. Every dam gets a hole somewhere where the water starts. I believe our Episcopal Church has cut the first hole." If the government ever forces me to form a coniunctio with man or woman, they will get Romans 1, Matthew 19:12, several other judicious passages, and the United States Constitution thrown at them in every public forum.
At the moment, my thoughts and prayers are with twenty bishops of the Episcopal Church who are meeting very near to me (the meeting is hosted by my new Diocesan Jon Bruno. I can't remember whether he is prayed for by name at All Saints. We pray for ++Rowan and George W. Bush (but not for Ahnold or the Mayor of Pasadena). From all sides of the impending schism, they meet in search of some way to continue as a church.
Karl Rahner writes in his lovely little tract on the episcopate that within the Church Universal there are many particular Churches with their own culture and institutions that are distinct from those of the other Churches but not abhorrent to the common deposit of faith of the Church Universal. It's a useful thing to think about even if the Church Universal imagined is the Roman Catholic Church in the form of an idealized Roman Empire (which is some of the inspiration for Rahner's ideas). Folks like me are at most socii in this scheme. But I do wonder whether reasserters or reassessors (or plumbifiers or eviscerators, if you prefer malice) are part of the same culture anymore. But were High Church, Broad Church, or Low Church folks ever part of even complementary cultures? [Maybe, I only worry about this because of my own selfish desire to raise my children in a similar but less corrupt ecclesiastical culture than the one in which I was raised.]
ESA(20050720.2)
I'm currently reading the transcript of the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut's meeting with the parishioners of St. Paul's in Darien in late 2003. I'm doing so in order to figure out what I should think in charity about the Connecticut Six . And despite my severe misgivings about the theological worldview at St. Paul's, (the direct homology of the Old and New Testaments with Jesus Christ on page 8 was especially frightening [and I will debate all comers on this one].), I am in great sympathy with the Connecticut Six (parishes or priests).
To show you what I mean, here's a brief synopsis of the exchange at this meeting.
St. Paul's Parishioner: What you're doing is wrong. It says so right here in the Bible.
Bishop Smith: Thank you.
From what I can tell, the two sides have reached no further understanding of each other's positions since that time. Nor is Bishop Smith very clear on why he's doing those wrong things he's doing. He's dealing with people who are obviously eager to learn. When their questions are not somewhat insulting, they are certainly very insightful. And he rarely tries to teach them.
I also am very mystified by this speech by Reg Jones, "To posit that same sex marriages or relationships which you may be forced to employ by the government in some day to come is not a minor thing. Every dam gets a hole somewhere where the water starts. I believe our Episcopal Church has cut the first hole." If the government ever forces me to form a coniunctio with man or woman, they will get Romans 1, Matthew 19:12, several other judicious passages, and the United States Constitution thrown at them in every public forum.
At the moment, my thoughts and prayers are with twenty bishops of the Episcopal Church who are meeting very near to me (the meeting is hosted by my new Diocesan Jon Bruno. I can't remember whether he is prayed for by name at All Saints. We pray for ++Rowan and George W. Bush (but not for Ahnold or the Mayor of Pasadena). From all sides of the impending schism, they meet in search of some way to continue as a church.
Karl Rahner writes in his lovely little tract on the episcopate that within the Church Universal there are many particular Churches with their own culture and institutions that are distinct from those of the other Churches but not abhorrent to the common deposit of faith of the Church Universal. It's a useful thing to think about even if the Church Universal imagined is the Roman Catholic Church in the form of an idealized Roman Empire (which is some of the inspiration for Rahner's ideas). Folks like me are at most socii in this scheme. But I do wonder whether reasserters or reassessors (or plumbifiers or eviscerators, if you prefer malice) are part of the same culture anymore. But were High Church, Broad Church, or Low Church folks ever part of even complementary cultures? [Maybe, I only worry about this because of my own selfish desire to raise my children in a similar but less corrupt ecclesiastical culture than the one in which I was raised.]
ESA(20050720.2)
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