When the Moon is in the Seventh House: Bishop Schori spins the Lambeth Conference as shunning democractic principles for festive hippie "be-in"

Get your buckets of popcorn and drafts of butterbeer and pull up a bean bag chair and watch this whopper of a tale. If you can. We recommend that you play the video above as you watch the video. It's mighty helpful in finding just that right mood for the groovy Lambeth Be-In.

Push play.

The question is - why is 815 holding a press conference anyway? Obviously they are trying to solve a problem, like perhaps big-time litigation damage control? Mutiny in the ranks? Puffing up a bunch of bad news? Deflection from another event next week? Lambeth 1.10 will stand unchanged for another ten years?

The thing is - the problem is staring them right in the face and instead they choose to engage in a centralized PR campaign instead of actually solving the problem. David Booth Beers, call your office. In addition to slamming the international communications revolution called the internet (it's so inconvenient) sniffing that it's just "discarnate communication," the Presiding Bishop publicly disses democracy. So much for democratic principles - it's so overrated! So last century! Or two.

Votes - wait, what did she just say? Rewind video. What? Holy cow, this is is shark-infested waters, there she is, poo-pooing democracy - for what? Things have not been going well? Off with their heads. Is she serious - she dismiss democracy as just a futile exercise of winners and losers. It's staggering.

The word of the day is autocracy.

Remember, Bishop Schori was very clear when she returned from the Primates Meeting in Tanzania last that her focus of TEC will be to outlive and out maneuver the rest of the communion, she made that quite clear. She will wait them out with what she calls conversation. She makes it clear that freedom and democratic voting "leads generally to winners and losers." Yep, she actually said that. Oh for pete's sake. No wonder Thomas Jefferson was not so fond of the Anglican Church of Virginia - what later became the Episcopal Church. Patrick Henry, James Madison, George Mason, and George Washington - forgetaboutit. The amoral stance, that liberty produces winners and losers and so waves it off in lieu of her code word conversation. Time for another viewing of Braveheart.

Conversation means conversion - she says so. And conversion is the ambition of the progressive majority of TEC. Conversation is a political technique, a form of wearing down opposition. The recipients are love bombed into complacency. Watching this video, with the matter-of-fact Delores Umbridgian approach, oh so sweet, so filled with smiles when they know - TEC knows it doesn't have the votes to do legislation. So they subvert the process and reimagine the whole thing. That's called "design." This so-called conversation is a technique and the goal remains clear. If anyone has the courage to stand against this method of tightly controlled dynamics of so-called conversations, watch what happens. Bishop O'Neill may come knocking at your door.

So it's all about conversation and not about decision, not about voting, not about choose you this day and all that, and certainly not about freedom and liberty and doing what is right, and holy, and good. Sorry, martyrs, you goofed.

LATER: It's a new church?

EVEN LATER: Why is Ian talking through a schedule? Does he think the media can't read?

MUCH LATER: There's Rachel Zoll of the AP talking about GAFCON. Wohoo! Is it a threat, she asks? Is anyone going to represent 815? Oh my, the PB - she's "sending" Bishop O'Neil, who is suing anything that moves in Colorado, to "go be with" the Bishop of Jerusalem, as though he's under seize. Talk about PATRONIZING. Poor Bishop of Jerusalem - he needs Bishop O'Neill to come and hold his hand. Scary bishops from Africa and Asia and South America and the Middle East and Australia and the Bishop of Rochester too are coming and the Bishop of Jerusalem needs Bishop O'Neill to look after him. Didn't I see this once on an episode of the Soprano's? I supposed we Anglicans have our own version of the Soprano's - perhaps it's called The Godmother.

Not exactly this one.

"Import conflict," heaven's to betsy. It's not the Bishop of Jerusalem - it's his TEC-funded staff that's gone bunky. Sounds to me like 815 is sending Guido O'Neil to keep an eye on the bishop, lest he step too far out of line. The problem is that GAFCON introduces a two-sided conversation, what a novelty. And if you dare to speak a different view than the Official View, you are stamped as "importing conflict." I supposed every football team in the NFL "imports conflict." The Olympics import conflict. Conflict means people are breathing. What does she fear? Could it be a reality check on d-i-v-i-s-i-o-n. One wonders if she's even read Judge Bellows decision yet. Doubt it.

Ruth Gledhill asks via e-mail about the Anglican Church. Bishop Schori does not like the term "Anglican Church." More vastly different contexts, and stuff like that.

