Mad Priest says...pass the word

All is well with the inimitable Mad Priest, but he has asked the blogging community to pass along a troll problem. Hat tip to Grandmère Mimi, who is helping him spread the news. And now, in his own words:

"OCICBW... got attacked by a particularly vicious troll last night. It was so bad I had to close down the comments overnight.

He seems to have got his revenge by reporting me as a spam blog to Blogger and they have blocked my blog. I have asked for reinstatement but it's taking up to a week to sort out at the moment.

Would you please notify people of this on your blog and tell them to put it on their blogs. I don't want them thinking I've done a runner or been disappeared by the Church Police.

Jonathan"

I went for my usual wee hours laugh last night, and he wisely reminded all of us to avoid feeding the trolls. I'm not sure whether that would have helped much in this situation, but it does help keep the blood pressure down!

(A practical update at 1:45 p.m. EDT: I did a bit of checking on what a "spam blog" is. It seems there are essentially two types (with different names). One big no-no is to create meaningless posts to direct traffic to other sites...essentially to bring up hit and visitor counts for advertising stats and such. There can be issues of blogs sending out malicious spyware, containing spam on posts, you name it. I think the first description is what was reported as an (obviously incorrect) offense, and it does appear they do a temporary shutdown before investigation. But really, no original content from Mad Priest? Oh, please!)

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES PART IV

IV. The Hellins Lecture: And Now For Something Completely Different

As you may recall we left off the discussion at the point of words – liberal, orthodox, conservative, high churchman, low churchman, Anglo-Catholic, and Evangelical to name a few. The Reverend Greg Cameron has been discussing the Compass Rose including where it came from and how we Anglicans have come to use it and how the purpose has changed over the years. We have applied some of this to the situation in the United States and specifically here in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. In this installment we continue to look at the changing globe as the discussion focuses on the global south. Specifically, we will examine the perceived need for the global south to move the Anglican Communion to a new and better interpretation of the Holy Scripture.

We begin with the words to a song written and performed by Emerson Lake and Palmer (for those who may not know think Peter Gunn with a driving base guitar)

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside
There behind a glass stands a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass, move along, move along

Come inside, the show's about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll, oh

Right before your eyes see the laughter from the skies
And he laughs until he cries, then he dies, then he dies

____________________________________________________________

Cameron says, “Increasingly the Churches of the South have asserted their identity in the Anglican Communion, and this is an identity which is uncompromising in its commitment to the supreme authority of the scriptures as God’s Word written; which is content to see the Thirty-Nine Articles as the benchmark of Contemporary Anglican life; and which sees itself contending for the salvation of souls in the face of a lively Pentecost and a militant Islam.”

______________________________________________________________

We here in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin heard this mantra for years. A priest that ultimately went to the Southern Cone would talk about the three legged stool and how the scripture leg was longer than any other leg. Can we picture a stool of that nature? But I digress. This is another issue upon which Mr. Schofield built his current Southern Cone domain. The Bible tells me so – or so the song goes. But wait, this is not new and it is not insurmountable. Let’s go back to our History of the American Episcopal Church by William Wilson Manross. Within the liberalism movement there was a belief that “the scientific investigation of the original sources of the Biblical narratives with a view to ascertaining their relationship to the actual events described and their consequent reliability.” (pg. 307). This was, as it seems to be today, regarded by many as likely to undermine the Christian Faith. Due to this up and coming process for studying the Bible there were a series of Essays and Reviews written by a group of English Churchmen. While this collection of essays was not always cohesive it was recognized by all as individuals expressing their own viewpoints. Nonetheless the theme of these tended to accept a general tendency to “take a scientific attitude towards Christianity and try and fit it into the general scheme of historical development.” (pg 307,308). This whole approach took on the form of the American Church Congress, The object of this new fangled organization was “to obtain a free discussion of issues which were before the Church, in an assembly which was not, like General Convention, compelled to take definite action. For this reason, it naturally sought the participation of men from all parties, but its original sponsors were most of them Liberals.” (pg 309). The resolution of this issue for us in America came in two ways. In a series of essays by Canon Charles Gore (an Anglo-Catholic) called Lux Mundi determined that much as the English Church had determined “the literal inerrancy of Scripture was not an official teaching of the Church and that its ministers were at liberty to undertake a critical study of the Bible, provided their doing so did not lead them to deny doctrines that were supposed to be officially approved.” (pg 312). The second issue was in actuality the passage of time. Liberals were ordained and as time passed the controversy dropped to a simmer. At least until now.

