Drell’s Descants

Here is the author’s web page on the book, and you can buy it from Amazon or iUniverse, and it should be at Barnes and Noble soon.

Lest Ye Be Judged takes the very real controversies confronting the Episcopal Church and views them through the fantasy of a murder mystery culminating in a courtroom drama. The characters represent differing viewpoints within the church, but the book also acknowledges the undercurrents of pure power politics and sin at play on all sides of this controversy. Other than the murder of the bishop, the book is all too real.

From T19:

To: Clergy, Members of Diocesan Council and Standing Committee
From: The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf
Re: The Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding

As many of you know, The Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding is an Episcopal priest who has recently professed her faith in Islam. Dr. Redding is canonically resident in the Diocese of Rhode Island, though she has not served here for over twenty years.

After meeting with her I issued a Pastoral Direction giving her the opportunity to reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam. During the next year she is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon. Other aspects of the Pastoral Direction will remain private.

I am sending this e-mail to you because the continued web-site coverage suggests that I be as clear as possible with those exercising leadership in our diocese.

While this is not strictly an inhibition, the pastoral direction to Redding directing her not to exercise priestly or diaconal ministry is tantamount to inhibition. Thank you, Bishop Wolf, for doing something about this.

Laptops instead of textbooks. Reminds me of when I visited my sister at LSU law and went into her civil procedure class and everyone had a laptop open. Indeed, it is the wave of the future, and I’m glad old Bolton High School is keeping up. From here:

Bolton High School’s Digital Academy will be online for the fall.

Gifted students and 11th and 12th graders won’t have textbooks but will carry laptop computers and even take them home.

Bolton will be the first digital public high school in the state, according to Bill Morrison, the district’s director of technology.
“We are creating a 21st Century learning environment,” Morrison said.

Rapides Parish School Board members were given an overview and updated on the status of the program Tuesday.

But their questions centered on when would the program expand to other schools.

Rapides Parish Superintendent Gary Jones had no definite answer for the board. He said he would like to see it offered as quickly as possible to the 9th- and 10th-grade students at Bolton.

School Board President Paul Dauzat said he would like to see the juniors and seniors at other high schools get the program before an expansion at Bolton High.

Morrison and Jones told board members that the program is starting small and will build on the successes. It also allows the district to work out any problems.

At Bolton, work is already under way to create an Internet Cafe at the school, and the campus has wireless service that reaches throughout the buildings and out to the football field.

Teachers are preparing curriculum, and district officials have visited Arizona where the first complete digital high school was opened.

District officials are talking with officials at local churches and other community buildings about having Internet hotspots to help students who do not have Internet service at home.

The Internet Cafe, located at the school, will stay open after school to allow students access as Morrison pointed out that the district could not provide Internet service to every home.

As to the security of the 300 laptops, Morrison said they are equipped with an asset recovery device that can track the computer. They also are being outfitted with an e-mail filter and a program that checks if work turned in by a student was plagiarized from the Internet or another student.

To keep students from viewing inappropriate Web sites while they have the computers away from campus, the district has installed a mobile content filter, which means if a student logs on to the Internet at home, the school’s filtering system will work even though the child is not at school.

Morrison said the district was doing all it could to keep the children safe.

There will be a repair center at the school to ensure the computers are working.

Jones called the digital high school “the wave of the future.”

Morrison pointed out that textbooks have finite information while there is unlimited resources through the digital world.

He said the job world is changing with computers, cell phones and other digital devices becoming a staple and that students have to be prepared to use digital resources in the work world.

The world is evolving around technology, so it is evolve or get left behind, board member E.L. Paulk said.

In addition to the benefit for students, district officials said parents can now view students’ work, grades and assignments online, giving them a chance for full involvement.

The district received a donation of computers from the Virtue Foundation and state grant funding for the academy.

Read it all.

A snippit:

In a more positive vein, just what are fundamentalists? We fundamentalists are people of faith, embracing Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Each day we experience a fresh intimate personal communion with him. This holy relationship is the ground of our new and unending life as children of the living God.

