Posted on 04/20/2005 5:59:01 PM PDT by sionnsar
Invitation from
Bishop Andrew Smith
to a special clergy meeting
April 21, 2005.
Dear Friends in Christ,
I write to invite you to meet together as fellow clergy with me this Thursday, April 21, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford.
We are at an impasse over implementing Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight for six of our congregations. I wrote about it in the last issue of the diocesan newspaper, and the media has given it much attention over this past week.
My hope has always been that we will be able to find a way forward. However, at a meeting with the six priests on Monday evening, April 18, it became apparent that we were not able to reach an accord. Please read the linked statement, which I released that evening after our time together had concluded.
It has also become apparent, by the many conversations I have had with you individually, in your congregations, and around the diocese that it would be helpful if we took the opportunity to meet collegially to discuss the issues and circumstances before us. I would like to share with you, and to hear from you.
Because those of us who are ordained share a common and unique bond, our meeting will be limited to deacons, priests and bishops, and will not be open to the media. However, members of the media might be present outside around the Cathedral and it would be best to be prepared for that possibility.
I look forward to this time to be together. I hope you will be able to attend. As always, I seek your prayers for all of us who serve together in Christ, in every place.
Yours in Christ,
The Right Reverend Andrew D. Smith, Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
All of Connecticut’s approximately 450 Episcopal clergy have been invited to Thursday’s meeting, though diocese spokeswoman Karin Hamilton said she was not sure how many will attend because it was scheduled on short notice.
The meeting, set to start at 10 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, will be closed to the media and the public.
Hamilton said Smith has received many calls from priests with questions or opinions about the issue.
“He wants a time to be able to talk with them freely and be able to listen to their concerns and questions,” Hamilton said.
One of the six, the Rev. Christopher Leighton of St. Paul’s Church in Darien, said the priests facing removal plan to attend the meeting even though they were not invited.
“We may not be allowed in, but we’re going,” he said.
Read the whole thing.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. What's the word on the orthodoxy of the other 446 priests in Conn? By the way, that seems like an awful lot of priests for just Conn.
Because those of us who are ordained share a common and unique bond, our meeting will be limited to deacons, priests and bishops, and will not be open to the media. However, members of the media might be present outside around the Cathedral and it would be best to be prepared for that possibility.
Obviously the Bishop would rather 'do this thing secretly in a corner'. It must be embarrassing to have everyone watching his attempted massacre.
I have no idea, to tell the truth. And I'd never even considered the issue of the number of priests in an area. Given my experience growing up in a church that had three or four (rector, rector emeritus, and a worker priest or two), I didn't even pick up on this. My town of 30,000 supported two such churches.
Probably includes retired clergy.
Not just to you, Ray, but a general question to everyone who's been participating in all the threads concerning ECUSA:
when you say 'orthodox' with regard to ECUSA, what does that mean relative to ordination/consecration of women?
FYI, to me orthodox means ordaining only heterosexual and/or celibate men, at least just along this one list of issues, anyway.
In Christ,
Deacon Paul+
My personal understanding of the use of the term is a shorthand way of establishing those whoe believe in a continuing revelation that contradicts scripture.
FYI, to me orthodox means ordaining only heterosexual and/or celibate men, at least just along this one list of issues, anyway.
I could have stayed in the Church if they didn't attempt to justify there actions as being a knew revelation.
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