There's Kim Lawton. Gene Robinson is not invited. Will TEC provide opportunities for a meet and greet with Gene? TEC pissed. "We do expect that Bishop Robinson will be present around the edges" and the answer is yes. The bishops in Province One are going to be his Public Relations Team, it seems. And of course, Integrity is mounting a General Convention-style onslaught on Canterbury. And then here comes Ian, who seem to be the resident translator. Wonder if he's found a dictionary yet?

One does get the sense here that 815 is defensive. What's up with that?

Here's Julia Duin via e-mail. About the speaker-guy Brian McLearon. Rowan's fault.

Oh, here we go into this pseudo oneness. A "communion that is in the process of becoming," says Ian. Of becoming what? A mess?

Wow, this is incredibly boring. Oh - wait. The revolutionary nature of tea parties? Hospitality initiative? "Best rest into this?" Where did Ian learn to speak? Go to GAFCON. It'll be funner.

Holy cow, they just showed the audience and NO ONE IS THERE. Good heavens - no one is there. You can hear the echo in the room - but practically no one is there. It's such a stark contrast to this.

Oh here's a question about why is Lambeth having Bible Studies? It's coming from Chicago. "I Am" - the incarnate presence of God in the world. "How do we become God's incarnate presence in the world?"

um, er - did she really say that?

Does she think we're equal to Jesus? How do we see the incarnate God? AHHHHHH!!! Last time we checked his name is still Jesus. But apparently, He's not quite enough for these two.

One wonders if Ian might do well to get a job at Starbucks. Imagine if he made latte's the way he fashions sentences. They'd be filled with froth.

Do we think for a minute that the PB is "diminished" because Martyn Minns won't be at Lambeth? Doubt it.

So Gene is going to be out on the fringe. It's kinda pathetic. If TEC really was serious about making him a bishop, they'd not leave him out in the cold. For Peter Akinola, if you pick on one of his bishops, you've picked on them all. Now that's community.

Kim asks why 815 is sidestepping the issues? Why not plough through them instead of letting them continue to fester? Old processes - wait, voting is an old process? Voting causes hurt? Therefore voting is bad???

Guess all of these efforts in the 60s were pointless?
Dr. King, big time oops.

What is going on up there? What'd they serve for lunch - bowls of stupid?

815 and the progressive West knows it's outnumbered and so the idea of having a legislative session at Lambeth was shelved. Unbelievable.

It sounds like 815 is breaking it to the media (at least those who showed up) and to the rank and file Episcopal Churchians that there is going to be no work done on changing the communion to be inclusive of gays and lesbians. Zipideedoodah. Not going to happen. Lambeth 1.10 stands. And will stand untouched for another ten years. That's what the Presiding Bishop is attempting to deal with in this "press conference." They are trying to deflect the "story" away from overturning Lambeth 1.10 to the bishops now shutting themselves off and having their groovy festive "be in." A closed shop. No hanging shingles, no hanging chads. The rest is on the fringe.

And there we are.

Lambeth 1.10 will not be overturned or revisited. It now stands for the next ten years.

Now that's good news.

Julia is now asking via e-mail "I'm a tad confused, no resolutions voted on?" That's exactly what was said.

"It's not my meeting," said Katharine Jefferts Schori.


----

What else can we do? Here's Bob:

Tuesday Afternoon at the Cafe: Will the Circle be Unbroken?

12 Steps to Anglican Recovery

Recently, fellow blogger and friend Mark Harris responded to a comment I made at his blog, writing, "So in some settled future if you are in a different sort of church thingy and I am in this church thingy, how are we to walk in some ecumenical way that respects the great creative genius that is the Spirit active in the body of Christ." It was a very gracious thing to say, but there was one word that broke out of the pack that has stayed with me since.

The word is ecumenical. It has troubled me since I read it because it denotes a sense that we belong to two different denomination, not one denomination that is in a family crisis of division.

This is contrary to what the court found in Virginia - that were overwhelming evidence of division within the denomination. It was the only way to satisfy the statute - it had to be within the denomination and the evidence, when you read the decision, is overwhelming. We are not experiencing ecumenical division - this is a division within the same denomination, within the same family.

For whatever reason - the denial continues. We deal with the old adversaries, Fight and Flight. Perhaps it is the lawyers that are advising their clients to speak this way in public - to talk about ecumenicalism as though we were, as the term is used, "predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice." This is certainly not the case in the divisions facing The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. We are not separated by history or practice - we are all of the same history (until 2003 at least) and we are of the same practice (we use the same Prayer Book) - but it is at the point of doctrine that we are dividing.

