As the Archbishop of Canterbury and other representatives of global Anglicanism prepare to meet with the Episcopal Church House of Bishops next week, a wierd, rambling, close-to-100 page document has been released. And Bishop Robertson of South Dakota is one of the listed sponsors.
The "report" is filled with legalese bordering on mumbo jumbo. The authors (including Bp. Robertson) identify themselves as "legally trained." They claim that the Episcopal Church is so unique that Christians have no authority to reform it -legal and bureaucratic issues are more important than Biblical values for leading the church.
Bishop Robertson's apparent guru (one of the authors of the document) is Joe Morris Doss, the disgraced ex-bishop of New Jersey. In the late 90s, Doss was given a "golden parachute" of more than $1,000,000 to resign after alienating and losing the trust of his diocese. Complaints included his mishandling of charges against an abusive staff member, failure to address bias against Black clergy, and a massive drop-off in the diocesan budget as parishes refused to support him.
Bishop Robertson and the others released the report in "hard copy" (paper) only, but various bloggers scanned and circulated it around the internet. Why this large report was released in a hard-to-circulate format, at a very late date and with the name of at least one unwilling "sponsor" raises questions about the authors' motives and credibility.
Meanwhile, the Anglican Province of Nigeria (the largest province with 17,000,000 members and astounding evangelistic growth for Christ, compared to less than 800,000 American Episcopalians in church on an average Sunday) has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, urging him to take more decisive action to put Anglicanism in the service of the "Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ."
The comparison of the clear, open and Biblically based letters from "Global South" Christians with the spiritually empty jargon from Episcopal Church leaders is stunning.
2 comments:
I saw this yesterday on StandFirm and wondered if you had picked it up. Makes you sort of proud of +SD, doesn't it?...NOT! This is what he has time for instead of pastoral visits and care of the sheep of the diocese.
This report is so ludicrous it makes one believe that the inmates are running the asylum.
I mentioned earlier in the week that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I mistook myself. Those who take themselves so seriously, not only believe their own harangue, but believe their psychobabble.
Lord, protect these people from their own folly.
On a much happier note, Thanks be to God for the truth, openness, and missionary zeal of our Global South Brethren.
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