We could both here and abroad resurrect this age old discussion but we (world wide) have already hashed this out. Whether we use the three legged stool metaphor or some other dialectical methodology to arrive at a more complete relationship with our God we have agreed to allow that to happen – at least within the confines of our Creeds and our other documents. Perhaps we need to refresh everyone’s memories but I am hopeful that this is an issue that neither side needs to “fall on their sword over”.

For Love of It All
Noel Paul Stookey

And so we are marching to 'to give peace a chance'
Brother and sister as one in this mystery dance.
Long ago on a hilltop where now the curious crawl
A man on a cross paid the ultimate cost
For the Love of it all
For the Love of it all
We are gathered by grace
We have followed our hearts
To take up our parts
In this time and place.
Hands for the harvest,
Hear the centuries call:
It is still not too late to come celebrate
The Love of it all
"Eli, eli, lemana shabakthani"
The Love of it all

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES PART III

Illuminations and Elucidations on: The Hellins Lecture

III. The Continuing Saga of The Hellins Lecture

This is the third in a series of discussions of the Reverend Gregory Cameron’s The Hellins Lecture. In the first two installments we began a discussion of this lecture in general, with an eye toward the Episcopal Church in America and with a clear focus on the diocese of San Joaquin. We now continue that discussion.
.

Cameron continues with this paragraph:

“But the real strength of the ties between the Churches of Britain and Ireland and the Episcopal Church and all those churches which derive from them lie in the very real personal and continuing bonds of study, friendship, identity, and mutual discipleship which still sustain the life of the Communion. “

Lest we continue to think that life has been “one big bowl of cherries” until now here in America we turn back to our continuing saga written about by the Reverend Manross in A History of the American Episcopal Church. We weathered the storm of the Oxford Movement and of course we weathered the storm of the Civil War (or The War Between The States). We found the term liberal came into being during the Oxford Movement. Now it comes back to us again, this time with a rush. The liberal movement also is known as the Broad Church Movement (big tent?) Manross states, “Those who were under its influence often differed widely in their positive beliefs but they agreed with one another in their desire to make the Church as comprehensive as possible and their tendency to minimize the importance of definite dogma, though to varying degrees.” (page 307). This brings us to the very first Lambeth Conference and all the “who shot John stuff” that went on there (not unlike now) but I am not prepared to go “there” just yet. I would like to share some personal thoughts about the term liberal. In our diocese, ex-bishop John David Schofield used the term liberal much as Cameron describers the word shibboleth (we will come back to this term later in the series). Mr. Schofield also began using the term orthodox instead of conservative. So, he espoused an orthodox position and the others were liberals. Now, we used to have liberal, evangelical, high churchman, low churchman, and Anglo-Catholic. In spite of all that, here in the diocese of San Joaquin it became us and them, orthodox and liberal. John David divided the diocese into those who are in and those who are out. As Cameron intimates in his work we need to lay these words down, at least for a while. My old management/leadership training says you cannot fix a problem unless you can first name the problem. In this instance it does no one any good except those who wish to divide. When names are given or people are called names it serves to say, you are there and I am here and we need to focus on what you are as opposed to what we are. Peter Senge, in his educational work, The Fifth Discipline talks of solving problems. One way he suggests is that everyone who can bring something to the table to solve the problem gets to come in and help. But before one enters the problem solving space one “checks your title and your pre-dispositions at the door”. I have used this technique before and it works! We, all of us, need to check our titles, our assumptions, our pre-dispositions and our inherent prejudices at the door.

