Posted on 07/27/2005 6:42:30 PM PDT by sionnsar
My O My, a lot’s been happening, hasn’t it? Me, I’m just trying to refinish the floors and do some painting and papering, tree trimming, all that summer sort of stuff.
So a few weeks ago, the Bishop of Connecticut thinks it would be clever to take a whack at what he thinks is the weakest of the six parishes at odds with him, so he drops the inhibition hammer on Rev. Mark Hansen, rector of St. John’s Bristol, and tromps in to the parish with a squad of locksmiths and hackers. He changes the locks, hacks into the computers, redirects the church website, and installs a priest-in-charge without consulting the vestry. I’ve got to say that this raid reminded me of the bad guy Megabyte and his fumbling sidekicks Hack and Slash from the too-clever-for-words cartoon series ReBoot.
Megabyte even had a sort of pointy red hat . . . Anyway, fuss ensues, positions are taken, shouting happens. Bishop Smith lets it be known that the Panel of Reference won’t have a say in the situation: I’m not sure that the service of the Panel is supposed to depend on the consent of the Diocesan, but the Panel begins to look like a dead letter anyway. Responses to the Great Bristol Connecticut Raid run from furious outrage through mild tut-tuttery to a growl that “he’s a bish, ain’t he? You’ve got to lie there and take it.”
Next up we got the still foggy meeting of a bunch of bishops in California last week. Words occurred, but sink me if I know what went on. In retrospect, it seems to have been mostly a prelude to yesterday’s announcement of CAPAC, another step in the slow creation of structures to replace the current US and Canadian churches. I had been going to say something to the effect that I understood the need to create these macro-structures before the Anglican Remnant in the US could begin tending to congregations in reappraiser dioceses, but that the process would take a long time, maybe too long. Then this happened. It should be noted that several of the bishops signing this letter, five I think, also attended the Los Angeles meeting.
Some see this as the first shot that ends the long phony war period that has lasted since GC 2003; some are happy about it, some merely relieved, some grieved. I think, I suppose, I suspect, that many Renewal leaders have given up on any hope of mutual coexistence with the Reappraiser side, and are busily creating structures and alliances that will sustain an invigorated and renewed North American Anglicanism. If the tent is big enough, if hearts and minds are generous enough, and if these new structures and alliances focus on worship, proclamation, and teaching, there’s hope. If they fall into arguing and hissy-fitting about who is the best Anglican, if The Issue That Must Not Be Named escapes and eats us all up, then we’ll all have failed. A renewed North American Anglicanism needs to be focused on its Lord, on showing forth His death and resurrection, and prayerfully awaiting His coming. It needs to include as broad an understanding of that mission as possible without crossing the line into incoherent foggery. That line is often hard to define. A lot of us believe that we crossed it years ago, but we got to this fine pickle by a series of small steps. I suppose that means that we return to a better path not be big leaps, but by more small steps.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.