I've been reading these articles here for two years now, place after place after place brought under the same pressure. There was a time, early on, when I was seriously excited to see the indignation, and expected to see firm, unflinching, uncompromising resistance using all means.
Instead, I note that the bad guys always win in the Episcopalian Church. People LEAVE, but they never, ever, ever fight.
And by fighting I don't mean complain and moan and yell. I mean barring the door. I mean having security guards physically toss invading bishops out of buildings and force a full-on litigation.
So, the temperature has dipped?
And before that, there were the Connecticut priests...
And before that, there were the gay ordinations...etc.
So, what is going to happen THIS time, in THIS place?
Episcopalians will whine. And Episcopalians will obey.
That's what you always do, as far as I can see.
Some will leave.
But nobody will ever fight.
Actually fight.
Actually physically toss an apostate bishop out of an orthodox church, with security guards, and say "We do not recognize your episcopacy, sir. You are a tresspasser. Get off our land." If s/he won't go, have security drag him out by the arms.
It will never happen.
The new "Chancellor" of wherever has spoken.
And in the end will win.
That's what always happens at the end of all of these threads.
It's like reading French military history, except that the French sometimes win battles.
Sorry to say it, but it's so.
And it's dreadfully sad.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, has been banned from one of the oldest cathedrals in Britain after accusations that he has become an “instrument of disunity”.Lord Carey, who has become a champion of orthodoxy in the Anglican Church since stepping down from the top job in 2002, was due to speak at Bangor Cathedral, North Wales, in February. The Dean of Bangor, the Very Rev Alun Hawkins, is understood to have imposed the unprecedented ban because he feels that Lord Carey has become a “divisive force” and has been “disloyal” to his successor, Dr Rowan Williams, who was born in Wales.
Relations have been strained since Lord Carey blocked the appointment of Dr Williams as Bishop of Southwark because he believed that he was too liberal on the gay issue.
Lord Carey’s lecture, one of four he was due to deliver in Wales, had been organised by the Church Mission Society. John Martin, of the society, said about the Dean: “He felt George had become a factor of disunity and of disloyalty to Rowan Williams, a divisive force. He also questioned whether inviting George Carey to speak was a sign that the society was lurching to the right. We pointed out that in fact we have had a very balanced series of lecturers.”