The American Anglican Council/South Dakota chapter sends out info letters, and we get some interesting responses, pro and con. Here's an excerpt from one of the critical letters:
"I seems someone is always taking a narrow point of view instead of looking at the whole picture. Sioux Falls, home of the Cathedral, needs to be an example of unity!"
The writer alludes to Calvary Cathedral, which managed to reduce unity at its altar by close to 100 people per Sunday over the last five years... although it added a special service to serve gay and lesbian activists (nothing narrow about a service like that, right?)
Anyway, the writer objects to our letter, which contained quotes from Episcopal Church leaders and statistics from the Episcopal Church and Diocese of South Dakota. There was no editorial argument on our part. But we are "narrow", and those who shrink the church and cater to special interest groups are unifiers. Got it?
Meanwhile, the Easter Letter from the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is out. You can find a link to it, along with an entertaining commentary, here.
I got an anguished email from a colleague who read this so-called Easter letter:
"I do not know what to make of this mailing. This is the Presiding Bishop’s Easter letter to the church. I am more than a little dumbfounded that the letter has mere incidental references to Jesus Christ and the Resurrection, and ignores any substantial part of its message as we celebrate it, and use those holy truths merely for the purpose of staging an awareness raising, for a pseudo-prophetic message about the poor use and stewardship of creation. Apparently the MDGs are the real and tangible gospel we are to proclaim; and the new sins are now defined by the UN. This letter has the prerequisite soft-peddled guilt-mongering that passes as enlightened wisdom; but nothing of the grace, wonder, and hope of the God we call the author of life."
Folks, let me be honest with you. The Episcopal Church has lost the Good News of Christ. Be very careful for the good of your soul and the souls of those you love. My brother and his family moved to an especially bad Episcopal diocese, and I convinced him to check out other, more faithful churches. They now attend a non-denominational church that preaches the real message of the Bible. It is a sad day when I, an Episcopal priest, must fulfill my duty as my brother's Godfather by urging him to get out of the Episcopal Church.
But to end on a happy note, the letters and emails I get from my brother these days are full of Christ's truth and light.
May your Holy Week and Easter be filled with the same.
2 comments:
The Presiding Individual's Easter Message
Rendered into hymn form. Sung to the tune of Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain
(I swear, Dr. Schori makes it too easy. This stuff just writes itself...)
Episcopalians, hide those eggs!
Display that branch a-greenin'
But remember, as you do,
The season's truer meaning!
No, I don't mean Jesus Christ,
Or even resurrection,
But what we preach to take His place:
Environmental protection!
Jews and Christians are at fault
For all the world's pollution,
By their foolish rejection of
The Caananite solution!
Fertility goddesses, and the Baals,
And Love Children of the '60s,
Were right instead -- but don’t despair...
We've got your new B.C.P.s!
Here come the 'palian missionaries,
(Though not as you expected)
Sewage, not sin, is to be done in
(The H.O.B. excepted.)
Rising sea levels aren't caused by sin,
We need no Noah's arcs,
For what the church should fight today...
Is hamburgers and cow farts!
Episcopalians, raise the strain,
Of your new religion:
Kick the last good bishops out,
Invite more unbaptized in! (*)
Sue the orthodox laity,
Abandon member retention,
We need to sell their buildings off...
So we can pay our pensions!
(*) For those few who might not get the reference: the bishopess of Utah, a former Mormon, has never received Christian baptism. She is, sacramentally, what much of the H.O.B. is theologically – non-Christian. And, of course, in a similarly total rejection of Christian sacramental theology, more and more dioceses are not requiring baptism for the reception of communion.
Nice work, LP...and thanks for supplying a link to the music that we might joyfully sing the praises of the New Thing!
You've taken this humble blog to new heights.
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