Moreover, we are people of boundless ecstatic hope, trusting wholly in the risen Christ for this life and the life to come, for he is the Alpha and the Omega, the author and finisher of our salvation. We eagerly anticipate that eternal kingdom of love, righteousness and peace where he shall reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Finally, we fundamentalists feel Christians are preeminently called and equipped to be a royal priesthood of divine love as integral members of the mystical body of Christ. Because we know that without Christ’s redeeming and salvific love, humanity will surely perish, we take the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20 very seriously.

I have been told by many critics in no uncertain terms that fundamentalism is incompatible with Anglicanism. However, those who made such dogmatic assertions have never adduced the proof to sustain them. My research has tended to confirm that just the opposite is true. The more I read of Latimer, Cranmer, Hooker, Andrewes, Wesley, Wilberforce, Pusey and Keble, the more it becomes apparent that these great luminaries of our Anglican heritage with their high view of scripture fall well within the parameters of what the contemporary revisionists within The Episcopal Church dismiss as “fundamentalism.â€

With all the assorted progressives, humanists, self-styled “moderates,†liberals, New Agers, revisionists and radicals leading Episcopalians down the primrose path to self-destruction, I submit that what our beleaguered church most needs to survive intact is more self-confessed fundamentalists – people who will affirm and hold fast to the faith once delivered to the saints, willing humbly and patiently to speak the truth in love to our non-fundamentalist sisters and brothers and be equally willing to listen with respect to what they have to say.

Read it all.

Even though the University seal says 1858, the first meeting to start the University happened 150 years ago tomorrow. Check it out.

According to something I read on the HOBD Listserv, Ann Holmes Redding, our Islamcopal priest in the Seattle area, is not actually canonically resident in the Diocese of Olympia. According to ECD Plus, she is canonically resident in Rhode Island. The Diocesan website lists her as well.

So, Bishop Wolf, going to do anything about this situation?

Crazy.

After reading the reaction of the Diocese of Southeast Florida’s rejection of the covenant and taking a gander at the Diocese of Virginia’s rejection, I think we can safely predict the Episcopal Church will reject the draft covenant. Virginia and Southeast Florida could hardly be considered hard core liberal Dioceses like Newark or California.

I’ve written my own commentary on the draft covenant. Without getting into how some folks feel about the 39 articles, let’s just look at the arguments regarding structure. Both Virginia and Southeast Florida decry the structure the proposed covenant contains. What structure is this? Let’s take a look, with my comments:

Each Church commits itself

1. in essential matters of common concern, to have regard to the common good of the Communion in the exercise of its autonomy, and to support the work of the Instruments of Communion with the spiritual and material resources available to it.

Rationale: Unilateral action by the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have strained the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism. The brink of schism is not a good place to be for the church for obvious reasons.

2. to spend time with openness and patience in matters of theological debate and discernment to listen and to study with one another in order to comprehend the will of God. Such study and debate is an essential feature of the life of the Church as its seeks to be led by the Spirit into all truth and to proclaim the Gospel afresh in each generation. Some issues, which are perceived as controversial or new when they arise, may well evoke a deeper understanding of the implications of God’s revelation to us; others may prove to be distractions or even obstacles to the faith: all therefore need to be tested by shared discernment in the life of the Church.

Rationale: Rather than unilateral action, common commitment to listening and discerning is what is necessary for the Anglican Communion to remain as one.

3. to seek with other members, through the Church’s shared councils, a common mind about matters of essential concern, consistent with the Scriptures, common standards of faith, and the canon law of our churches.

Rationale: Our common life would be easier if we seek to have a common mind on matters of essential concern and to have common standard of faith. Otherwise, there is no basis for common mission.

4. to heed the counsel of our Instruments of Communion in matters which threaten the unity of the Communion and the effectiveness of our mission. While the Instruments of Communion have no juridical or executive authority in our Provinces, we recognise them as those bodies by which our common life in Christ is articulated and sustained, and which therefore carry a moral authority which commands our respect.