Noel Stookey
©1976 Pepamar Music Corp


If you ask me what I want
I'd say yes I want it too
And if you ask me what I think
I'd say yes I think I dooo
But some will say here
Some will say there
Some will sell you tickets to a show
Some will say now
Some will say then
Some will say stay when you know you have to go
Listen to the Love in your heart
Don't you realize you're a special part
You can sing along from the start
If you listen to the Love in your heart
You can bring your horse to water
But he may not drink
You can give a man a book
But you cannot make him think
Some will say do
Some will say don't
Some will put their name up on a door
Some will say how
Some will say why
Some will never get their feet up off the floor
Listen to the Love in your heart
Don't you realize you're a special part
You can sing along from the start
If you listen to the Love in your heart

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES PART II

Illuminations and Elucidations on: The Hellins Lecture

II.“The more things change the more they stay the same.”

The title of this segment is taken from a song that is sung by Peter, Paul and Mary. The name of the tune is 75 Septembers. It could just as easily have been "been there done that."

The Reverend Gregory Cameron, in his Hellins Lecture, (July 15, 2008) talks about the beginnings of the adoption of the Compass Rose and how it has come to symbolize the Anglican Communion. Some now say that the Compass Rose is spinning out of control at this very moment.

“Today, most commentators have come to the conclusion that the needle of the Compass Rose, shaken from its former stability, is spinning out of control, restless and unsure of where it will find its rest. As the front page of the London Times was recently able to proclaim confidently:

‘Anglican Church in meltdown over gays and women.’”

We need to dwell on this point since this point is one of the key reasons why Mr. John David Schofield, former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin attempted to move, lock stock and diocese to the Southern Cone. This move pits Evangelical against every other group within the Episcopal Church. Even now, our parish in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is being raided by a former Episcopal priest for parishioners to attend his NEW and up and coming Southern Cone mission by telling parishioners that we are blessing same sex unions and/or performing same sex marriage ceremonies. None of this is true, yet this issue seems to rip at the very fabric of our ability to come together and pass the peace and share the Eucharistic feast.

In the Episcopal Church of the United States of America during the mid-1800’s there were several significant issues that the Episcopal Church was threatened by. The one we will dwell on for today is the Oxford Movement. The Oxford Movement threatened to split the Episcopal Church into Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical lines. It began in 1843 (at least in earnest) . The movement’s primary author was none other than John Henry Newman. According to Reverend Manross in A History of the American Episcopal Church, “Newman was evidently moving towards the theory of development in religious belief which was to become the theme of one of his best-known works, and this led him into a gradual increasing emphasis upon the tradition of the Catholic Church until he finally reached the conclusion that the Bible could properly be interpreted only in light of this tradition.” This was tract ninety and this was the tract that sent the Evangelical group in the Church “over the edge.” Newman stated that the Catholic position developed over the last 89 tracts was sanctioned by the 39 Articles of Faith. When the Oxford Movement spread to America the General Theological Seminary became the hot bed of this movement. (Should we say duh?).

But one of the new ideas of all this “who shot John business” in the 1850s was the creation and use of a canon that allows for the suspension and ultimately the deposition of a bishop. While that is interesting it is not the real point. Perhaps the most pertinent point of interest that came out of all this was the Muhlenberg Memorial of 1853. A middle of the road bishop drafted a statement that evolved a system called “Evangelical Catholicism”. There were supporters and detractors of this position and in the end time took it toll. Yes, Newman left, yes there were some deposed bishops, yes the term Liberal came into use to describe the Oxford Movement, but while nothing was definitively settled many of the good things of the movement were adopted and the Episcopal Church in the United States grew stronger and better and moved on to the next controversy.

Back to the words of Greg Cameron, “We must remember that the Anglican Church itself is something of an accidental creation. … We can have little doubt that Archbishop Cranmer, if he had ever contemplated the future of the Church whose reform he undertook, would undoubtedly have been shocked, if not totally incredulous, of the reality of its inheritance.”

“Oh what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney.
Is there hope for the future?
Cry the brown bells of Merthyr.”

Bells of Rhymney
Pete Seeger

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES

Illuminations and Elucidations on: The Hellins Lecture

Update Note: The Windsor Continuation Group has just published a preliminary report. I was tempted to do away with this series but I think not. There are two very good reasons. First, the Windsor Continuation Group report ignores the long and illustrious albeit rancorous history of the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. The second reason is even better, "if we do what we have always done we will get what we always got." I thought Bishops understood this, I guess not. Let's pray that this series takes us someplace else.

