Posted on 09/09/2006 4:01:57 PM PDT by sionnsar
If you ignored the title of this post and are, in fact, reading this, John Lipscomb, the Episcopal Bishop of Southwest Florida, thinks that you're part of the Anglican problem:
By now most of you know I will serve as a co-convener of a meeting of bishops held at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The announcement of the Anglican Communion Office has set off another round of speculation on the web blogs.
I am amazed to see self-proclaimed prophets write minutes and resolutions for a conference that is yet to happen. Perhaps it is time for us to allow the unfolding of the future in God’s time and not our own.
I find myself growing weary of those who hide behind masks of anonymity. The damage inflicted by half-truths and outright lies has taken a far greater toll on the mission of the Church than any erroneous teaching.
Hold it right there. Since you're so "weary of those who hide behind masks of anonymity," would you care to name names, Bishop? On what web sites did you read these "half-truths and outright lies" you think have "taken a far greater toll on the mission of the Church than any erroneous teaching." After all, if a site has done that much damage to the mission of the church, that site should be publicized so that believers can avoid it, should it not?
To put it bluntly, Bishop, the reason that this site, Drell's Descants, Titusonenine, Stand Firm, BabyBlueOnline, wannabenewbieanglican and so many others exist is that you and your fellow bishops have done a piss-poor job of defending the faith once delivered unto the saints. So somebody had to step in. When you start fighting for the Gospel even if it costs you your pointy hats, hooked sticks, cathedrals and parochial real estate, many of us will move on to other matters.
Once a word has been spoken into cyberspace it takes on a life of its own. We need to remember that where we have erred God will in God’s time bring reproof and correction. The God of peace alone has a right to judge the intent and content of the human heart.
We desperately need a Sabbath rest from these endless rounds of conjecture and hearsay. We need a season of prayer, self-examination and confession. Even though we are only part way through Pentecost, perhaps we need to declare an emergency Lent. The leaders of the Church need your prayers for strength and clarity of mind.
I would encourage you to join me in a 40-day fast from reading the web blogs. Instead, fill that time with prayer, join other members of your congregation to reflect on the Scriptures, and allow God’s Holy Spirit to guide the church through these difficult times.I urge the people of this diocese to be patient. Do not lose heart. Do not be afraid. As Anglicans we have been entrusted with a precious treasure from generations past that we know is held in earthen vessels. Human wisdom is not enough. We must pray God will show us the way to peace that will bring honor and glory to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prayer is always a good thing of course. But patience, Bishop, will probably be in very short supply. Because the one luxury orthodox Episcopal bishops no longer have is time. To some extent, the Internet may be partly responsible for this.
After all, the Windsor Report and the Dromantine Primates Statement were dissected and commented upon practically at the moment they were released. The outstanding live blogging of Matt Kennedy, Greg Griffith, Sarah Hey, Kendall Harmon, BabyBlue and others of GenCon 2006 meant that Episcopalians from all over the country could, for all practical purposes, attend and comment on the convention without leaving their homes.
But that is the nature of this technology. To condemn it as part of the problem indicates that you don't understand this. Episcopal news can no longer be filtered through bishops' statements about what happened or bogus "news service" accounts. Lay people can read statements for themselves and decide for themselves what they think about them.
And one more thing. Those "half-truths and outright lies" of yours probably come from the fact that it is human nature to speculate about matters of importance particularly when one isn't being told anything and nothing substantive appears to be happening. Communicate better and you'd see a lot less of this sort of thing.
You've had three years to do what everybody knows needs to be done. Continue to call for "patience" or hide behind "God's time and not our own" as a way to excuse your own unwillingness to act and many of us will not only stop writing about the Anglican situation, we'll stop being Anglicans altogether.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Which, conveniently, absolves the good Bishop from having to worry about folks having any near-real-time knowledge of the meeting he's co-convening... not to mention being able to read about any of the other important meetings going on this month.
The most serious failure of the Episcopal Bishops has been an utter lack of clear, honest, and open communication about what they've been up to. Frank Griswold's gauzy bafflegab hid an awful lot of ugliness which has since come to light, and threatens to destroy the Episcopal Church.
An openness to the councils of the church would no doubt have allowed us to avoid the sorts of heresies that grow unseen, sorta like mold growing in the folds of an extremely fat person....
Like this?
I must respectfully disagree. The most serious failure failure of the Episcopal bishops is their failure to adhere to the ancient and apostolic Christian faith. The vast majority of them are heretics.
Somebody has to tell the bishop that since the early seventies when the ordination of women was brought up, in fact since the 30's, when the use of Artifical Birth Control was brought up, people have been "prophesying" the acceptance of homosexuality in the Anglican Communion. It is a typical Us Episcopal rope-a-dope to say, "Now, now, you can't hurry God. Compose your soul in patience ....."
God has made it pretty clear, the "prophesies" were fulfilled, and yet this week I got an invitation to join my seminary class a convocation where before the attempteed consecration of Vicki Gene the female homiletics professor had a live-in female significant other.
The Bishop is not paying attention. While he counsels patience, his church is being pulled out from under him.
If he thinks we can't hurry God on the ordination of perverts, then what is he saying to those bishops who are racing to court to forestall the traditionalists from taking their church buildings with them? Is God more patient with perversion than He is with real estate?
No, the majority are probably just cowards. Those willing to act are mostly heretics.
"This people honors me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless; the doctrines they teach are only human regulations." (Matt.15:8-9).
It's all about the money. They don't care about the gospel, or the salvation of mankind. A church led by an unrepentant sinner who binds sin into the church is not an "ordained" minister in the Lord's eyes, and the church is no longer a church. Anyone seeking guidance towards salvation had better stick to what the gospel teaches and look elsewhere guidence, because salvation can't be found where they teach blasphemous theology.
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