Rationale: While legally the Anglican Communion can’t force anyone to do anything, certain things have to be done to maintain relationship, such as in a marriage or friendship.

5. to seek the guidance of the Instruments of Communion, where there are matters in serious dispute among churches that cannot be resolved by mutual admonition and counsel:
1. by submitting the matter to the Primates Meeting
2. if the Primates believe that the matter is not one for which a common mind has been articulated, they will seek it with the other instruments and their councils
3. finally, on this basis, the Primates will offer guidance and direction.

Rationale: This provides a VERY MINIMAL structure to resolve our differences.

6. We acknowledge that in the most extreme circumstances, where member churches choose not to fulfil the substance of the covenant as understood by the Councils of the Instruments of Communion, we will consider that such churches will have relinquished for themselves the force and meaning of the covenant’s purpose, and a process of restoration and renewal will be required to re-establish their covenant relationship with other member churches.

Rationale: If the covenant relationship is not observed, then the covenant will be broken, much like a marriage is broken when a party to it breaches the mutually agreed upon obligations of the marriage. While it is not illegal to breach a marriage covenant, it does mean the marriage is over.

Is this a Roman Curia? No. In fact, I frankly find this structure to be inadequate. Why? Because, frankly, this is the structure we already have in the Anglican Communion and we have seen how it works in the current crisis. It doesn’t.

This, of course, makes sense. If the covenant is passed, it will require TEC to acknowledge the structures that are already there, which, to date, it hasn’t. Every time the Primates have asked anything of TEC, TEC has refused to acknowledge their authority to even ask for anything.

One other last point: no one seems to understand the Anglican Consultative Council. It is a charitable foundation to support the Anglican Communion, nothing more. While it has been used to do thing like declare sees vacant in Rwanda to allow reorganization of the church, that was never its original or intended function. However, that precedent would seem to allow the Anglican Communion to intervene into the affairs of TEC, which I am sure TEC would not want. If we want a synodical body for the Anglican Communion, the Anglican Consultative Council will need to be reworked. Until then, doctrinal discipline will rest where it rests even in the Episcopal Church - with the Bishops - thus the name of the church and the function of bishops within their Diocese which stems from the promises made at consecration of a Bishop.

Interesting that Episcopal Life posted this. A snippit:

Meeting in 2003, the General Convention had full authority to reject the result of the New Hampshire election but chose not to do so. By the time of the next General Convention, in the summer of 2006, the extent of the damage done to the church and the worldwide Anglican Communion was clear. World Anglican leaders had publicly spelled out the minimum steps required to restore the good standing of the Episcopal Church. Yet the General Convention still refused to moderate its position, sparking the surge in the number of Episcopalians running for the exits late last year.

Can anything be done to mend the peace of the Episcopal Church? The answer is yes, but to imagine it we need to look beyond the church’s existing governance structures. They are mired in the syndrome Max Weber identified long ago as an affliction common to large organizations: the displacement of charisma by bureaucracy, of spirituality by legalism, of leaders by organization men — and nowadays, organization women.

To find a way out, Episcopalians should consult church history. How did the Christian church in other times free itself from the demoralizing grip of discord? For the most part, it did so by practicing conciliarism — that is to say, by convening regional or worldwide councils to address the causes of discord and reaffirm the bonds of community. Regional councils were the primary means of preserving the unity of the church as early as the second century. Worldwide councils began to be held in the fourth century after the Christian church was granted legal rights in the Roman Empire.

In the Middle Ages, a highly developed theory of conciliarism exercised a check on papal power in the Roman Catholic Church and, contributed to the rise of constitutionalism in the secular realm as well. In the 20th century, the conciliar idea inspired some of the most important gatherings in modern church history, such as the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 and the Russian Orthodox Council of 1917-18, the greatest Eastern Orthodox assembly since ancient times. In short, there is a rich record of conciliar theory and practice for Episcopalians to consult as they look for a way to reunify their church.

