Monday, September 22, 2008

Thanks TEC for clarifying just what kind of 'church' you are

In recent days TEC, led by PB Schori, has deposed Bishop Bob Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh. Essentially it has judged him to have left the church before he has left the church so its as good an expression of Bushist pre-emptive strike capability as anything else!

Sarah Hey points out the inanity of it all - here is an excerpt:

"All around TEC right now, there are many moderates waking up to forwarded emails and phone calls from their conservative friends detailing what happened yesterday -- the frank lawlessness and violation of the canons, the enactment of an Episcopal Bush Doctrine and penalties for thought and speech crimes, and the violation, once again, of the progressive Episcopalians much-vaunted and loudly trumpeted values of "justice" and "inclusion." Try as they might, moderates simply aren't going to be able to defend that behavior, particularly with the well-armed conservative friends having memorized so much of the applicable canons and with the excellent work of Mark McCall and A S Haley pointing out the violations.

Beyond that is the international scene. Barely two months after lots of indabaing with 617 fellow Anglican Communion bishops . . . The Episcopal Church looks like nothing more than the Wild West, with the progressive bishops and the Presiding Bishop serving in the role of the feared and loathed gunslinging criminals who have taken over a town, prior to the deputized sherriff's men restoring order.

A better metaphor than that for the 88 bishops who voted to attempt to depose is that of a pack of hyenas circling an older, weaker hyena -- in essence, mob rule, animal style."

Deposition, by the way, is the ecclesiastical equivalent of execution for an ordained person, deeming them to be no longer an ordained person.

But, in a way, we can be grateful for this awful action, for it shows us what TEC thinks is 'Christianity': pursuit of an agenda without regard for actual doctrine. In this case the doctrine of the church would teach us the importance of seeking reconciliation before imposing discipline (a doctrine enshrined in ACANZP's canons, incidentally).

Go TEC! Keep clarifying your true character!!

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