Posted on 05/31/2006 7:12:02 PM PDT by sionnsar
The General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) will be asked to radically change its disciplinary policies by abandoning the denomination's historic rule that prohibits dioceses and bishops from disciplining or excommunicating lay members.
"Bluntly put, these proposed disciplinary canons are a disaster," says Raymond Dague, a New York lawyer and the target of a bishop's ire because of a column he once wrote. "This is church discipline from hell. They are the product of a siege mentality by an institution which seeks to stomp out opposition to the agenda of the higher-ups by removing any laity who stand in their way. The very threat of this process will make all but the most stout-hearted soul acquiesce."
Lay members are subject to discipline and excommunication, but not by bishops or dioceses. That safeguard was adopted in Colonial times when the American church was "as nervous of the arbitrary power of bishops as it was of the arbitrary power of the British king," Dague says. "Since its founding in the days before the United States Constitution was written, no bishop or diocese of the Episcopal Church can discipline any layman. Only clergy are subject to a bishop's discipline."
Dague is a Syracuse lawyer and the assistant chancellor of the bishop of the Diocese of Albany. He is a member of St. Andrew's in the Valley of Syracuse.
He riled diocese's leaders in Central New York because he wrote a Web column titled "The Theology of Heresy in Central New York." He criticized diocese's leaders for inviting Marcus Borg of the Jesus Seminar to speak to clergy. Borg debunks orthodoxy and proposes a post-Christian view that is anchored in political and sociological constructions.
As a result of his article, Paul Kowalewski, canon to the diocese's bishop, called Dague's pastor to say that Dague should be subjected to church discipline for his conduct.
"Flabbergasted by the suggestion, my rector said, 'You want me to excommunicate him for writing an essay critical of Marcus Borg and the diocese!?' My rector immediately said 'no' to the diocesan canon's suggestion, and then called to tell me about the phone call," Dague says in his assessment of the proposed disciplinary rules.
That assessment is titled "Proposed Episcopal Church Canons Target the Laity" and is posted on the Web site of the American Anglican Council, a renewal group in the ECUSA.
An overview on the proposed disciplinary revisions is posted on the Web site of the ECUSA.
Bishop Catherine M. Waynick, bishop of Indianapolis, who served as chair of the Task Force on Disciplinary Policies and Procedures, says, "The new canon proposed in this report reclaims the broader meaning of discipline as the developing of habits which can form all members of the Church in healthy and responsible ministries and which can produce reconciliation and healing when failures occur." Waynick will argue for the changes during the General Convention June 11-22 in Columbus, Ohio.
Dague, a canon lawyer, doesn't view it as a reconciliation policy. He analyzes the proposal point by point and concludes that it provides "mechanisms of tyranny by bishops and other diocesan leaders against any laity who do not do the bidding of the diocese, be it revisionist or traditionalist."
He says the procedures outlined in the proposal are long and convoluted. "A lay person brought up on charges under this new system will have two choices: either quit and worship at another church down the street, or scrape up lots of money to pay a canon lawyer who understands this complicated process to fight for vindication," he said.
"The supreme irony of all this is that today's Episcopal Church has shown itself so dysfunctional that it cannot even discipline someone wearing a miter since the days of Bishop Pike in the 1960s and Bishop Righter in the 1980s," Dague says. "So now we will take a crack a cleaning up the laity?"
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Sounds just like the ACLU's gag order against members criticizing their organization (other FR thread today). They truly are the diverse, inclusive, tolerant, multicultural folk they claim to be, eh?
I think it's probably aimed at silencing Chris Johnson, David Virtue, and others who have been a thorn in the side of the heretics.
Who would stay in a church where merely holding an opinion might get you called up on charges and excommunicated? Who needs that sort of harassment?
The psychotic mother is preparing to kill her young.
heh. Chris Johnson has already left.
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