Category Archives: TEC

Anglican churches begin to demand proof of vaccination

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From August 29th, worshippers at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco will have to produce proof of vaccination before they are permitted to enter the building to attend a service.

From here:

Following the guidance of local public health officials and our Bishop, we will be requiring that everyone 12 years and above will need to show proof of vaccination before entry into Grace Cathedral. Starting Aug 24 for Events and will expand to include all Services starting Aug 29. We have implemented an advanced proof of vaccination form for you to complete and upload an image of your vaccination card.

The Diocese of Long Island is demanding all its clergy be vaccinated. Or else.

Meanwhile, both dioceses are working diligently to expunge Matthew 8:3 (“And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed”) from all the Bibles in its parish churches – the few that still have Bibles, that is. After all, Jesus’ reckless act might encourage others to welcome or even touch the unvaccinated.

Finally, some good news

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In 2020, the year of COVID, we all need a little cheering up so take heart, Christmas is almost upon us, and not only will you not have to put up with your relatives visiting, we have this heartwarming news from the US Episcopal church: by 2050 the entire denomination will be gone.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s All You Need is Love theology, although a resounding hit at royal weddings, doesn’t seem to work as well in more mundane settings. A smattering of truth might help but The Episcopal Church has worked hard for decades to rid themselves of such a nuisance. Now we see the result:

The Episcopal Church might soon cease to exist, according to those who describe the denomination’s future as bleak based on plummeting membership numbers.

Attendance and membership numbers at churches within the mainline Protestant denomination have dropped significantly over the last decade, having lost one-quarter of worship attendees.

In 1966, when the church was said to be at its peak in the United States, approximately 3.6 million Americans identified as Episcopalian.  The Episcopal Church’s Office of the General Convention reported that in 2018, membership in the denomination had dropped to 1.676 million.

Regular worship attendance in Episcopal churches in 2009 was approximately 724,000. By 2019, the figure was 579,000 on an average Sunday, a nearly 25% drop over a decade.

“The overall picture is dire,” the Rev. Dwight Zscheile, an Episcopal priest and professor, according to ChurchLeaders. “Not one of decline as much as demise within the next generation unless trends change significantly.”

He said that at this rate, “there will be no one in worship by around 2050 in the entire denomination.” Although offering pledges have risen, “the fact that fewer people are giving more money is not a sustainable trend over the long term,” he added.

Episcopal Church task force uncovers the true definition of “evangelism”

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Some years ago, the Diocese of Niagara had a Decade of Evangelism. Having a decade of something – it doesn’t really matter what – is something Anglican bishops do every so often to create the illusion that they are men of action not just men wearing tea cosies.

There was, indeed, frenzied activity in the diocese during those ten years. Clergy held meetings, led task-forces and gathered focus groups. To decide on how to define “evangelism”. Alas, after ten long arduous years, the worthy clerics still couldn’t agree, so the project was abandoned.

Not so in The Episcopal Church!

Canon Stephanie Spellers, the canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care has come up with this:

The definition of Episcopal evangelism—we submit it to anybody else who [needs] another way of understanding evangelism. We worked hard on this, too! There was a whole task force! What we came to was: “Evangelism is a spiritual practice where we seek, name and celebrate Jesus’s loving presence in the stories of all people, then invite everyone to more.”

This is so deep, I feel I must repeat it: “Evangelism is a spiritual practice where we seek, name and celebrate Jesus’s loving presence in the stories of all people, then invite everyone to more.” More what? Whose story? Richard Dawkins’ story? We should invite everyone to more atheism? You see the problem.

In case anyone is developing the impression that Spellers is just another crackpot canon, take a look at these profound pearls that dripped effortlessly from her lips:

But no, for certainly most Episcopalians, we can say “the ‘e’ word.” People are like, “Can’t you use a different word?” and we’re like, “No! Actually we can’t!”

[….]

For instance, a lot of people think, we don’t do that. You know, that Episcopalians don’t do that, that that’s what evangelical Christians do. And we’re like, how did you get here?

Anyone with that kind of teenage talent for using “like” as punctuation obviously has something so important percolating in her skull, that it bubbles out unfiltered by the narrow confines of grammar and basic vocabulary.

I’m not a canon, so I don’t have all the disadvantages of Anglican seminary training, but how about this:

Evangelism: the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ: that he, the sinless Son of God took our sin upon himself when he died on the cross, suffering the punishment we deserve. Through his atoning sacrifice and resurrection, we are offered the free gift of eternal life and reconciliation with God the Father. And that only took me ten seconds.

