From Sublime to Ridiculous on the Northern Plains

The former Bishop of North Dakota, Andy Fairfield, has been welcomed into the orthodox Anglican Church of Uganda. The story was reported on Stand Firm and passed on to us by The South Dakota Anglican. Fairfield was one of the Biblically faithful Bishops who voted against consent for the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, the actively homosexual Bishop-elect in New Hampshire. We wish Bishop Fairfield fruitful and joyful work as he shepherds faithful Anglican Christians.

Meanwhile, Calvary Cathedral, Sioux Falls (Diocese of South Dakota) has a spiffy new web site with the following:

"The Episcopal Church strives to offer a moderate and inclusive approach to faith. While the church presents clear, biblically-based teaching and guidance on most subjects, we also understand there are some issues in life that can be experienced and interpreted in different ways by different people. We encourage respectful listening, dialogue rather than debate, and “unity in diversity” among our members as we seek to live faithful and fruitful lives."

TEC presents clear, biblically-based teaching? If it is all subject to "experience and interpretation" by different people, how can it be a basis for anything? TEC's forte is twisting the Biblical message beyond recognition or application.

Respectful listening? That must be what happens when the diocesan leaders refuse to answer letters (we get lots of testimonies from folks who wrote and never heard a thing).

Dialogue? That must be when the diocese posts sarcastic broadsides on their website (yep, that happens here, too).

Faithful and fruitful? Calvary Cathedral's average Sunday attendance went from 260 in 2000 to 170 in 2005.

Evidently, the flat expanse left by the old glaciers seems to have made North Dakota better than South Dakota for raising up faithful Anglican leaders.