The other night I went to a party where they were showing the classic film sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. There is a scene in that film where Yoda sends Luke Skywalker into the cave where he battles with what he thinks is his enemy, only to discover that the major battle he must first win is with himself. This is an illustration of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. We are all going into the cave and when we battle what we think is some outside invader (you pick your choice what that outside invader is, the choices are many on both sides of the divide) our real battle is within ourselves, as a people, as a Church.

Our problem is not an ecumenical problem, it's a family problem and it will take a family solution - just as it did with that young Jedi apprentice. Until we can face up to the fact that the division is real, that it's not going away, that it's getting worse, that lawsuits and threats are not the answer, to quit the PR campaigns and pointing fingers and calling each other names and finally just grow up - our family feud will grow worse.

What do we do? We do what families do when they are in crisis. Do we really need to ask?

* Step 1 - We admit we are powerless over our division - that our church-wide relationships are unmanageable.
* Step 2 - We believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us and our Church to sanity.
* Step 3 - We decide to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
* Step 4 - We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and our Church.
* Step 5 - We admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs as a Church
* Step 6 - We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
* Step 7 - We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings (which means we admit that we have them)
* Step 8 - We make a list of all persons we harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
* Step 9 - We direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
* Step 10 - We continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admitted it.
* Step 11 - We seek through prayer and worship to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
* Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

What if all litigation and public relation trips and statements ceased and we took this road instead? It's not pointing the finger at someone else and say, "you do it, it's your fault." It means we all agree to do it, ourselves. This isn't a Communique or a Covenant. These are major steps toward repentance and - God willing - revival. Come, Holy Spirit.

The Quiet Before the Storm ...

Drop what you are doing and go see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian NOW

No really. Drop what you are doing right now and go see Prince Caspian. Seriously. Check your movie times and buy tickets here or here. I haven't shouted at the screen of a movie theatre in years - perhaps not since Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker who his father was. I completely forgot how old I was. Even the grumpy lady sitting near us who hated her seat and her popcorn was shouting at the screen. She forgot too. Hope that might make C.S. Lewis happy. If you see the film - let us know. In meantime, here's a preview:



Here's another preview:

Potter Watch: Is John Williams scoring Half Blood Prince?

IMDb now lists renowned composer, John Williams, as the composing the film score for the upcoming installment of the Harry Potter film series, Half Blood Prince. This would definitely be a surprise since it had been announced earlier that Nicholas Hooper, who had scored the previous film, Order of the Phoenix, would be returning. IMDb also lists Nicholas Hooper as working on the film score.

The Boston Globe reports that John Williams is working on the Half Blood Prince film score, as well. Williams last work on the Harry Potter films was for the third film in the series, Prisoner of Azkaban. He also wrote the original soundtrack for the first film, The Sorcerer's Stone, which includes the highly recognizable, Hedwig theme:



Stay tuned for updates. We're also watching for the release of the first preview. There are also rumors that there are some casting surprises. Stay tuned.

By the way, this photo (see right) was released/leaked this week and it looks to us at our table to be perhaps from the scene where Harry is put in detention by Prof. Snape after Harry's fight with Draco Malfoy. Ginny Weasley steps in to sub for Harry as Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team while Prof. Snape requires Harry to recopy Filtch's old card files of Harry's father's detention-transgressions while a student at Hogwarts back in the 1970s. But that's just a guess!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Welcome to the Age of Litigation: Rowan Williams will not put it in writing

No letters? If Rowan writes a letter, it could be revealed in discovery, of course.

Other letters, written by bishops to other bishops about other bishops have also been revealed in discovery, as we noticed in Judge Randy Bellows' recent decision in favor of the Virginia Churches. Perhaps Rowan Williams would not like to see his own letters with the Lambeth Letterhead ending up in a U.S. Court, especially since several bishops who might be in question are being threatened with litigation by The Episcopal Church. Especially if those letters tell certain bishops that they are welcome to Lambeth after all. That would not not exactly aid TEC's current litigation storm. No, sir.

“In circumstances where there has been divisive or controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our time together,” he said in his Pentecost letter. An unnamed spokesman (could it be the Ty-d-Bowl Man?) tells The Living Church that the letters got shelved for telephone calls (can't exactly put those in the box with the rest of the discovery stuff, now can you?). But the Archbishop of Canterbury might be advised not to leave any phone messages on the answering machine of some bishop involved in "divisive or controversial action." The mind boggles at the thought.

A blogger in Kentucky writes of a recent visit by the Presiding Bishop and reports that Katharine Jefferts Schori said announced "there are no plans to spend time enacting legislation at this year’s Lambeth Conference. Rather, the conference is designed to allow everyone to spend time together, get to know each other, communicate, and learn from one another."