TEC questions God’s gender

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After decades of diligent searching, The Episcopal Church has finally found a sentient being who is not entitled to self-identify as the gender of his choice: God. Even though God repeatedly refers to himself as “Father” in his autobiography, TEC is having none of it.

If we let God have its way in this, “our work toward equity will not just be incomplete, I honestly think it won’t matter in some ways”, said Rev. Wil Gafney, a Hebrew Bible professor who currently self-identifies as a woman.

When Gafney preaches ne sometimes refers to God as “She” rather than “He”; pretty offensive, since ne should be using the gender neutral “Ne” “Ze” or “Ve”.

I like to do my bit for the work toward equity.

From here:

The terms for God, in the poetic language of the prayers written for centuries, have almost always been male: Father. King. Lord.

And in the Episcopal Church, the language of prayer matters. The Book of Common Prayer, the text used in every Episcopal congregation, is cherished as a core element of Episcopal identity.

This week, the church is debating whether to overhaul that prayer book — in large part  to make clear that God doesn’t have a gender.

“As long as ‘men’ and ‘God’ are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won’t matter in some ways,” said the Rev. Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas who is on the committee recommending a change to the gendered language in the prayer book.

Bishop Michael Curry still hasn’t found what he’s looking for

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The aura of celebrity that encircles Michael Curry’s head in place of a halo continued to grow brighter as he met with members of a rock band to talk about “the way of love”.

As you probably know, when they’re not busy playing rock and roll, making excessive amounts of money, and devising ways to evade paying tax,  Bono and the rest of U2 enjoy instructing star-struck bishops on the deep theological matters of the day.

From here:

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry met backstage this week with U2 and front man Bono at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where the Episcopal Church leader and the globally renowned rockers discussed Curry’s Reclaiming Jesus initiative.

The meeting happened in the evening June 25 just before the first of a series of U2 concerts in New York on the band’s Experience + Innocence tour. A photo released by the band shows the foursome posing with Curry.

“I know of no other group that has sung and witnessed more powerfully to the way of love than U2,” Curry said June 27 in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. “It was a real blessing to sit with them to talk about Jesus, the way of love, and changing our lives and the world. They are an extraordinary community gift to us all.”

Bishop Michael Curry: from Royal Wedding to Britain’s Got Talent

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If anyone has any lingering doubts about whether Bishop Michael Curry was peddling anything more than thinly disguised secular platitudes at the royal wedding, here he goes again, this time on his rent-a-bishop circuit introducing Britain’s Got Talent.

It’s all part of being in showbusiness:

Clergy alcohol abuse in The Episcopal Church

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The Episcopal Church in the US is “mired in a ‘system of denial and helplessness’ over alcohol abuse” according to this report.

I must admit, I have considerable sympathy for the clerical alcoholics in TEC. After all, to be employed to believe something while secretly disbelieving it, to have to keep your fingers crossed behind your back while reciting the creed every week, to maintain the farcical illusion that your career is a vocation is going take its toll eventually. It’s enough to drive anyone to drink.

The Anglican Church in the US remains mired in a ‘system of denial and helplessness’ over alcohol abuse among its senior clergy, a damning commission has concluded.

It found the Church had done little to tackle the issue after a Baltimore cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run incident by the former bishop in the Maryland diocese, Heather Cook, who was drunk-driving.

Cook was jailed for 10 years in 2015 after she pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Tom Palermo, 41. She was found to have three times the legal blood-alcohol limit.

But a report, commissioned by The Episcopal Church’s bishops, examined a number of case studies and in almost every case found ‘the ecclesial structure and polity of our church proved to contribute negatively to the situation’.

‘Clericalism, a misunderstanding of hierarchy, the canonical autonomy of parishes and dioceses, and a polity that hinders the enforcement of expectations all contributed to inactivity by responsible persons and bodies,’ the report, published this week, said.

‘The commission has discovered that in many instances, church polity has impeded the ability of the church to intervene, assess and treat impaired people and care for the injured community.’

he commission exposed a fear of exposure to liability, friendships between church officials, the autonomy of dioceses and a ‘culture of forgiveness’ as reasons for why there was a failure to address alcohol abuse among clergy.

The Cook case rocked TEC to the core after it emerged she had previously been arrested for drunk driving and the bishop of Maryland, Eugene Taylor Sutton, admitted he thought Cook was drunk at a dinner two days before her consecration as bishop.

Following the case the Church’s House of Bishops condemned its ‘longstanding tolerance for the use of alcohol’ that, it said, ‘contributed to its misuse and has undermined a climate of wholeness and holiness for all’.

