Letters: Episcopal Life Monthly February 2009
Episcopal News Service. February 9, 2009 [020909-01]
Episcopal Life welcomes letters, especially those with pictures, and will give preference to those in response to stories. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must include the writer's name, address and phone number for verification. Send to Letters, Episcopal Life, 815 Second Ave., New York, NY 10017; or email to letters@episcopal-life.org. All letters will be edited for brevity and clarity.
Pray for Obama
I have been saddened and alarmed by reports of increased racial hatred resulting from the election of Barack Obama. The hiss of the racist is again being heard. Can America pass the final test of democracy and pass power peacefully to one who is not a white male?
As a retired Episcopal priest, I challenge all clergy to pray urgently to God for divine protection of our president and his family. I urge each congregation to include in their Prayers of the People safety for the Obama family.
Those who survived the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were ever scared by the evil of those murders. Let Christians surround Barack Obama and his family with a shield of prayer. Let us beseech our Lord Jesus to "preserve, protect and defend" the Obamas as Barack vows to do the same for our Constitution.
"The torch has been passed" to an American whose forebears would never have dreamed such a thing possible. Let us remember those who did not live to see this day: Dr. King, Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Jonathan Daniels, [James] Chaney, [Michael] Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and the three murdered little girls of Birmingham.
This Obama "moment" came at a great price; let it not be paid in vain. May all Americans sing with Dr. King, "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we're ALL free at last."
The Rev. Bob Layne
McPherson, Kansas
Opposition ironic
In California, Proposition 8 passed in November by 52 to 48 percent, thereby invalidating same-gender marriage. It is not clear what will happen to the once-legal marriages of some 36,000 Californians, who had legal weddings and then created legal documents together such as wills, mortgages, insurance policies, etc. Some had children together.
But the proponents of religious definitions of marriage do not much care. Enough for them that civil marriage conforms to their church's dogma.
Mormons poured $25 million into efforts to pass Prop 8. Ironic, since Mormons first redefined marriage to allow polygamy and then redefined it again to disallow polygamy.
Roman Catholics also gave big bucks to wage religious war on behalf of Prop 8. A higher priority might have been to use those dollars to settle more quickly with victims of pedophile priests.
Seventy percent of African Americans voted to pass Prop 8. Odd, since church and state agreed not that long ago to ban interracial marriages, and based it on the Bible -- the same Bible that says, "Slaves, obey your masters."
One day more heterosexuals will learn it's not such a bad thing to treat gays like people.
Douglas Marshall-Steele
Milton, Delaware
False assumptions
Douglas LeBlanc takes issue with lay people presiding over Holy Communion ("Solemn rite or happy meal?" December), stating that it "makes us the center of attention."
I have no problem with open dialogue about the Eucharist, but I do take issue with an atmosphere of assumptions that imply lay people do not take ministry seriously and are not ministers themselves, via their baptism.
LeBlanc cites Myers Park Baptist Church (MPBC) in Charlotte, N.C., as being a liturgical Southern Baptist Church. But Myers Park is not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention – it is affiliated with the American Baptist Convention.
I was proud to work at MPBC some years ago alongside Baptists, Presbyterians and other Episcopalians. It is an uninformed assumption (based on a secondhand opinion) that members of Myers Park Baptist have "little understanding of the doctrine behind the [liturgical] symbols." Myers Park Baptist is a congregation that takes liturgy, ministry and mission seriously, while embodying ecumenism and lay ministry as well as any Episcopal church I know.
The real problem is not who stands where and says what during the Eucharist.
The real problem is arrogance and exclusion.
Canon Kep Short
Director of Youth Ministry
Diocese of New Jersey
Not a gatekeeper
One could argue that, as far back as the Didache, the non-baptized were excluded from not just the meal, but also from that portion of the service, having to leave before the table was set and not being privy to even the Lord's Prayer ("Solemn rite or happy meal?" December). If the holy meal of Christ's body and blood draws a nonbaptized person into the presence of God and becomes his or her entry way to the waters of baptism, then this is good.
I do not believe myself called to be a gatekeeper of God's sacraments. My calling is to invite everyone to experience and to know the love of God made known to us in Christ Jesus.
We each come to Christ in our own way. I certainly can envision the Holy Eucharist acting as a sacramental calling card to people who find themselves mysteriously called to this holy meal, and then called even deeper into the mystery of baptism and the wonder that is the body of Christ.
The Rev. Jim Melnyk
Raleigh, North Carolina
Different in Australia
For a number of historical reasons, the Diocese of Sydney in particular and the Anglican Church in Australia in general have developed in different ways from the church in America and in Britain ("Solemn rite or happy meal?" December). The diocese has provided a rationale for its action, and before we criticize it we should read and reflect on the rationale.
Some of the reasons for the Sydney decision are explained in the rationale; some are not explained because they are so much a part of the life of the church there that they are assumed.
