Silence Regretted

A new puppy isn’t quite as disruptive as a new baby, but it comes close.  Otto is a nervous little guy who developed some bad habits before coming to live with us.  The real Captain Yips is a deliberate, considering dog who has been very tolerant of the youngster’s pushiness, but in recent days they’ve been sorting out their relationship.  After a run for dominance, Otto is learning that he is not the alpha dog here.  Actually, I’m afraid that I’m the alpha dog; Captain Yips Mackintosh has always looked to me for guidance, and now it looks like I have to do the same for Otto.

So.  Lot happening, what.  Let’s start with Ann Holmes Redding, poor woman.  There she is in the midst of her spirit journey, being led to Islam by Jesus (she says), then she gets laid off from her job as director of ed at Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral (and just why did 100 fewer people pledge in 2007 than in 2006?  That seems to be a 15% decline, kind of a lot for a flagship church.  Couldn’t have had anything to do with GC2006, could it?  Just asking, you know), then things get really bad.  Everyone is picking on her.

I feel sorry for her, I really do, in multiple ways.  First of all, for following a dead end path personally.  Secondly, for the failures of formation, education, and guidance that enabled this woeful tale.  Lastly, for The Episcopal Church as a whole.  Having spent a couple of generations excising Christian Truth from the vocabulary of its leadership (but hush!  Don’t tell the pew sitters, they still believe that stuff), it was inevitable that this sort of thing would happen.  So embarrassing when it does.  But if you empty out the house, something will move in.

There are parts of TEC where an entirely orthodox priest daren’t voice a criticism of TEC’s direction in a voice above a whisper - in his basement - at midnight - lest he be booted out for “abandoning communion.”  That Redding’s+ bish doesn’t seem to wonder if she should be serving as a priest at all is sort of diagnostic.

Greg is entirely right.  It's not SSBs or same sex anything that is killing TEC.  It's the absence of faith at a high level, and that's what Management has been trying to keep us in the dark about.