Since The Episcopal Church has all ready made it quite clear that Lambeth Resolutions are not legislation with any binding authority over The Episcopal Church, it's hardly surprising that Bishop Schori is going around telling people that "there are no plans to spend time enacting legislation at this year's Lambeth Conference." As we know the recent TEC party line is that Lambeth has no authority to enact legislation, so what's new with that?

However, that being said - some resolutions, like some canons, are more equal than others. And a resolution to reimagine Lambeth 1.10 is certainly on the docket. It's a long way to go and a lot of money to spend just to hold hands and sing Kum-ba-ya.

If Rowan puts in writing anything having to do with the official status of bishops now under threat of litigation (as in, "we know you recently voted to separate from the Episcopal Church and join the House of [fill in the blank], but you are still welcomed at Lambeth just the same, though we do refrain from placing hotel lamp shades on your head after hours or engaging in performing spirited cartwheels across Her Majesty's lawn during the tea, and of course, please, please, don't pat the corgis") then his letters are open to discovery in court or worse - made public on the internet.

Since Rowan has shown his communications staff the door recently, it may be that the lawyers have finally moved in.

Never Ending Tour Kicks Off Again: Dylan Rocks in Worcester

Last night Bob Dylan kicked off the latest leg of a tour that has lasted 20 years. He's off to Eastern and Western Europe for a couple of months, but warmed up the band with a performance at the Palladium in Worcester, MA, an old and worn venue and oh so typical. This is definitely one of the reasons that Dylan remains, well, cool.

The early reviews are excellent. He'll be back in this the Baltimore/DC area in August. Next week he turns 67. There's even a website that offers instruction on how to celebrate his birthday.

Duluth, of course, has gone even further.

UPDATE: Here's a hand-held cam video from a concert last year. It's rather jumpy, but the close-ups are terrific. For those who continue to struggle with the idea that Dylan "can't sing" this video illustrates his amazing ability at expressive phrasing. This is one of newest compositions and it is positively brilliant, the final track off of Modern Times. "Excuse me, ma'am, I beg your pardon, there's no one here, the gardener is gone." One of the best Dylanesque poetic and even humorous expressions of Easter Day.

Ain't talkin', just walkin'
Up the road around the bend
Heart burnin', still yearnin'
In the last outback, at the world's end

Rowan Williams on Pentecost

Trinity Names New Seminary Dean: Dr. Justyn Terry

Ambridge, PA (May 16, 2008) – The Trinity School for Ministry Board of Trustees announced today that the Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry has accepted an enthusiastic call by the board to become the new Dean and President, succeeding the Rt. Rev. Dr. John H. Rodgers, Trinity’s second Dean and President, who left retirement to serve as Interim Dean/President beginning in August 2007.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees the Rev. Canon David Roseberry said, “The Lord has blessed us indeed, as Justyn will assume the awesome responsibility of Trinity’s vital role as a bearer of an orthodox evangelical witness in North America.”

According to the Rev. Geoff Chapman, search committee co-chair, “Dr. Justyn Terry is a superb leader, a tested pastor and a leading scholar of gospel and culture. His election is a sign of hope for the future of evangelical Anglicanism and the gospel we love. His warmth of heart, clarity of mind and depth of faith will be a model for those who join us at Trinity.”

Terry, 42, was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1996. With undergraduate studies in physics at Keble College, Oxford (UK), and graduate studies in theology and ministry at Cranmer Hall, St. John’s College, Durham (UK), Dr. Terry received the PhD in Systematic Theology from King’s College, London, in 2003. Since 2005 he has served as Trinity’s Associate Professor of Systematic Theology. Prior to coming to Trinity, he was rector of St. Helen’s Church, a church plant in North Kensington, London. Dr. Terry and his wife, Cathy, live in Sewickley, Pennsylvania and have two young daughters, Sophia and Lydia. He will begin his duties on July 1, 2008.
_____________________________________________________________________

Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, serves the Lord by forming Christian leaders, both lay and ordained, for ministry and mission. Trinity is an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition, and serves all those committed to the spread of the gospel, whatever their tradition.

Dylan Watch: Interview with Suze Rotolo

Artist Suze Rotolo, the former girlfriend of Bob Dylan during his Greenwich Village days, has written a memoir, A Freewheelin Time, of her life with Dylan during the folk era of the early 1960's. She received notoriety early on for her appearnce on Dylan's breakthru album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (you may note our logo for the Cafe Homepage comes from a photo we took on the same street corner where cover of the album was shot). Her book is honest, transparent, well-written and shines light not only on Dylan's early days and of the impact of his fame on their relationship, but also of life in Greenwich Village in its hayday.

