Posted on 09/09/2005 6:10:49 PM PDT by sionnsar
Despite concerns about the appropriateness of meeting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the House of Bishops will meet as planned in Puerto Rico Sept. 22-28, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said.
Writing to the House of Bishop on Sept. 8, Bishop Griswold suggested the storm should serve as a spur to unity and reconciliation within the Church as “Katrina and its aftermath gives us a different way of looking at our ecclesial concerns.
“At a time such as this we very much need to be together to bear this present burden and to live more fully the costly reality of reconciliation which is the heart of the gospel and the hope of the world,” he noted.
Bishop Griswold said a “similar question” about meeting arose after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We now know how important it was that we came together in Burlington [Vermont] as a community very shortly after that fateful September day and framed a common response” as “taking counsel together opens the way to a much fuller response than any one of us could make on our own.”
The schedule for the weeklong meeting would be changed to make room for discussion and reflection on the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Bishop Griswold said the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Jenkins III, Bishop of Louisiana, and the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray III, Bishop of Mississippi, would “give us an account of the situations in their dioceses” while Robert Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development, and the Rt. Rev. George Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, would brief the bishops on the relief work underway.
“Many of our spouses have expressed a desire to help in any way they can,” Bishop Griswold said, adding that Ann Vest, wife of the Rt. Rev. Frank Vest, retired Bishop of Southern Virginia, had “agreed to be the point person and head of a task force to coordinate the response of the spouses.” Bishop Griswold also reported that he and his wife, Phoebe, hoped to tour the disaster area before the start of the San Juan meeting to bring “the assurance of our care and the pledge of our ongoing support” to the storm’s victims.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Why is it only when disaster strikes do people in general look to God? That is sad...
Blessings...
"And we just know those holdouts are going to be reasonable and see it our way."
Am I close?
It doesn't take a storm; all it takes is acceptance of the Bible and the understanding that we don't have the authority to redefine its precepts according to political correctness and the times in which we live.
How presumptuous can a horde of renegade bishops get?
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