As of 2:42 pm EST on December 8, 2007, the bishop and clergy of the diocese of San Joaquin are no longer members of the Episcopal Church.
While the historical analogy may not be very precise, I am coming to think of John David as something like an Avignonese pope. No, the Diocese of San Joaquin is not exactly the whole of Western Christendom, but a split has now occurred. If he pretends still to be the Bishop of San Joaquin, a diocese that is a creature of General Convention from which he has now disaffiliated himself, then he is actually an anti-bishop, like an anti-pope: a pretender. I think he should move to southern France ASAP, thereby removing a major irritant from the already too-polluted air of the Central Valley of California.
It's all quite ugly and the spiritual abuse inflicted there and in other places is rather nasty. May he find healing. Until he does he remains an abuser and it is in that category that I shall continue to consider him and his ilk. As I have told a friend, I am quite out of charity for the damage done to the body of Christ and I see no reason to make nice. It's rather like trying to negotiate with George W. Bush. Futile, pointless, serving no good end. Appeasing abusers is what we are talking about, folks. You don't stop abuse by appeasing abusers.
John David deplores the whole business of churches suing in courts. Well, if one doesn't steal property one needn't be taken to court. Sheesh.
There, I've had my rant. All in all, it came out rather charitable.
Please continue to pray for the people of San Joaquin. They've been lied to, bullied, and misled. They deserve better.
--the BB
12 comments:
Very well spoken. I hadn't thought about the appeasement angle, but I've been wishing for years that 815 would stop appeasing him, Iker, and whats-his-name in Quincy over women's ordination.
If you don't steal property, you needn't be sued. Duh.
If not for the possibility that he might be quite happy in the south of France, I completely agree with you.
So long as he hauls his fat *** out of California and leaves those nice people alone, France is fine.
[I hesitated about two seconds on posting this response, but then I've already said I'm out of charity.]
Point taken.
Mira, the Bishop of San Joaquin has been trying to find reasons to take his diocese out of TEC ever since he was ordained to that office. The diocese has been taken over by Liturgical Baptists and Snake Handlers. They won't learn español, by they'll fit in with ++Venables and his non-South American province, which is misogynist and homophobic but unable to grow through evangelism. That's why they need to take dioceses from TEC. A sorry situation, in my opinion!
Claro que sí, padrecito. How the anti-bishop, as I shall now call him, with his very high Catholic leanings will fit in with a province where the sign of the cross is "simply not done" will be most intriguing. Southern Cone is so charismatic-Prot that it should handle the Baptipalians and snake handlers fairly well, but JDS? Or has he changed radically (in liturgics) since his days at St Columba's, Inverness?
Es una gran cagada.
Jesus wept.
If they wanted to grow, they'd learn Spanish. After all, what's the Latino to White Ratio in the southern Central Valley right now? I'd say about 4 to 1 and growing.
The Diocese of San Joaquin is unable to adapt to changing times or changing demographics. No matter what they plan to do, in a generation or so these parishes will be history. A new diocese, willing to be open not only to reason and but demographics, will take its place in the Episcopal Church.
Tiene razón, Juan Bassett. TEC is, in most places, way behind the curve on this. We must transcend our English roots, no matter how much some of us may love them.
In Euripides' The Trojan Women, Hecuba comments among the ruins of the once-great city, "This is no longer Troy and we are no longer the lords of Troy." Well, this is no longer the British Empire and the AC is no longer the Church of the British Empire, though vestiges remain (largely irrelevant to our current place and time).
We do have ethnic ministries but they are still very few and ill-funded. I was blessed to do supply for Spanish-language services and be part of the Asian Commission in the Diocese of California (lots of Cambodians in our congregation).
Until the dioceses wake up, we are, indeed, condemning ourself to irrelevancy and demographic death. The old, "well, they're all Roman Catholic" excuse is just that: an excuse. While Latinos (the correct word in California) / Hispanics (the correct word in New Mexico) are, generally, culturally Catholic, many are not (Pentecostal, JW, and Mormon inroads) and many are attracted to a Catholic faith that is not rigid about birth control and divorce and has married clergy. Most that I meet also think women priests are novel but rather nice. So long as we have the sacraments, creeds, and saints, it is a faith they know--it can also be a faith where they don't feel condemned by cranky celibate males.
This morning we had a wonderful time focusing on Our Lady of Guadalupe in an Advent half-day retreat. The gift she is to Christians of all stripes enriches the rest of us from the treasure of Mexican piety. If it can help even a few of us become more open to the 42% of this state that are Hispanic, it will be one very small step in a diocese that has almost no outreach. A sin and a shame! We have been too busy fighting over sexuality and biblical fundamentalism to attend to a ministry that cries out to be done.
As a Catholic whose church has problems of its own, I am almost reluctant to comment. This just all feels so sad and heartbreaking. And as someone who would rather see us all closer together than apart... well, should that happen in my lifetime, closer.
How grateful I am to know some of you through this crazy world of the blogs. Please know I feel very united to you all in prayer and spirit.
I guess I will simply say that whenever something is being born, there is usually a lot of pain. I hope that what is being born here is not what it appears. Lest the image of the outcast in the manger be miscarried into some other strident and insider king.
Pax unto all.
Thank you, Fran. One aspect of today's Church is a post-denominationalism. In some cases it means that denominational identity means little to folks and they will switch more easily than changing brands of denim pants. Others may be very loyal to their denomination, as you and most of the bloggers I read are, yet also feel great affinity across denominational lines, so that like-minded Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, etc. get along better than they do with some members of their own denomination. Sometimes more comfort even with members of other faiths who approach the world and faith similarly.
I thus gain comfort and encouragement from you, rejoice in your deep Catholic rootedness, and feel very comfortable journeying with you (even virtually) while I do not gain comfort or encouragement from many Anglicans who seem to be living in a different world and, often, worshipping a very different God. They feel the same about me. This is unfortunate for our particular faith journey, quite painful and tragic; it is also part of the larger birth pangs of a new era, as you note, and in the long run may be a sign of hope and not a matter of despair.
We are a people of resurrection, a people of hope, and if our hope is in God then we will see God working in and through all our sad and sinful squabbles to accomplish something greater.
Thanks for your friendship amid the strife! You certainly have our prayers for the challenges in your branch of God's Church. (Don't tell Benny I called it just a branch; he's touchy about that.)
Sometimes healing can't start until surgery has been done. This was a long time coming. Let the healing begin in San Joaquin.
And then Fran ranted.
C'est une belle pagaille tout ça. It's a royal mess (perhaps because some tried to act like royalty).
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