Many of Dylan's early songs were inspired by his relationship with Suze Rotolo. Boots of Spanish Leather and Don't Think Twice it's All Right are among those inspired by her. Dylan writes generously of his relationship with Suze in his autobiography, Chronicles.

You can listen to an interview with Suze Rotolo here at NPR.

Oh, for Pete's sake

BB NOTE: So much for the People's freedom to vote under the law. Thousands of Virginians voted under the law of the land and as we are reminded in the original Standstill Agreement between the Diocese of Virginia and those eleven churches that voted, that the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia agreed that the churches "may report their congregations determinations by filing a petition/report with the relevant VA Circuit Courts pursuant to Va. Code 57-9 without violating the agreement."

Which is of course, all we did.

For a few days, the Diocese and TEC appeared to respect the integrity and liberty of Virginians to vote under the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia and to record those votes. Now the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia were unable to continue the facade that all is well and to deny the freedom of an overwhelming majority to exercising their religious liberty to follow their own conscience and vote as the Virginia Protocol itself outlined. In doing this very difficult thing, Judge Bellows recognized that there had been:

"the creation of a level of distress among many church members so profound and wrenching as to lead them to cast votes in an attempt to disaffiliate from a church which has been their home and heritage throughout their lives, and often back for generations."

That's religious freedom. It was profound and wrenching and it still is. TEC has demonstrated over and over that it cares very little about the religious freedom of all its people or to respect their votes under the law. Just as they do in General Convention, when they don't like something in Scripture or the Canons, they just throw it out. And if that doesn't work, they reimagined it to say something different than what it meant when it was written in order to satisfy their own political agenda - which is what led to the division in the first place.

Now The Episcopal Church attempts to do the same thing with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Here is what the Commonwealth of Virginia says about these claims made by the Episcopal Church:

Ignoring the clear text, blurring the distinction between intentional discrimination and disparate impact, advocating hypothetical claims of parties not before the Court, and twisting existing constitutional doctrine, they insist that § 57-9 infringes upon the rights of “hierarchical churches” in violation of both the Virginia and National Constitutions.

The Episcopal Church and amici are simply wrong.

The text of § 57-9 does not distinguish between Christianity and other religions or between the Episcopal Church and other Christian denominations. Nor does it distinguish between denominations that use a hierarchical form of government and those that use other forms of government. As the Episcopal Church concedes, “[h]ierarchical denominations hold local church property by a variety of means, including in the name of trustees, in congregations• corporate names, in the name of the Bishop of the Diocese, and in the name of the mother church or its Presiding Bishop.” Diocese Supplemental Const. Br. at 24 (parentheticals omitted). Similarly churches that use other forms of government may choose to hold property by a variety of means, including in the name of trustees. Rather, § 57-9 simply mandates a method of resolving church property disputes if the church property is held by trustees. Its application may be avoided simply by choosing a different means of holding property. As long as churches are allowed to choose among a variety of methods of holding property, § 57-9 does not establish religion, inhibit the free exercise of religion, violate equal protection, or impair contracts that existed prior to 1867.

Rather, it provides a straightforward mechanism to determine how certain church property disputes should be resolved. Section 57-9 is constitutional as applied to the Episcopal Church in this litigation.

Read the rest here.

We do remember where the former Secretary of the Diocese, Patrick Getlein, went to work after leaving Mayo House. Of course, he hasn't actually left Mayo House. But he's been busy. Wonder why the Roman Catholic Church is no where to be found? Perhaps because they took the time to put all their church trusts in the name of their bishop, because if the bishop wants to own the property in Virginia he has to put the property in his name, there are no implied trusts in Virginia. If the Diocese of Virginia wanted to own everything, why didn't the bishop order all the parishes to transfer their property to him? Oops. Thousands of Virginians exercised their religious freedom to vote and that's what we did, overwhelmingly, according to the law. The judge has now ruled we satisfied the law. Members who belong to the churches listed in this press release may want to consider carefully the dim view their own leadership takes of the personal liberty of their own individual members. They are protecting the corporate structure over the conscience of individual members. It's as though they want us to know we're no longer in Virginia, but reside in the Hotel California.

