A couple of examples: I didn’t say you said the prayer book itself wasn’t Anglican. I said you said that the traditional services in it weren’t Anglican worship, which you did. And, the Monday church service in Northern Michigan didn’t “move Sunday worship to Monday;” as far as I know, the church still has its full range of services on Sunday, it just added one on Monday for those not holy enough to be able to go on Sunday. So, had you framed your question to your fellow parishioners properly, as “Do you think it’s okay to add a Monday service for those who can’t make it to church on Sunday,” I expect you’d have gotten a different answer. You’ve demonstrated the validity of the old principle garbage in, garbage out. And, I didn’t say that I ate the pork rinds at church; duh. We have healthy snacks at coffee hour, too: Spalding’s donuts; alas, no Ale-8 to go with them, though.

After the revolution, we’ll all go back to the 1928 prayer book, and the world will be all peace and light, just the way it was before 1979.

I have never, ever suggested that the new prayer book “is no longer Anglican.” Legally, de jure, it is certainly so.

My query–my use of my God-given brains–turns on the issue of whether such radical change was prudent, pastoral, or helpful long-term. It is my informed opinion that it was none of these. My hermeneutic of intelligent traditionalism is being validated in what the national church calls “dire” membership numbers–the loss of a diocese per year, on average, just to the birth/death rate.

If Rome can admit it wasn’t infallible about the New Mass, maybe, just maybe, 815 2nd Avenue can admit it wasn’t infallible about the new Prayer Book.

Funny how the pisky-snackers deny infallibility to the Pope, but claim it for themselves. Personally, if it came to a choice, I’d take Benedict XVI over SpongJohn PointyHat. Better the Nazi you know than the Nazi you don’t.

Making friends is usually better than ignoring adversaries. I know, the laity shouldn’t question such deep and murky things, or dare to speak up. Too bad!

You and Genpo and others like you only agree to an article of the Christian faith if a left-wing lobbying group allows you to do so. Your real source of values–your true Gospel–the compass you are actually consulting–is secular-humanist leftism, or ethical culture, or some sort of vague monotheism tempered with a culturally-inherited “sense” of compassion.

I don’t think you’re actually committed to the Gospel, or even interested in studying the Christian tradition.

By contrast, when I find myself in conflict with some aspect of the tradition, I–are you listening?–QUERY the tradition and try to understand it better. If you have read one single word I’ve posted, other than with an eye to dismiss it, you would understand that I have frequently taken issue with ECUSA stands, past and present.

For instance, the continued condemnation of homosexuality is incompatible with the long-standing tolerance for divorce. Something must give.

That’s why you’re a pisky-snacker, and I’m a mature Christian. You admit that you remain in the church because you like where it is “right now.” You like the “big tent” without explaining why. You like “social justice”; in other words, you find that many in the church are, like yourself, willing to be Christian in name as long as you can really be a progressive secularist. You’re a fair-weather friend, friend.

I can’t fathom how anyone can be happy at where we are “right now,” unless you’re pretending that those who disagree with you don’t exist. And apparently, you feel that you have a great big tent all to yourself.

Regarding changing Sunday to Monday, like Genpo’s pals have done:

I canvassed my large and growing Episcopal parish yesterday about this. Is it OK, I asked, to move Sunday worship to Monday “so people can get their weekly Communion”?

Every last person in the church–black, white, gay, straight, liberal, conservative, wheelchair-bound, adolescent, elderly–rolled their eyes and said “Of course you can’t do that. It’s ridiculous.” Or “No way, dude, that makes no sense.”

No golf clubs in the sacristy, either.

And we serve healthy snacks.

What’s in your wallet?

Now let me get this straight. You don’t like the Episcopal Church’s current official prayer book, and have suggested that even its traditional services aren’t Anglican anymore. You don’t like the fact that the church has moved in a decidedly leftward direction, and you don’t agree with its current management. You are openly contemptuous of those with whom you disagree, including bishops of the church like your friend Dr. Spong. And you wonder why I remain a member. If you’ll recall, I asked you the same question several posts ago, and you didn’t answer.

But I will answer: I remain a member of the Episcopal Church because I agree with what it’s doing right now, as opposed to what it did fifty or a hundred years ago. I agree with its social justice stands, and with its big tent theology. The real question is, given your own contempt for the modern church, why YOU remain a member. I would think that some of these schismatic neo-Anglican sects would love to have you.

And, just for my personal edification, what is a “pisky-snacker?” The only snack I’ve eaten today is barbecued pork rinds, which I suspect insulates me from your “middle class” diagnosis, and if not, the Ale-8 I washed it down with does.

Yes, actually, God cares very, very much that we worship on Sunday. He said so when He said, in order:

“Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy”

“What thou declarest bound on earth shall be bound in heaven,”

And the decree of the early church, drawing on Christ’s promise of authority, to move God’s holy day to Sunday. Not one loopy diocese, but the entire Church.

Yes, MISTER Powers, Almighty God cares very, very much. You, Genpo, and the whole rotten lot of self-indulgent middle class pisky-snackers have missed the boat.

Since you feel so cavalier about everything Christian, and seem to feel that holding on to anything equals “tolerating slavery,” perhaps you don’t care to remain a member of the Church at all. It is hard for me to discern where your faith actually lies, and I am far from the first person on this blog to point out your less-than-charitable spirit.

What the hell do golf clubs have to do with anything? Do you leave your bong in the sacristy, too?

“We are in the process of looking at the traditional and canonical duties of a bishop, and specifically how these have been carried out in the past. This work will continue for weeks to come to determine how the EMST may best carry out Episcopal oversight.”

This sounds strikingly like a Presbyterian theology of shared oversight. I’m going to be very interested in what they do next. Is there actually a provision in Episcopal law for “team episcopacy”? I hadn’t thought so. They may be planning to “wing it” without a bishop…or they may become a hydra-headed “bishop” in their own right!

They also use the strange job title of “bishop-elect/ministry developer.” The proper title is “bishop-elect.” “Ministry developer” can (indeed should) be in the job description, but not the title itself.

The Senior Warden’s report also contains a strange thing. Because of summer schedules, there will be a Monday evening service so “…those who work ‘til five could stop on their way home and receive their weekly communion.”

Since when is the Lord’s Day a movable feast? “Receive their weekly communion” any day that works best for them? Receiving daily communion *besides* Sunday is terrific; but *instead* of Sunday?

Like Genpo’s own liturgies, the Episcopal Ministry Support Team and the Warden phase in and out of Episcopalian Christianity. I really think they are someplace else.

–Dr. Survivor