ANGLICAN ANGST: LEARNING A PLAYGROUND ...

... lesson and applying it to life.

One thing is for certain, when playground players need to settle something it's best if they settle it themselves, BUT IT'S DISASTROUS when a child uses ploy to avoid confrontation. Avoidance brings about a loss of respect among the kid's peers, increases deleterious conversations outside the child's hearing, causes cliques to develop, and prolongs the inevitable.

Representatives of Episcopal congregations in Massachusetts have sidestepped a vote on whether to endorse a report that condemns appointments of gay bishops and calls on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to enact a moratorium on same-sex blessings.

Instead, voters at the 220th convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts endorsed a neutral resolution that calls for more study of the Windsor Report.

What we have here is a classic case of analysis paralysis. Restudy of something that has been studied to death sinks nations, losses wars, and bankrupts businesses.

At issue was the ordination of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, in 2003, and the subsequent divisions over homosexuality in the Episcopalian priesthood that have occurred in churches across America and the world since.

This comment by a leader of the liberal wing of the diocese is a classic case of elitist denial.

"I don't think we need to be anxious about the state of the Episcopal Church," Bishop Thomas Shaw, an outspoken supporter of gay rights, said in a speech to the 700 delegates representing 194 congregations across the state. "The unity of the Anglican community is important to all of us."

Right! The reaction of half of your world-wide Communion to the seating of practicing homosexuals into positions of leadership puts the lie to your words, you apostate son of Belial!

The October 2004 Windsor Report, commissioned by the head of the Anglican Communion and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to consider the controversy over homosexuality, calls on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to put the moratorium into effect. It also asks conservative bishops to stop going into other dioceses to assist congregations with disassociating themselves from the Episcopal Church.

That my friends is an example of stopping the conservatives by camouflage ... the apostate branch pretends to be serious by offering an apparent concession.

And statements to the press like the following makes a real believer want to gag ... can you say p-s-y-c-h-o-b-a-b-b-l-e?

"What it has done in regard to the divisions in the church is make them clearer," he said.

Church history is replete with examples of confrontational behavior which resulted in a matured and strengthened Bride of Christ.

A substitute resolution calling for further study of the report passed on a voice vote. The Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, said a vote on the Windsor Report would have been a "show stopper" that would have stifled further debate about it.

Yeah, that's what this is ... a CYA "show." You knew you would lose so you pulled a parliamentary ploy to give yourself time, you apostate episcopal pharisee! And you see while the conservatives wait the enemy works ... Bishop Robinson is in Britain where he rallied support on the weekend from LGBT members of the Church of England.

Analysis paralysis; Anglican; Apostasy; Church Disputes; ECUSA; Episcopalian; Homosexuals