The following released this afternoon by the Diocese of Virginia:

More Hierarchical Denominations Support Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in Amici Filing

May 15, 2008

Over the past four days, eight more religious denominations and judicatories, as well as the two other Virginia Episcopal dioceses have asked the Court to allow them to join the Amici Curiae brief supporting the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church in recognizing that the §57-9 division statute is unconstitutional. All churches in Virginia are threatened by this statute, which discriminates against hierarchical churches in favor of congregational ones, in violation of their faith and the right of churches to structure and govern themselves based on their religious beliefs. All churches in Virginia must have the right to structure themselves according to their faith beliefs without the intrusion of the government.

The following denominations joined the Amici brief on May 12 and 15, 2008:

• The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), by Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
• The General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists
• The National Capital Presbytery, by The Rev. Dr. G. Wilson Gunn, Jr., General Presbyter
• The Presbytery of Eastern Virginia, by Elder Donald F. Bickhart, Stated Clerk
• The Virginia Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• The Metropolitan Washington DC Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• The Virlina District Board-Church of the Brethren, Inc.
• The Mid-Atlantic II Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia
• The Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia
  

They join the following denominations, which filed the Amici Curiae brief on April 24, 2008:

• The United Methodist Church
• The African Methodist Episcopal Church
• The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• The Worldwide Church of God
• The Rt. Rev. Charlene Kammerer, Bishop of the Virginia Council of the United Methodist Church
• W. Clark Williams, Chancellor of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
  

Of especial note, the Seventh-day Adventists, despite not being directly threatened by the statute, recognize the dangers inherent in the law, namely "the ultimate and very real danger posed to all religious groups if the legislature is permitted to resolve property rights by reference to inherently religious criteria, much less to 'defer' to the rules of some religious groups but not others." (Motion for Leave to Join Brief of Amici Curiae, page 3)

As the Episcopal Dioceses of Southern and Southwestern Virginia point out in their filing, "A statute that singles out the legally binding organizational documents and property arrangements of churches whose property is titled in trustees, and permits a court to invalidate those provisions on grounds not applicable to other types of religious or secular organizations or entities, cannot pass Constitutional muster." (Motion of the Dioceses of Southern Virginia and Southwestern Virginia for Leave to Join Amici Brief, page 6).

By making these filings, these denominations and dioceses support the Diocese of Virginia's and the Episcopal Church's argument that matters of faith, governance and doctrine are to be free from government interference. This statute is clearly at odds with and uniquely hostile to the concept of religious freedom. We hope that the Court will recognize that the statute is an attack on America's First Freedom and thus unconstitutional.

BB NOTE: There is just so much that is wrong with this release that even Thomas Jefferson must be spinning in his grave - we can only imagine what he might have thought of multi-million dollar religious corporations using the Bill of Rights as a baseball bat.

The statements in this "press release" are statements written by political activists, it just breathtakingly over-reaching and designed for political purposes, not the purposes of law. They've put together a coalition of religious corporations that have nothing to do with the current issue - they did not appear at the trial last fall, they weren't involved in the opinion, they don't have parishes voting to separate, nothing. Here they are being wrapped up together for the publicity. The illogic of this press release is also just simply stunning - how could these other denominations get roped into this? For example, if a church decides to offer up children for sacrifice to their gods as part of their devout religious observance, I supposed that the Episcopal Church and these amici-church corporations must now side with the child sacrificers because we can't have "the government" poking its nose into our bloody business - is that it? Talk about "uniquely hostile." Pass me the Bill of Rights.

As we recall, George Mason was also once a member of the Truro Parish Vestry. We don't think he had multi-million dollar religious corporations on his mind. Nope. And neither did Patrick Henry and all the other Virginians who actually put their life, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to get the Bill of Rights included into the U.S. Constitution. And just remember who wrote the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom.

Looks like it's time to spin another tune:

Orombi to Schori: "I urge you to rethink, suspend litigation and follow a more Christ-like approach to settling your differences"

The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda has written an extraordinary letter to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church here. This is in response to a letter she wrote to him last week:

14th May 2008

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
The Episcopal Church USA
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY

Dear Bishop Katharine,

I received word of your letter through a colleague who had seen it on the internet. Without the internet, I may never have known that you had written such a personal, yet sadly ironic, letter to me.

Unfortunately, you appear to have been misinformed about key matters, which I hope to clear up in this letter.

1. I am not visiting a church in the Diocese of Georgia. I am visiting a congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda. Were I to visit a congregation within TEC, I would certainly observe the courtesy of contacting the local bishop. Since, however, I am visiting a congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda, I feel very free to visit them and encourage them through the Word of God.