A council is not a routine convention but an extraordinary gathering. Councils work when the issues are clear-cut and the unity of the church is in the balance. The essential questions are perfectly clear: Does the Episcopal Church wish to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and if so, will the church do what is necessary to restore its good standing, such as declaring a moratorium on the consecration of non-celibate gays and lesbians to the episcopate? A representative Episcopal council would in all likelihood answer both questions affirmatively. By reaffirming their unity with Anglicans around the world, Episcopalians would also renew the spirit of unity in their own church.

Critics will argue that councils achieve unity at the expense of minorities in the church. But this is a false stereotype. Councils are about self-discipline, not repression. Conciliarism does not reject creative initiatives in Christian life, but it does insist that such initiatives, whether they come from minorities or majorities, be realized in ways that do not lacerate the body of the church. Far from stifling creativity, conciliarism deepens it by challenging innovators to practice Christian love rather than sectarianism.

All of this, of course, was suggested ad naseum by folks ranging from Bishops to little old me. It was, of course, rejected. Indeed, the Body of Christ continues to be lacerated with no signs that this will abate any time soon. BLD

Ah, the waging of reconciliation.

Check it out.\

Realize that TEC already has provisions in the canons for not discriminating against sexual orientation in employment. When it comes to homosexuality, behavior is no different than orientation in the liberal view.

There could be presentments in the future.

Read it all. A snippit:

Nevertheless, whatever form the communion between those Anglican Churches faithful to apostolic faith and praxis takes, work on an Anglican covenant remains a worthwhile pursuit. If the Communion doesn’t dissolve into two - a predominately Western/Global Northern “progressive†communion of Churches and a predominately Global Southern “conservative†communion of Churches - then the covenant represents the very real possibility of realizing our conciliar vocation. And if the Communion cannot or will not be held together, then a covenant will become a framework within which the conservative evangelical and catholic Anglican Churches will develop their communion with one another along conciliar lines.

Todd promises he will be writing more along these lines. I’ll certainly be reading. You should too.

One of the few really good things that happened at GC2006:

Children of parents in prison “are invisible. No government entity is responsible for them,” says a U.S. Senate report.

The president says there are 1.5 million of them. The Bureau of Justice statistics say they have a 70 percent chance of going to prison just like their parents.

In the hope of doing something about that, dioceses all over the country are sending the littlest victims of crime to summer camp for a week of love, learning and fun.

“If we can give them a week of unconditional love, there is hope,” says the now-retired director of prison ministry for the national church, the Rev. Jackie Means.

Before she retired, she started another camp in the Diocese of Southwest Florida. Now there are camps in 20 dioceses of the Episcopal Church.

These children bring to camp “anger, fear, insecurity, suspicion and shame,” said Means. “They need to know that Jesus loves them as they are. They need a safe place to deal with hard stuff and to be shown respect.”

“To our utter amazement, attitudes and behaviors do get altered in that brief time,” wrote the Rev. Stephen R. Caldwell. He started the first of these Episcopal camps in Sante Fe, New Mexico. “Campers are surprised to discover that our love for them is unconditional.”

Gay Yerger, a staffer at Mississippi’s ecumenical Camp Caritas, said: “They sing songs, they beat drums, they dance, they cut and paste and draw, they write, they imagine, they listen and they speak. They run and they rest … In a safe and loving environment, children discover self-worth, broaden their horizons, make positive choices and develop leadership skills … Children and adults are transformed.”

A few of the children who attended a camp in Oklahoma for children 8-12 were getting into trouble once they turned 13, said Deacon Judy Gann. So a second — Camp Start — was created for children 12-15.

“We taught them leadership skills,” she said. “It has been so successful, since then none has gotten into trouble.” Those children then come back as counselors-in-training and counselors, she added. “Four of them, now 16, have been with us since they were 8 years old.”

Year-long mentors for the children have been provided to some of the camps by Amachi of Big Brothers Big Sisters and Volunteers of America.

The camps have names like Promise Camp, Grace Camp, Camp Good News, Camp Caritas and Camp New Hope, Camp Amazing Grace and Camp New Horizons.