The report criticised the Church’s failure to hold a central database to record the employment history and disciplinary profiles of clergy saying it has ‘no capacity for verification’.

It said: ‘There is no clarity about who should see background checks or read the self-report questionnaires. Once again, people who are not qualified to analyze the data are often in a position of making process and outcome determinations.’

However it added systems would not create ‘the great culture shift’ needed in the Church.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry does evangelism

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There are two ways to be incoherent: say something that means nothing; say something that can mean anything. The latter technique is preferred by Anglican clergy because it gives the illusion of Deep Thinking while providing an escape route when someone tries to pin them down.

Thus, when the Diocese of Niagara embarked upon the Decade of Evangelism many years ago, it spent nine and a half of those years attempting to define “evangelism” and six months producing reports that concluded “evangelism” was just another word for “inclusion” because, obviously, God would not exclude anyone or their behaviour, sexual proclivities or path to salvation no matter how perverse or arcane. Shortly after that most Christians left the diocese.

Now it’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s turn.

Curry, eager to be on the trailing edge of secular trends has been influenced by the twittering success of Donald Trump. He is tweeting his enthusiasm for evangelism; and making it mean anything – or nothing – at all:

I suspect the problem is that what motivates Curry et al is not saving souls from the fires of hell but filling emptying buildings and coffers. Such is his level of desperation, he is even willing to use the trappings of loathed fundamentalism to achieve his ends.

Bishops against prayer

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Episcopal bishops in the US are complaining that politicians are calling for prayer after the murder of many in the congregation at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. In a pronouncement whose role-reversal irony evades the bishops – as we all know bishops are renowned for being politicians-manqué – the bishops want action not prayer. Prayer is the job of bishops because only bishops have the wisdom to deliver the carefully nuanced incense-laced leftist propaganda to the Almighty necessary for the bishops to attain their political ambitions.

The problem, the bishops intone, is not the obvious one of a church which has ceased to affirm and preach the principles of its founder and thus has encouraged evil to flourish, but the 2nd Amendment.

Having given up on the job of leading people to Christ in order for him to transform the evil present within all of us, our bishops busy themselves with affirming our fallen nature, gasping with horror at the inevitable result, and attempt to limit the unavoidable damage by demanding politicians remove the external means we use to do that damage.

From here:

The campaign group United Against Gun Violence, which brings together more than 70 bishops from the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, has challenged the country’s leaders to act following the November 5 shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people.

[…]

In the U.S., efforts to limit widespread gun ownership have been repeatedly thwarted by a highly-financed and effective gun-lobby that promotes the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants a right to bear arms. The 2nd amendment was ratified in 1791—eight years after the American War of Independence, and states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Regardless of its original intent, it is seen today by the gun lobby as the right for U.S. citizens to own, possess and carry weapons—including assault rifles. And despite a very large number of mass-shooting incidents, politicians appear unable—or unwilling—to take action to limit the number of weapons in circulation.

[…]

Now the bishops have criticized political leaders for being quick to call people to pray following such shootings, while being slow to take action to prevent them.

“In the wake of the heartbreaking shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, we find ourselves both calling people to prayer, and wishing that the word did not come so readily to the lips of elected leaders who are quick to speak, but take no action on behalf of public safety,” the bishops said.

Bishops playing politics

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From here:

Some 125 Episcopal Church bishops signed a full-page ad that ran Sept. 21 in the New York Times, imploring President Donald Trump and member of Congress not to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program known as DACA.

“To do so would endanger the lives of thousands of young people and their families and run contrary to the faith and moral traditions of our country,” wrote 122 bishops, along with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, 26th Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and 25th Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. “It is unfair to threaten the well-being of young people who arrived in our country as children through no choice of their own.”

As you can see, the compassion of Anglican bishops knows no bounds.

Very soon we can expect Episcopal cathedrals, emptied of congregants driven out for non-compliance with Doublethink, to be filled with DACA victims, potential DACA victims and pretend DACA victims. Katharine Jefferts Schori will be housing at least ten personally in her home. Michael Curry, who earns over $280,000 annually placing him squarely among the despised 1 percenters, will be donating most of it to homeless migrants and will vacate his bishop’s residence to make room for ten more.

Frank Griswold has been asked to take in yet more illegal immigrants but is still working on the deeper hermeneutical meaning of the words take and in.

Remember, though, the main thing is to hate Trump with all the inclusive vitriolic loathing that this elite cadre of dog-collared oven mitt wearing geriatrics can muster. That’s what it means to be a missional church.