2. The reason this congregation separated from TEC and is now part of the Church of Uganda is that the actions of TEC's General Convention and statements of duly elected TEC leaders and representatives indicate that TEC has abandoned the historic Christian faith. Furthermore, as predicted by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in October 2003, TEC's actions have, in fact, torn the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level.

3. May I remind you that the initial reason the Lambeth Commission on Communion was appointed was because of unbiblical decisions taken by TEC in defiance of repeated warnings by all of the Anglican Instruments of Communion. The Windsor Report was produced and accepted in amended form by the Primates at our meeting in Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in February 2005. It is, therefore, quite ironic for you to be quoting the Windsor Report to me. Nowhere in the Windsor Report or in subsequent statements of the Instruments of Communion is there a moral equivalence between the unbiblical actions and decisions of TEC that have torn the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level and the pastoral response on our part to provide ecclesiastical oversight to American congregations who wish to continue to uphold the faith once delivered to the saints and remain a part of the Anglican Communion. Your selective quoting of the Windsor Report is stunning in its arrogance and condescension.

4. You and your House of Bishops rejected outright the Pastoral Scheme painstakingly devised in Dar es Salaam, and to which you agreed. You have, therefore, left us no choice but to continue to respond to the cries of God's faithful people in America for episcopal oversight that upholds and promotes historic, biblical Anglicanism.

5. An important element of the Dar es Salaam agreement was the plea by the Primates that "the representatives of The Episcopal Church and of those congregations in property disputes with it to suspend all actions in law arising in this situation." This was something to which you gave verbal assent and yet you have initiated more legal actions against congregations and clergy in your short tenure as Presiding Bishop than all of your predecessors combined. I urge you to rethink, suspend litigation and follow a more Christ-like approach to settling your differences.

Finally, I appeal to you to heed the advice of Gamaliel in Acts 5.38ff, "Leave these [churches] alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop [them]; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

Yours, in Christ,

The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi
ARCHBISHOP OF CHURCH OF UGANDA.

Tip of the Tinfoil to StandFirm.

Wednesday Night at the Cafe: O Lord, increase my faith

O Lord, increase my faith
strenghten me
and confirm me in thy true faith,
endue me with wisdom,
charity and patience
in all my adversity.
Sweet Jesus, say Amen.

Don't touch that dial: Judge rules that Colorado Church and Episcopal Diocese must go to trial

From the Denver Post:

COLORADO SPRINGS — An El Paso County District judge ruled Tuesday that the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and officials of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish in Colorado Springs must resolve their $17 million property dispute at trial.

District Judge Larry E. Schwartz concluded that he cannot make a decision based solely on matters of law because "there is virtually no agreement as to the facts."

In May 2007, the pastor, Don Armstrong, and most voting congregants of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish voted to leave the American Episcopal Church and Denver diocese to join the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

Breakaway parishioners filed a lawsuit on April 6, 2007, asking the court to determine ownership of the parish's property. Episcopal Bishop Rob O'Neil countersued the parish and 18 members to gain possession of the $17 million landmark church.

The people, not the steeple

Here's a photo (click on it for larger version) taken in 2004 when the proprietor of the BabyBlueCafe was reaffirmed an Anglican at Truro Church in Fairfax by Lord Cary, 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury. The official certificate signed by Lord Carey said that those reaffirmed are members of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. That's it. The Church is the people, not the steeple.

The Archbishop of Canterbury writes to the Bishops of the Anglican Communion

BB NOTE: Don't think Rowan had this in mind when he wrote this letter. Wonder if it's time for the progressives to rethink their "Canterbury Campaign"? American-style politics do not seem to be welcome. The question remains, will the Americans fire the first shot?

When we read the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter we were reminded of this. Will the Holy Spirit fall on the gathering at Canterbury? Or will it be

They have healed the brokenness
of My people superficially,
Saying, 'Peace, peace,'
But there is no peace.
-Jeremiah 6:14

Perhaps we should beat our swords into ploughshares.

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

-Isaiah 2:4

From here:

The Feast of Pentecost is a time when we give thanks that God, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes us able to speak to each other and to the whole world of the wonderful things done in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a good moment to look forward prayerfully to the Lambeth Conference, asking God to pour out the Spirit on all of us as we make ready for this time together, so that we shall indeed be given grace to speak boldly in his Name.

I indicated in earlier letters that the shape of the Conference will be different from what many have been used to. We have listened carefully to those who have expressed their difficulties with Western and parliamentary styles of meeting, and the Design Group has tried to find a new style – a style more reflective of that Pentecost moment when all received the gift of speaking freely about Christ.

At the heart of this will be the indaba groups. Indaba is a Zulu word describing a meeting for purposeful discussion among equals. Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God's way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God.

