Anglican Centrist: Loren Mead Reflects on TEC Primates

BB NOTE: Fun finding stuff to agree with at Anglican Centrist, his posting today by Loren Mead makes for very good reading - and very much worth pondering as 815 attempts to centralize control of TEC (as it has been doing for quite a while, which anyone who goes to General Convention has been able to observe for years). Something happened that Monday in January (only three months ago now) when the Diocese of Virginia Standing Committee and Executive Board met with the TEC Chancellor, David Booth Beers, just the day after Truro had selected its negotiating team for Bishop Lee's brand new "Property Committee" just as the bishop had asked us to do. Then the next day, that Monday in January, Booth Beers came over for a little chat with Bishop Lee and the Diocese of Virginia leadership and the next thing we know the Virginia Churches clergy are all inhibited and lawsuits have been filed against us all by the Diocese of Virginia, followed by another one by 815 and the Presiding Bishop (guess they needed to "encourage" the Diocese of Virginia). It was all too weird and not like Virginia, a traditionally low-church style diocese (though not always in substance) and not one to take the authoritarian route into the courthouse across the street from Truro.

We recall that we've been told that it was only in the 1940s or 50s when "Processionals" and "Candles on the Lord's Table" were introduced into Truro for the first time and celebrating Eucharist weekly only started in the mid-1980s. Many parishes in Virginia still only celebrate the Lord's Supper (we even whisper the word "Eucharist" now) once a month. Ah, but those were the days when playing guitars or heaven forbid, drums and tambourines were somewhat shocking. Then came the sax and the harp - and the trumpets and the synth and the grand piano (and bought the Finney Pipe Organ too). Oh, for those days. We experimented with all of that stuff, blending our evangelical, catholilc, and pentecostal Christian heritages together in worship and never heard a peep from the bishop. Wonder if he wants a pipe organ? (Just kidding, Alan. Keep breathing.)

This article by Loren Mead provides some fascinating historical insight and not from the usual folks, but from someone who might consider himself a centrist. For years and years the TEC Bobos (building on David Brooks' Bohemian Bourgeois elites) have stilled dissent from the Episcopal centrists by focusing their common disdain toward those uppity conservatives of evangelical or Anglo Catholic variety (of course, doing so also helped still the rough waters between the evangelicals and the Anglo Catholics as well - their historic clashes had provided the forum for the Bobos to take over to begin with, but never mind). Now that the ball is basically in TEC's court alone (and the conservative minority is basically without voice (if you were a conservative and watching what's unfolding in Colorado, would you be inclined to speak out right now? No, didn't think so) - it is indeed "morning" for Episcopal Centrists to be thinking if they want to continue following the BoBos roadmap. This is the roadmap that is tearing the The Episcopal apart at the seams (so much for straining the bond of affection). That Anglican-connection to England is one of those peculiar aspects of upperclass American culture and we do wonder how that will continue past September 30.

This makes for very good reading at Anglican Centrist. Read the whole thing here. Here's an excerpt from the article by Loren Mead:

I come from a diocese that once went 20 years without a bishop, then had a bishop who once went 7 years without conducting a confirmation service. (This was reported by a subsequent bishop of South Carolina, a historian, who somewhat quizzically commented on the lapse as "for reasons that seemed appropriate to him.") We were a diocese that tended to think of cathedrals as vaguely Popish, or, perhaps equally bad, "European." I come from the branch of the Episcopal Church that knows that our constitution was not shaped by the federal Constitution (the way all the confirmation classes insist), but by the form of government the United States had when the Church constitution was produced: "The Articles of Confederation." So our constitution doesn't really have an executive branch (or president); its focus is in legislative authority that is bicameral – with only vestigial executive and afterthought judicial powers, and no provision for a president or for "national" taxation or rules. So we provided for a presiding officer for each of our legislative branches, but the presiding bishop has no authority in any diocese, and can only act in a diocese by the authority of the diocesan bishop.

Read the rest here. Fascinating insight though about the shaping of the Episcopal constitution (which apparently can be now changed at will by 815-centered General Convention) by the Articles of Confederation, not the US Constitution (that would have made a big difference in Virginia). That central-power thing never has taken root (imagine explaining to Virginia Episcopalians that New York - i.e., 815 - is in charge since they are now maintaining that this is a so-called hierarchical church). Imagine explaining to Virginia Episcopalians that TEC has a primate - no wonder Bishop Lee used that phrase "foreign prelates" in his "letter" to the Diocese (which still doesn't seem to be aimed at the Diocese, but rather to the Court House in Fairfax City). But never mind about that either.

Bob Dylan (you know he'd figure in here somewhere) has said that there is no right or left, just up and down and down is very close to the ground. Perhaps the "centrists" will discover that it is not the center they are on, but down on the ground and notice who's footprints all over their backs. The only footprints are those with power - and who might that be?

Again, read the rest here.