Keble,
(in reply to
this post)
Well, I'm not going to make any attempt whatsoever to defend Spong; I excommunicated him a decade ago at least.
You excommunicated him? Odd, your church didn't. I didn't know you were an episcopalian bishop...
And as for the Rt. Rev. Catherine Waynick: she's irrelevant here. There's no era in which an Anglican church would support what you're planning to do. The Episcopal Church even has a bishop for the Armed Forces chaplaincies, and other chaplaincies are under ordinary bishops.
To be blunt:you're trying to evade the point. Loose canon bishops and female clergy aren't going to distract from the historical reality that the apostolic standard for Christian life is within a community in which there is weekly worship, preferably Eucharistic worship. The notion of a sort of instant anchorite life is not something for a catechumen to be diving into. That is the actual tradition; accept no schismatic substitutes.
Well, I bring up your "church's" heterodoxy, because I find virtually everything you write to be nauseatingly hypocritical. For you to refer to anything as a "schism" is an absurdity - there would be no "episcopalian church" were it not for King Henry's lust/avarice, and the later desire of American Anglicans to not be too closely associated with the
head of their "church" (to this day, the reigning monarch in England is the official head of the Anglican church). A schism of the papal schism - who are you to sermonize anyone?
You can complain all you want about Cate Waynick's gender, but one thing she is not is vagante. The diocese over which she has been placed is duly consituted within the Episcopal Church, and her election and consecration were according to the church's constitution and canons.
This is like speaking of a "canonically ordained mule". You seem oblivious to the profoundly
contra-apostolic character of your schism.
As for the appropriatness of learning from a distance, due to necessity, and making due (
for the time being) with regular visits of Priests (or even Bishop Gregory) up into Canada, and doing a Reader's Service for the time being...I don't see how this can be pooh-poohed by anyone, when the choice is "remain in sin" or "be a baptized Christian". There
is no choice in such a situation.
I find it inredible that you actually think alienation from the Church is a viable option. We're not talking about a social committment here, but the the indwelling of the grace of God! This is the difference between being a member of Christ, and looking in from afar. Your whole tone on this subject smacks of a casual attitude towards the salvation of souls - while not an unexpected attitude for a heretic to hold, I don't "get" how you don't see
why such a view is utterly inadmissable in an
Orthodox paradigm.
The prayers in the Holy Spirit of even a solitary believer, have more objective value (for they occur in Christ) than any number of schismatical/heretical services, or pretended worship. I desire this incredible gift, while recognizing my complete unworthiness to receive it.
Seraphim
