Posted on 04/20/2005 6:07:27 PM PDT by sionnsar
It is now obvious to even the most simple-minded that orthodox priests caught in revisionist dioceses have no future. Their day is done. Sooner or later, like Jews in death camps, their number will be called and they will be marched into oblivion.
Six priests in the Diocese of Connecticut learned that bitter lesson this week despite some 23 bishops active and retired who appealed to Bishop Andrew Smith not to inhibit and depose them. At the end their appeals fell on deaf ears.
The six will go. How they will go has now been determined - inhibition and deposition - what they will do is uncertain. Will they take their people to the AMIA or come under an overseas primate, or will they simply resign and look for different work we do not, as yet, know. But as Episcopal priests they are finished unless by some miracle they are picked up by an orthodox bishop. But such jobs are few and far between.
In a very real sense it doesn't matter. What happened to them has been going on in dioceses like Los Angeles, Kentucky, Newark, Long Island, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Central Pennsylvania and Florida to name but a few.
And the story is nearly always the same. The priest offers up that he cannot support a bishop who openly supports the consecration of a homoerotic bishop to the episcopacy and seeks alternative episcopal oversight.
The bishop fires back that he will give them DEPO in exchange for a pledge of loyalty, more money and ultimate control over whom that "delegated" bishop is and still maintain his right to visit whenever he wants. DEPO is a farce that has yet to work in one single instance and it is why the Archbishop of Canterbury offered up a panel of reference in Ireland earlier this year, another idea that has yet to see the light of day.
The priest(s) object to the bishop's demands for absolute obedience and undying fealty and the fight is on.
The bishop offers up a lot of gracious-speak language in high-sounding letters to the priests and the diocese to say he demands their loyalty or he has no option but to take ecclesiastical action.
Lawyers are brought in and Canon Ten is invoked and the bishops' chew up these priests and spit them out - all done with the tacit approval of Frank Griswold who thinks the orthodox are working in league with the Father of Lies anyway and the bishop destroys yet another group of godly priests whose only desire was to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
But here a ray of light shines. An attorney I spoke with says they don't have "to go". They can, as did David Moyer did go to the civil courts. Canon 10 is being misused to deny the six priests the trial to which they are entitled. Furthermore the validity of the Denis Canon is in dispute, one can see that in the decision in California. The civil court alternative can work. It is through discovery that the false and fraudulent activities of revisionist bishops can be uncovered.
But it is still death by a thousand cuts.
And the truth is there is nothing to stop this ecclesiastical carnage until every single orthodox priest in 80 percent of the dioceses of the Episcopal Church are finally broken and destroyed. Network leader and Episcopal Bishop Bob Duncan has publicly declared that to be the case and he has admitted that the Network can do nothing to save them. So suffer he says; it is our lot. Sadly the six priests will get no help from orthodox bishops other than statements.
The only orthodox survivors, in the future, will be found in orthodox dioceses where the bishop still believes the historic faith, but even there the orthodox should never look to any future General Convention to offer them anything. That too is a lost cause. That day is done. The fence sitters, revisionists, and pansexualists have won the day. It is their show. They deserve to own a church in free fall.
Of course the victories won by these revisionist bishops come at a price. A lot of the victory is pyrrhic.
These godless bishops lose not only godly clergy who have the ability to make churches grow; they also lose huge numbers of dues paying godly laity. By VirtueOnline's estimate, the recent losses in New Hampshire, Kentucky, Alabama, Atlanta, North Carolina, Los Angeles, Long Island, Pennsylvania, Central Pa. and Connecticut the figure is well over 12,000 laity and that does not include the ongoing fallout in the months ahead with increasingly disillusioned laity brought on by bad publicity in the secular media and much more. They are lost forever and will never be replaced.
The Anglican Mission in America will probably pick up the best of them, some will come under an overseas primate, others will flee to orthodox denominations with many simply dropping out fed up with the whole business of church.
The bishop gets to keep largely empty properties which he must either close down or put a priest in charge and hope that it can rebuild. For the most part this is whistling Dixie.
But orthodox dioceses should not get cocky that they are immune from the inroads of revisionism in their dioceses. Many have very slim margins of orthodox priests, and a virulent move by a group of revisionist priests can easily tip the balance where new bishops are sought. A case in point is the Diocese of San Diego - once orthodox under Gethin Hughes now gone liberal. Another diocese in point is the Diocese of Florida. John Howard came in with great promise to replace Steve Jecko, now he has all but sold out to the other side. That diocese will, in time, bite the dust with a number of orthodox priests already weighing their future.
Fence sitting bishops like Don Wimberly of Texas claim to be orthodox but he ordains a gay deacon and you know it is only a matter of time before his rollover is complete.
One organization that is making life hell for orthodox bishops is the Via Media. They claim to speak for the diverse middle, read dead, white Episcopalians who do whatever their priest and bishop tells them but have no clue how they are being undermined and seduced. They have never heard a clear distinct gospel proclamation and they are easy prey for words like "inclusion," "diversity", and the smooth talk of people like V. Gene Robinson. Via Media has the blessing of Griswold and they are worming their way like a cancer into one orthodox diocese after another.
In the Diocese of Pittsburgh Bob Duncan faces a lawsuit from this gang with a black priest Harold Lewis leading the charge.
Add the sodomite organization Integrity with Via Media as the controlling agent, arm them with a group of angry lesbian women priests and disgruntled divorcees, salt them with an outspoken, whiny homosexual priest or two and you have a cancer that is, in time, unstoppable.