Tom Rightmyer
Asheville, North Carolina
Welcome all
I was amazed to read in the article "Coming Together" this quote from deposed Bishop Robert Duncan, lately of Pittsburgh: "The most important thing now is ... effectively sharing the good news of God's love and mercy for all people ..."
He forgot to add, "except gays." Or perhaps he doesn't believe Jesus really meant "judge not lest you be judged" and "love one another as I have loved you."
I have watched with alarm and dismay as people of good will and estimable character set forth on a one-way street going in the wrong direction by not just leaving our beloved church, but also trying to hijack it. To me, secession was a bad idea in 1860, and it still is in 2008.
The other serious experiment with church secession that represented a real challenge to the larger Episcopal Church was the development of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century.
It's hard to believe, but true, that, until the 1960s, most states forbade interracial marriage. The issue is now forgotten and so arcane that my spellchecker didn't know the word miscegenation.
I hope and I pray the anti-gay position will be afforded the same proper fate. Only by welcoming all of God's people, including gays, can the church overcome the idea held by many of the unchurched that the church is discriminatory and oppressive.
The Rev. Stephen Alexander
Cincinnati
Article appreciated
How delighted and deeply grateful I was when a good friend of the Commission on Addictions and Recovery for the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast passed on the December issue of Episcopal Life Monthly. I have to tell you that this was truly a "WOW moment" when I saw that the article by the Rev. Lisa B. Hamilton, "Year's most challenging time" was published on the front page.
What an appropriate time of the year to include such important information. I encourage you to consider publishing additional articles on addiction and recovery issues in future editions of Episcopal Life Monthly.
Becky Wilson, chair
Commission on Addictions & Recovery
Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast
Mobile, Alabama
Still a bishop
Bishop A. C. Marble Jr. in the December Episcopal Life states that deposed Pittsburgh Bishop [Robert Duncan] "is no longer a bishop." This, apparently, is because he now is canonically resident in the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
Surely, once a bishop has been ordained a bishop in any Anglican province, he, or she, is recognized as a bishop (although some dioceses may not recognized "her" as a bishop, which, of course, is another subject).
If leaving one Anglican province, for whatever reason, and going to another results in that bishop being defrocked as a bishop, that also would result in the defrocking of Bishop Anthony Burton, formerly the Bishop of Saskatchewan, in the Canadian province to become the rector of the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, and the defrocking of Bishop Sergio Carranza, who was the bishop of Mexico, to become the assistant bishop of Los Angeles.
Surely all the Anglican clergy who have transferred from one Anglican province to another Anglican province have not been defrocked as priests. I, myself, have worked in three different Anglican provinces and in two languages, and I was not defrocked as a priest.
Surely we are the worldwide Catholic Church of Anglican Obedience that we profess to be! Or aren't we? And isn't Bishop Marble in error in what he has written?
The Rev. Harry Brant
Bordentown, New Jersey
Province possible
As an outsider looking in at the American Church, and as a retired cleric of the Canadian Church, I would like to point out that Rome is easily quite capable of having several bishops with jurisdiction overlapping areas of the country. Witness some of our major cities having several Eastern Rite eparchies (dioceses of an Eastern Orthodox Church) in the same areas overseen by Latin Rite bishops. There is no reason why a traditionalist province could not be organized in the United States.
When did the strange notion that schism is worse than heresy come to be the saving mantra of the day among Episcopalians? Scripture tells us to separate from contentious and false brethren, and so those who choose to put themselves under another province's jurisdiction merely are acting according to their consciences and are quite right, in their minds, to do so. St. Athanasius, when asked what a priest should do when he finds himself under the care of a manifestly heretical bishop, said that he should find another bishop.
The Rev. George A. John F. Porthan
Soudan, Minnesota
Demoralizing experience
Several years ago I served on the search committee for a bishop in Pittsburgh -- one before Robert Duncan ("Episcopal election methods due for revision"). It eventually became a very demoralizing experience.
We spent several months preparing -- convincing ourselves that the Holy Ghost was guiding us, preparing processes, reviewing candidates and presenting those candidates to the diocese.
At the convention, a group that essentially had withdrawn from the process intervened and largely altered the outcome of the election and perhaps the future of the diocese for years to come.
It seems the rule is to take a great deal of time before making a horrible mistake. A better way would be to accept nominations, exclude the obviously inappropriate and draw a name from a hat. Then winner take all.
James Houston
Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania
Wrong reason to leave
The Lord is not displacing the Episcopal Church. The fact that 9.2 percent of congregations and 4.1 percent of members choose to affiliate with African bishops and petition the Archbishop of Canterbury for another Anglican Communion in North America shows that [Bishop Robert] Duncan pays due homage to England as the seat of power in the Anglican Communion.