I. Introduction
On Tuesday July 15, 2008 Gregory Cameron delivered The Hellins Lecture. It was semi-subtitled: Here there and everywhere: where does the Compass Rose point? Gregory Cameron is the Deputy Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. Now, in all fairness, I really do not know Gregory Cameron nor do I understand, at least not fully, what the Deputy Secretary of the Anglican Communion is or does. But knowing who he is is not nearly as important as understanding what he has said.

I am a mere lay person in the Diocese of San Joaquin in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. I am member of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and I have been so since 1994. In my past I have served as a member of vestries in Virginia and in California. I have served on several search committees both successful ones and not so successful ones. I have known, in my past, Father Doug Edwards, now a Bishop (I think consecrated Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Sunyani) by one of the African groups working in the United States and Father John Guernsey also consecrated a bishop by one of the African groups working in the United States. As if that was not enough I ended up in the diocese that was the first to decide to attempt to leave the Episcopal Church and become a diocese in the Southern Cone. My experience on a vestry in one parish in this diocese brought me reasonably close to now deposed bishop John David Mercer Schofield. ON more than one occasion I have had perfectly pleasant and quite lengthy conversations with Mr. Schofield. I have also been privy to the machinations that went into the slow unwinding of the Episcopal Diocese. Many of us watched while Mr. Schofield slowly built a constituency of clergy he could trust. He slowly devolved all conversation in the diocese into discussions of leaving the diocese, yet, when asked point blank, “Bishop, are you leaving the diocese?”, he frequently would publish a pastoral letter stating emphatically he was not. At one point, his letter stated that the Episcopal Church was leaving him but that was only for a short while and then he never said that again. Then, when all the clergy were in place and the vestries and diocesan delegates were also handpicked and a proper home was found John David Schofield left the Episcopal Church for the Southern Cone.

Anyway, while I do not feel like an educated competent lay person I do feel like an experienced competent lay person. The primary difference being that I did my limited study after I have experienced most of this trauma and at least from that small space believe I can comment and critique The Hellins Lecture as well as move this discussion in a positive direction..

What I have done is read this work, and I believe it is a truly significant work, and then gone back and read a work by the Reverend William Wilson Manross entitled A History of the American Episcopal Church. My first edition copy was copyrighted in 1935 and is believed by most to be the most complete and significant work on the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, at least till now. You are of course free to disagree. Please share your thoughts on this, as well as anything else as we go along. I will generate several posts from this lecture in hopes that somewhere along the lines we will discover that our roots are firmly planted inside a very large, all inclusive tent that fits Americans and Australians and Africans and Asians and all of us. And the best reason I can offer is as follows.

Towards the end of the lecture the Reverend Cameron states:

“Here is the true pole to which the Compass Rose of the Communion points – not to any North or South or East or West, but to the reality in each heart of the living experience of Christ; a Christ who calls us to be transformed, who calls us to holiness, but who calls us to be profoundly committed to one another, precisely because he is committed to us.”

This is both the alpha and the omega. We will begin here and we will end here because as Greg ( I hope he doesn’t mind too much) puts it “…the Compass Rose points to here (my heart), and there (to your heart) and everywhere (to all Anglicans) calling us back to the centre – to the cross wherein God’s love is revealed to the world.”

Released: The Windsor Continuation Group report

Sashay on over to the Anglican Communion News Service site and read the Windsor Continuation Group - Preliminary Observations to the Lambeth Conference (Parts 1, 2 and 3). Then pray that our Bishops don't let us down.

The most interesting part, IMHO, is a bullet point on the "moratoria" on ordaining LGBT priests/bishops and border crossings: There have been different interpretations of the sense in which 'moratorium' was used in the Windsor Report. Our understanding is that moratorium refers to both future actions and is also retrospective: that is that it requires the cessation of activity. This necessarily applies to practices that may have already been authorised as well as proposed for authorisation in the future."

Ahem. Having been wrong on the meaning of a word on occasion, I checked the definition of moratorium - yes, boys and girls, it really is "an authorized period of delay or waiting." Retrospective cessation of activity? Methinks a few folks were dipping into the communion wine.

In the arms of the angel

You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here...



May your Sunday be filled with blessings.