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+Albany (NY) seeks unity, others not so much

The Episcopal Bishop of Albany, NY issued a statement calling for unity amid the discord in the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Love is trying to hold together a diocese commonly known as a conservative. Today’s story from the Albany Times Union explains his thinking.

I found two things “interesting” in the article.

You can read the full thing at Bishop wants unity amid discord: Leader of Albany Episcopalians affirms opposition to same-sex unions and ordaining gay clergy

The interesting bits:

[Bishop William Love] also criticized the Episcopal Church for “creating a new class of victims — the traditional orthodox believers.

“If there is to be a turnaround in the Church, there must be a viable place for the conservative orthodox voice,” he wrote.

One of the keys to reasonableness is having something that everyone can agree on – like a creedal statement. Unfortunately, and sadly, the response to Bishop Love’s statement shows that key elements that are foundational for that sort of oneness do not exist.

Locally, one lay leader in the Albany diocese has a much different worry: that there is no place for the substantial progressive voice.

Marya Dodd describes herself as probably the only progressive on the Diocesan Council, an oversight panel. She says many people won’t donate money to the Albany diocese because they feel disenfranchised. She praised Love for “making a real effort to communicate with us” in the new letter but said that wasn’t enough.

“He’s not publicly recognizing the fact that there are a lot of different segments of the Episcopal Church represented in Albany,” she said. “This is not a diocese that has one vision, or one approach to the faith.Emphasis added.”

I think that it would be hard to find a parish, much less a Church, that did not have a variety of voices and opinions in it. It is funny what people believe, as made up in their own minds. However, in a Church, there are touchstones, markers as it were of unity. The Creed, sacraments, the definition and understanding of God, adherence to the totality of the faith, that is Scripture and Tradition. The folks who run the faith side of the house tend to preach that common understanding.

All of those are the check points. If the membership cannot agree on those key elements, or if they have to redefine them to suit their own purposes, they are not Church, just a bunch of folks who like to get together. But whyI recall the Monty Python bit about going to an argument clinic just to argue.?

Even certain social clubs have a more defined set of beliefs or norms upon which their members agree.

Visions are fine, but if disconnected from the things which have defined the Church (of which you are a member) at least be honest enough to define your own “faith community.” Then again, isn’t that what seems to be happening.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , ,

One honest statement

As the Young Fogey might point out, politics is about playing a game for influence and votes. It is rare to find politicos doing things for right and proper reason. He might also rightly point out that we should be careful so that we “don’t get played” in their political process.

Today’s vote by Congress on the Armenian Genocide was one of those rare moments when politicians (and yes I understand that some come from districts with large Armenian immigrant populations) did the right thing in the face of pressure.

They basically said to heck with lobbyists (paid for by the Turkish government), President Bush (it will hurt the “war on terror”), and tons of other politicos who pander to Turkey because they act as an errand boy between the Arabs and Israelis/Arabs and NATO.

Of course everyone realizes that Turkish “democracy” is a carefully contrived facade at best. Free speech – eh, no. Freedom of religion – eh, no. But for Mr. Bush at least, a half friend and untruth are more important than the truth – the ends justify the means.

From the NY Times: House Panel Raises Furor on Armenian Genocide

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 —” A House committee voted on Wednesday to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of genocide, rebuffing an intense campaign by the White House and warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain its relations with the United States.

The vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee was nonbinding and so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.

Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution was approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq.

President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House before the vote and implored the House not to take up the issue, only to have a majority of the committee disregard his warning at the end of the day, by a vote of 27 to 21.

—We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915,— Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. —This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.—

The resolution, which was introduced early in the current session of Congress and which has quietly moved forward over the last few weeks, provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard A. Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader who backed a similar resolution when he was in Congress.

Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue.

—Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,— said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California and a sponsor of the resolution. —For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past…—

In a similar vein, Polish-Americans and Poles recall that in 1951-52 a Congressional investigation (the Madden Committee) into the Katyn Massacre (also here), documented much of the truth surrounding the enormity of the Katyn crimes committed by the Russians after the coordinated Nazi German – Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939I realize that this was at the start of the Cold War, and served a purpose in rallying Polish-Americans to the Cold War cause, after they had been kicked around by Truman and company at Yalta. Still, it did recognize the fact that the massacres occurred and laid the blame on the perpetrators..

Sometimes Congress finds the wherewithal to shed some light on historic events.

Oh, and let the Turks react. What will they do? Kill more Christians, close more churches, invade Iraq, stop pretending to be a democracy…? They will bow because we can choke off those huge foreign aid payments that keep them quiet.

Homilies,

The Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

I’ve been thinking about swimming lately. The subject has appeared in a few books I’ve read.

I’ve been reflecting on my inability to swim. I can certainly ‘swim’ across a pool, and I can float, but these are at a very basic level. I cannot seriously swim, nor could I tread water for any significant period of time.

I was at Mystic this summer, and a certain theme keeps coming up —“ something I learned there. Most sailors refused to learn how to swim. If their ship were to sink, they preferred a quick death.

Now, I would think that all of us have enough desire for life so as to struggle should we fall in, even if we couldn’t swim. Having said that, I would wonder how many of us carry enough faith so as to pick ourselves up and walk across the water.

You recall the passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew:

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;
but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Do we have the faith to move mountains, uproot trees, and walk on water?

The interesting thing about faith is that for a few it is intuitive. Most of us struggle with faith because in light of our experience it is counter-intuitive.

We might react to God in much the same way Habakkuk did:

Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.

We know God’s promises —“ He Himself told us how things would be. Yet…

Yet He threw up a huge roadblock to easy faith. The cross.

Today our Bishop is visiting in order to bless our newly installed cross, the cross that is front and center, on the peak of the church’s roof.

He blesses the cross which is the stumbling block for so many; the cross, which is a contradiction to those who claim wisdom.

Brothers and sisters,

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that the servant’s life is not easy.

“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?

It is easy to look at the master and say, ‘What a jerk.’ The servant worked all day —“ in the hot sun, out in the fields. The servant no sooner returns than he is told to wash up, put on his apron, and get right back to work. We feel sorry for the servant. We pity him.

We are wrong.

My friends,

That is the mystery of the cross.

Jesus stood His ground before the cross. He accepted it and took it up.

We are to do the same.

Our sinful inclination is to say ‘non serviam.’ I will not serve. I will not bow down.

It happens in big and small ways. Everything from abortion —“ I will not bear this child, to marriage —“ I will marry who I want regardless of Church teaching, to service in the Holy Church —“ Well Holy Orders should be open to me too, to eating those extra carbs you and I do not need.

In the face of the cross faith asks us to say yes, I accept suffering, loss, sadness, pain, loneliness, difficulties, and discomfort for the sake of my salvation and the Kingdom. I accept my place on the cross.

St. Paul reminds us, as he sits in his prison cell:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord

Our testimony is the cross, and our courageous acceptance of it.

Faith in the Holy Cross and its meaning in our lives is the prerequisite to moving mountains, transplanting trees, and walking on water.

Faith in the Holy Cross gives us what the world cannot give, true power, true love, true self-control.

That faith in the cross may be the size of a mustard seed, but as Jesus told us:

—…a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches—

With that seed of faith and our acceptance of the cross we will be victorious.

Amen.

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