The dioceses sponsoring them are: Rio Grande, Oklahoma, Northern Michigan, Mississippi, Texas, West Texas, Nevada, East Carolina, Montana, Maryland, Florida, Southwest Florida, Arkansas, Vermont, Wisconsin, Easton, Md., Connecticut, Northern Indiana, Alaska, Louisiana.

A resolution adopted by General Convention in 2006 set aside $65,000 for a three-year commitment to camps for children of prisoners.

“We hope to break the cycle of incarceration tearing apart Maryland families with a week of healing and emotional support,” said the Rev. Eddie Blue, last year’s director of Camp Amazing Grace in Maryland.

Churches are urged to sponsor a child, who often arrive with only the clothes on their backs. Last year, the guardian of one little girl said she could not go to camp “because she does not have the right clothes.” She will go to camp this year.

“Children at risk and children with special needs are especially important to us,” said retired Bishop Robert W. Ihloff of the Diocese of Maryland.

“All these children present a challenge, face great obstacles in life, and give us special opportunity to lavish love on them for Christ’s sake. Who knows how it will enhance and change lives?”

The Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia Seek to Sue More Unpaid Volunteers of Virginia Churches

FAIRFAX, Va. (June 29, 2007) – Counsel for the eleven churches, including their rectors, vestries and, in some instances, their trustees, which have been sued by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia, filed a memo opposing the denomination’s motion to add more volunteer trustees and lay leaders (known as “vestry membersâ€) as defendants in the lawsuit (Multi-Circuit Property Litigation, Case No. CL-2007-0248724, Fairfax County Circuit Court).

If granted, The Episcopal Church’s and the Diocese’s motion would automatically add 76 additional unpaid church volunteers to the lawsuit and anyone else who might volunteer to serve as a Vestry member or Trustee of any of the local churches in the future.

“We remind The Episcopal Church and the Diocese that these unpaid volunteer Vestry members and Trustees have made no individual claims to the church property, and Virginia law grants complete immunity from civil liability to those who serve religious organizations without pay. The Episcopal Church and the Diocese have already sued almost 100 unpaid church volunteers who are immune from being sued, and now they want to add more. It is unfortunate that they feel the need to involve these volunteers in the court battle when they have nothing to gain by doing so,†said Jim Oakes, vice-chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and a part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). All 11 churches named in the lawsuit are members of ADV.

“It is hard to understand The Episcopal Church’s and the Diocese’s motivation for attacking these volunteers and our churches. The motivation appears to be intimidation, but we remain open to negotiating a reasonable solution. We are simply remaining steadfast in our faith and have chosen to stay in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“At the core of this case is that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese claim they have a ‘trust’ interest in the congregations’ properties. But the Virginia courts have held time and again that denominations cannot claim an ‘implied trust’ in member congregations’ property. The Episcopal Church even admitted in its complaint that it does not hold title to any of these eleven churches and that the churches’ own trustees hold title for the benefit of the congregations.â€

The Anglican District of Virginia (ADV), incorporated on December 5, 2006, is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). ADV members are in full communion with constituent members of the Anglican Communion through their affiliation with CANA, a missionary branch of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, a constituent member of the Anglican Communion. ADV members are thus a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a community of 77 million people.

Boudreaux, Thibodeaux, and T’Beaux were at a funeral together, T’Beaux says, “Ya’ll know, I hope at my funeral people say that I was a good family man, supported the katlic church, and was kind to everybody.” Thibodeaux says, “T’Beaux, you right, and at my funeral I hope de say how good a coach I was and talk about all I did for da community. Hey, Boudreaux, whatchu hope people say about you atchore funeral?” Boudreaux says, “I want dem to say, Hey, look, he’s movin’.”

From Ruth Gledhill.

Check it out.

Which leads me to a few questions.

One, do my readers like the whiskey in the jar posts? Or, are all my readers just Anglican news junkies and could care about anything else?

Two, do you read this blog for Anglican news or do you read it to see what I think of the Anglican news?