Each day's work in this context will go forward with careful facilitation and preparation, to ensure that all voices are heard (and many languages also!). The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellowship of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God's grace, in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.

As I noted when I wrote to you in Advent, this makes it all the more essential that those who come to Lambeth will arrive genuinely willing to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor Report and the Covenant Process envisage. We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds. As you may have gathered, in circumstances where there has been divisive or controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our time together.

Of course, as baptised Christians and pastors of Christ's flock, we are not just seeking some low-level consensus, or a simple agreement to disagree politely. We are asking for the fire of the Spirit to come upon us and deepen our sense that we are answerable to and for each other and answerable to God for the faithful proclamation of his grace uniquely offered in Jesus. That deepening may be painful in all kinds of ways. The Spirit does not show us a way to by-pass the Cross. But only in this way shall we truly appear in the world as Christ's Body as a sign of God's Kingdom which challenges a world scarred by poverty, violence and injustice.

The potential of our Conference is great. The focus of all we do is meant to be strengthening our Communion and equipping all bishops to engage more effectively in mission; only God the Holy Spirit can bind us together in lasting and Christ-centred way, and only God the Holy Spirit can give us the words we need to make Christ truly known in our world. So we must go on praying hard with our people that the Spirit will bring these possibilities to fruition as only he can. Those who have planned the Conference have felt truly touched by that Spirit as they have worked together, and I know that their only wish is that what they have outlined for us will enable others to experience the same renewal and delight in our fellowship.

This is an ambitious event – ambitious for God and God's Kingdom, which is wholly appropriate for a Lambeth Conference. And our ambition is nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus and the power of his Spirit.

May that Spirit be with you daily in your preparation for our meeting. As Our Lord says, 'You know him, for he lives with and will be in you' (Jn 14.17).

+ Rowan Cantuar

BB NOTE: We like this letter a lot. He does not ban Bishop Schofield or Bishop Iker or Bishop Duncan from attending. This is an inspiring letter - but what's missing is reality. Why is it a judge in Virginia can see that catastrophic division is breaking out all over the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury is writing of a near Utopian vision? We share his prayer for "nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus and the power of the Spirit." Very much. But even Paul when he wrote his letters to the churches was very frank and very honest about what was very wrong in their communities. In fact, if you'd be living in a cave - say in, the mountains of Pakistan - for the past five years you'd never know that bishops are deposing bishops, bishops are defrocking clergy, clergy are moving to other provinces, bishop are suing the laity, laity are abandoning their home church of generations of the families, and at least three of the largest provinces in the Anglican Communion aren't even coming. The inability to recognize the reality of the situation, to start out the letter and tell the truth?

Imagine if he'd opened this letter as James does in his letter:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. (James 4:1-2)

Just say it. The inability to say it, to dance around it, to pretend as though all is well and we'll just gather at the river seems, well, more blinking at reality. Just tell the truth. What concerns us at our table as we order another chai is that the inability to say it plainly, as James did, means that the office is weak. Strength comes in speaking plainly of where one finds oneself out on the battlefield and the supplies are few.

Remember how Shakespeare's Henry V roused his troops, knowing that they faced almost certain death? They knew what they were facing, they had no illusions, not with the massive French army congregating over the hill. He told them there would be a cost, a great cost indeed, but that cost would have meaning:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and live old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'

On the other hand, what if the Holy Spirit fell over that gathering and the bishops were laid prostrate on the ground for a few days, just lying there, overcome with repentance? These sentences are inspiring, penned as they are by the Archbishop of Canterbury:

We are asking for the fire of the Spirit to come upon us and deepen our sense that we are answerable to and for each other and answerable to God for the faithful proclamation of his grace uniquely offered in Jesus. That deepening may be painful in all kinds of ways. The Spirit does not show us a way to by-pass the Cross. But only in this way shall we truly appear in the world as Christ's Body as a sign of God's Kingdom which challenges a world scarred by poverty, violence and injustice.

Battle weary, we lay down our arms and beat them into ploughshares, while the lawsuits and depositions march on. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit.

If we call for repentance, let it begin with us.

Sunday Night at the Cafe: More Spinning the Lambeth Tunes ...

If it keep on rainin' the levee gonna break
If it keep on rainin' the levee gonna break
Some people still sleepin',
some people are wide awake.

-B. Dylan, 2006
Live performance from three months ago,
Feb. 28, 2008, south of the border in Monterrey, Mexico.

Tip of the Tinfoil and an abundance of gratitude to RWB. Amen.