Dioceses that still have the ability to withstand the revisionist Via Media onslaught include the dioceses of san Joaquin, Quincy, Ft. Worth, Central Florida and South Carolina to name but a handful, but the figure is not large and you can count them all on two hands. A slight misstep by an orthodox bishop, or if his priests start to roll over to the seductive siren call of inclusion steadily being advanced by Louie Crew and the House of Bishops/Deputies list and the tilt could prove fatal. Now add to the mix the constant bashing and needling of orthodox groups by the Dallas flatfoot Jack Taylor and the wear and tear begins to take effect. In time disillusionment sets in and priests take early retirement, their replacement is often a liberal posing as a conservative or a conservative gone over to the other side, and like dominoes the diocese begins to fall.
It's only a matter of time, and time is fast running out, just ask the "Connecticut Six" whose lives and ministries are on the verge of being destroyed.
Hitler took six years to destroy six million Jews, The Episcopal Church, over 40 years has quietly destroyed hundreds of godly priests and with them tens of thousands of godly Episcopalians with the spiritual cyanide of pansexuality and inclusion. Now the pace is simply quickening, the end is just the same; is there is no eye to pity and no arm to save? From within the church the answer sadly is no. It is now up to the courts.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "Now the pace is simply quickening, the end is just the same; is there is no eye to pity and no arm to save? From within the church the answer sadly is no. It is now up to the courts."
Yes, there is.
But it requires courage and the willingness to stand by all that is orthodox in matters of faith and morals.
What is it that is desired to be saved?
The moral code as it has always existed?
That can be preserved. A steadying hand reaches out offering that.
The richness of the Anglican Rite in the Book of Common Prayer?
That can be preserved. A steady hand reaches out offering that.
Local political control of the Church?
No. That cannot be preserved. That is the reason that this is happening in the first place. Politics. Ecclesial democracy. God's reign is a Kingdom, not a Republic. Where all of the people oppose a fundamental matter of faith and morals that has been the moral law since the time of Sts. Peter and Paul, all of the people are wrong. They must be ignored, completely, and preached to with authority to repent and bow their stiff necks to the law. They must not ever believe that their voices get to change any of the moral codes, ever, not even if every one of them agrees. We don't get to vote for God.
So, the orthodox in the Church are discovering that it is an episcopal monarchy, without recourse. That is true.
The extended hand offers nothing different: episcopal monarchy, with the bishops themselves subject to the same sort of discipline that Episcopal Bishops exert over priests.
So, the orthodox priests of the American Episcopalian Church have two choices: submit to episcopal rule that will adamantly refuse to give any hearing for any change in the orthodox moral law, no matter what "the People think", or submit to episcopal rule that will adamantly refuse to give any hearing for any preservation of the orthodox moral law, no matter what the priests think.
Either way, they can have the Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican Liturgy.
Two hands are offered.
Each offers the liturgy and authority. One offers homosexuality; the other, orthodoxy.
One hand wears a pink ribbon.
The other wears a papal ring.
This should not be hard.
Sheesh, Virtue is depressing and depressed, sounds like. More and more, I'm wondering if the time is approaching for me to become Catholic. I just can't see that the Episcopal church in this country is salvageable.
Nice response. Thanks-- I had a tough day and I really needed some total stranger on the internet to jump my case.
That's why we joined the Catholic Church. The Archdiocese of Atlanta is one of the most orthodox in the country . . . and with His Holiness Benedict XVI (long may he reign) in charge, it should stay that way. Our new archbishop came from the USCCB and the Chicago area (that's two strikes), but I think he has just been encouraged to be very, very orthodox . . . and from what he has done so far here, so far so good.
I concur. I've passed up some of his angrier screeds.
Oh I understand, and you're right-- we need to remember to pull together. After all, we were told that all the forces of hell will not prevail against Christ's church, so the outcome is certain.
But, you must say that it's a very strange world when conservative Catholics, the orthodox of all mainline denominations, and Evangelicals have more in common with each other than we do with the liberals of our own particular group. It's sort of like Christianity has all of these meaningless divisions going one way, and what we really need is to eliminate those and have one big split in the opposite direction.
Yes, it's as if the Community of Faith, who listen for the Voice of the Master, are coalescing, overcoming worldly and manmade divisions, and uniting in the Gospel of the Lord.. Those who reject the Community, for worldly goods and pleasures, are left behind. And I see less of a split than a coming together. One might almost discern a Plan at work here somewhere...
See, now that's what I'm talking about. I like that kinda talk. We will be just fine if we keep our eyes on the prize. Heck, we are all sinners, it's how you repent and return to the Lord that separates the faithful.
Lowering the bar on sin is not the answer, it's the feel good. That's exactly what the liberal revisionist are doing, they know deep within themselves that they are wrong, so they justify to take away the guilt. Blessings to you.
Blessings to you, too-- God's plan is unfolding . . .
One other thought-- I completely agree with you that lowering the bar on sin is not the answer, but I have college-age daughters and so have spent many years in close, daily communication with both my own girls and other teenagers, and I have observed one thing-- as we age, the sins of the flesh tend to naturally (thank God!) sort of fall away from us, for a lot of reasons. We're wise enough to know that they won't make us happy, we're firmer in both our faith and our understanding of God's will for us, and frankly, we're just too tired for all that most of the time! It's a great blessing. But, we need to remember that as the sins of the flesh fall away, we become ever more prone to sins of the spirit, most particularly, that one that C.S. Lewis considered the worst of them all, spiritual pride.
I just felt that this point was worth mentioning because it's so present to me in the life that I lead with my children. We are indeed all sinners, and young people need to know, by our example, that their temptations, while bad, are not the worst of all possible sins, but to be continually encouraged to turn from them.
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