My family left the Church of England in the late 1500s when promised reforms were not implemented. My family became separatists, finally embarking on the Mayflower. We survived and prospered for 156 years before the civil war with England. When the Episcopal Church was formed in the late 1700s so priests did not have to swear allegiance to the crown and bishops were not automatically lords of the realm, then my family rejoined the Anglican Communion as members of the Episcopal Church.
We do not believe anyone has the right to leave the church because of a difference of one's personal interpretations of Scripture. When my family members signed the Mayflower Compact, they recognized the king of England as their head of state, but not head of their church or religion.
Michael Rief
Simpsonville, South Carolina
Wasted effort
As an ELCA Lutheran pastor (retired) who worshipped for three years within the Episcopal communion and who has been called by God to become a member of Hollywood Lutheran Church in order to provide support for its gay pastor, I find this article ("Conservative Anglicans due to announce new province") very sad.
I continually pray for the Episcopal Church but mostly for those who have left that church, not because of a major theological difference, but because of a major difference in the focus of ministry.
I always have believed that the Anglican Communion was not held together by commonality of opinion about something that Christians can and do disagree. I always thought that the Anglican Communion was held together by the body and blood of Jesus, our common Lord as experienced and expressed in the Eucharist. I have admired the Anglican Communion for this evangelical and grace-filled stand.
I am deeply saddened that something like homosexuality should split the church that historically has been held together by Jesus.
The Episcopal Church is not unlike my Lutheran Church. It is rearranging deck chairs while the Titanic (the church) is sinking. Isn't there something more important to fight about, like evangelism strategies or effective methods of spiritual development
and growth? Shame on the ELCA for wasting its time and resources. Shame on those within the Episcopal Church who also are wasting precious time and resources.
David Koepke
Cerritos, California
Stop actions
As a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, I ask the Presiding Bishop to stop the ridiculous actions regarding bishops, deacons, priests and laity that choose to leave the Episcopal Church (TEC) for reasons of interpretation of faith ("Presiding Bishop inhibits Fort Worth bishop").
TEC is the reason we are leaving. TEC or the highway has been the chant for so long it has finally caused traditional Christians to seek a spiritual home where they can worship without being subjected to constant harassment.
In Fort Worth, TEC will have All Saints', Trinity, and some smaller parishes to carry on its revisionist mission. Bishop Sam Hulsey, whom I have known for quite a few years, surely will accept the call to lead this remnant.
I moved my membership from the Diocese of the Rio Grande to the Diocese of Fort Worth so I might be part of the creation of a new province in North America. I eagerly await this development. I treasure the Anglican expression of the Christian faith. I pray that TEC might one day return to the truth of the gospel and the wisdom of our fathers.
Jim Carlton
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Stop cruelty
I want to comment on the two articles concerning gay marriage: "Differing views of California's Proposition 8" and "Canada: Large Majority of bishops agree to Moratoria" from the Anglican Journal.
I can't understand why there were no Bible quotes or references to Bible passages such as Samuel 19-20 (a description of two men who loved each other, although years later they married women according to the Jewish rule in order to increase the Jewish population).
Now, turn to Matthew 19:10-12. Jesus explains the reasons why not everyone has to marry. However, he did not say that two people of the same sex can't love each other. Why can't two homosexuals pledge themselves to be loyal to each other, and have a church ceremony and legal permission to bless it?
Why have we been so cruel to these people who were born that way? I believe that Jesus Christ loves us all and approves of treating our homosexual brothers and sisters as valuable human beings. Forgive us, dear Jesus, for our prejudice!
Ellen Kusik
Lancaster Village, Wilmington, Delaware
Rude comment
Jack Leo Iker, former bishop of Fort Worth, has written: "Katharine Jefferts Schori has no authority over me or my ministry as a bishop in the church of God. She never has, and she never will."
I thought that was unnecessarily rude. I'm not even sure there is any truth in the statement. In any event, the Fort Worth diocese seems to be moving ahead, and I'm sure it soon will be stronger than ever before.
John Williams
Oklahoma City
Loss of compassion
For decades, people streamed across the border doing work that Americans disdained: cleaning toilets, picking lettuce, working hard in sweatshops day and night with little compensation and lots of pain. How convenient it was for business, which let the taxpayers pay for schools, health care and every other incidental cost, allowing profiteers to keep profits high and wages at bay.
And then, when business plunged, the businessmen simply chose to swat the immigrants away, using Congress as their tool. No matter that families were torn apart, parents and children parted, lives wrecked; this frenzied bashing was no longer the exception, but the rule.
Has America become so bitter that it no longer can be a beacon for the world? When we needed them so desperately, they came in droves, and now, when times are tough, we toss them out, as we would slaves, no longer fit to toe the line or wield the hoe.
Is this the freedom that we promise to the world, or is it a subtle slavery?
Peter Barmus
Kailua, Hawaii