Three, do you read this blog for particular information on what is going on in the Diocese of Western Louisiana? If so, should the blog focus more on that?

On another note, Al Kimel has ceased blogging at Pontifications. He writes:

I began my blog as a way to work through, both intellectually and emotionally, the crisis of conscience caused by the election of Gene Robinson to the episcopate. I knew that I could no longer summon individuals into the communion of the Episcopal Church. What was I to do? I had been a priest for over 20 years. I knew that I could not join one of the multiple Anglican sects. The fall of the Episcopal Church into heresy had convinced me that Protestantism was incapable of standing against the corrosive tides of modernity. There were only three options for me—Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or agnosticism. After two years of deliberation, I found myself, much to my surprise, drawn into the communion of the Catholic Church.

Becoming Catholic has brought many blessings, but it has not healed the sorrows of my heart. Indeed, in some ways it has intensified these sorrows. But this is all very private. All I need say is that I often find them overwhelming. God is silent. I am reduced to silence.

On the way home to the Shire, Gandalf sees the discomfort of Frodo:

“Are you in pain, Frodo?â€

“Well, yes I am,†said Frodo. “It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.â€

“Alas! There are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,†said Gandalf.

When compared to the devastating injuries—physical, emotional, and spiritual—that so many people in the world must endure, mine seem minor and trifling. Yet the burden is real.

Over the past few years God has stripped away the loves and passions of my heart. Even the words seem to be disappearing. Writing has become impossible—and prayer, difficult.

I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. (T. S. Elliot)

I wish to thank all who have faithfully read Pontifications over the past three years. I give you all joy.

Todd Granger over at the Confessing Reader had this to say on the occasion of Al’s cessation of blogging:

I know that many of us know the pain of the ecclesial wound that he identifies. There is a deep pain in the soul that might not be healed until the End.

And, as readers may have surmised, writing has also become difficult for me. Even when I have ideas, the words simply don’t come. Or too many words come, obscuring what I want to say, so I simply hit the delete key, expunging what I had written without its ever having seen the light of day. A friend of many years and parishioner who is a theological revisionist on matters of human sexuality asked me the other day how I’m doing with regards to church matters. “I’m in an ecclesiastical depression,†I told him.

****

The hopes for a strengthened Communion of Anglican Churches, covenanted together in common faith, praxis and mission, discerning God’s truth in a conciliar and mutual manner seem very close to being dashed. Far better that Dr Williams had invited all the bishops of Anglican Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury - Martyn Minns, the AMiA bishops, Gene Robinson - and that he had allowed or better, had planned, for the Lambeth Conference to develop into an episcopal synod with real authority at the level of the Communion. A new communion of Anglican Churches may emerge from the present situation (indeed, it seems likely at this point), a communion centered in those vibrant Churches of the Global South, but without the centripetal force of communion with the ancient See of Canterbury I fear that the fissiparous nature of Anglican protestantism will assert itself, and we will see fractures between Churches and groups in that new communion on theological party lines. More on this later, if I can find the words.

I earnestly pray that my fears are groundless. I fervently pray for hope grounded in Jesus Christ and him alone to see a Communion of Anglican Churches emerge from the Communi0n of the past and the present, a renewed Communion held together by common faith, praxis and mission, served by personal communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But I’m dictating to God, and God will renew us as he sees fit and in his own time - whether or not there is a Communion of Anglican Churches true to the catholic and apostolic faith.

In any event, while I am sure I have contributed some fire and hopefully some humor to the Anglican blogosphere, we are dealing with hard times right now. There is very little about which to be optimistic. I would not say that words are failing me, or that I want to cease blogging. However, it is harder to blog now. I can see where Todd and Al are coming from. I can see where Greg is coming from, doing a top ten list of the headlines on my blog because it is a slow news day, and all the news is bad. But, I do want to think about what place this blog has in the Anglican Blogosphere, what should this blog be doing, and should it be Brad Drell’s blog about church and life or something else?

Right here:

For those interested in the local music scene in Alexandria.