“Lastly it should be stated clearly: members of ACI will not be intimidated by the complainants or the PB’s office or those who collude with it.”

Well, to the extent that the bishops, most of whom are on the ACI Board, are members of ACI, the intimidation has already worked!!!

Five of the nine bishops who caved are retired. All they stood to lose was having their next pension check come in the mail addressed to “Mr. ________” instead of “The Rt. Rev. ________”. They could have stood firm and been heroes, but what TEC thought of them mattered too much. And they caved.

Nothing–and I mean NOTHING–not Gene Robinson, not SSB’s, not TEC’s lawsuits against departing churches and dioceses, NOTHING has upset me as much as these gutless wonders turning tail in the face of the enemy.

Kind of reminds you of that line of the Bishop of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven, “Convert today, repent tomorrow.”

Tails tuck firmly between legs, mouths and consciences muzzled. What a sad spectacle.

Stockholm syndrome.

Caved with total capitulation – but what Katherine said, as usual, covers it well. In other news, the PB finally made her appearance in Central Florida last weekend. Notice that reports of that visit are absent except that she has now visited every diocese. Not even worth a footnote.

Well, don’t look now but HRM The Queen is apparently in Schori’s “court” as well…..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290824/Queen-fights-gay-rights-Monarch-makes-historic-pledge-discrimination-hints-Kate-DOES-girl-means-equal-rights-throne.html

So will KJS put their balls on display, or keep them in a drawer for her private viewing pleasure?

I’m sure the capitulating bishops have their excuses. Why did they ever start down that road if they were not prepared for the journey. Ed Salmon was my rector at one time. I’m very disappointed in him.

“Respondents agree not to file or endorse any further amicus brief or affidavit in litigation outside of their respective dioceses and against the legal position of The Episcopal Church until the General Convention formally addresses this conduct, either by amendment to the Constitution and/or canons or by formal resolution and to act in accordance with the action of the General Convention.”

Okay, so I know it’s not in the context of a court case, but if the principle here is that support by word or deed for behaviour or conduct contrary to “the legal position of The Episcopal Church” is not alone not permissible until and unless said action is “in accordance with the action of the General Convention”, it is punishable…then when are we going to see the public rebuke of the Dean of the National Cathedral?

After all, TEC has not (yet) formally amended the Constitution and/or canons to say that they will conduct same-sex marriages; you can give blessings and hold commitment ceremonies and the like, but it’s not Christian marriage equal to all the other marriages performed in the past. The dean was ecstatically warbling all over the place about how now weddings (not blessings or commitment ceremonies, full-on weddings) for same-sex couples could be held in the National Cathedral (under the same conditions as those for the straights).

I’ve had it explained to me that this is because of the legal standing of such ceremonies depending on the various states; where civil same-sex marriage is legal in state X, this is a wedding but if it’s not legal in state Y, then it’s only a blessing.

Beeswax (I bowdlerise). What the state chooses to legalise is the state’s business; we’re talking about the Christian understanding of marriage as a sacrament (if you accept Matrimony as one of the Seven Sacraments, or Five, depending) or at the least, an exchange of vows before God in a religious context.

Either Dean Hall is breaking the rules of General Convention or not. If he is, then why isn’t he reprimanded for his advocacy? If he’s not, then why pretend that marriage isn’t marriage in this case?

The above is disingenuous; I know you’ll only be punished for rule-breaking if you break the rules in the wrong way. Ordaining women when it’s illegal is good; telling a court that the bishop is the sole head of his diocese is bad.

Yes, Fuinseoig, you’ve got it.

FW Ken, that was wicked, and so good!

One more toe in the Tiber, sigh.

Since I have posted on Daylight (Summer) Time here and there, I am alarmed this morning to find that Ireland and most of Europe did NOT begin Summer Time this morning. WHY are we doing this now, when Europe doesn’t move until March 31? So for the time being, American Pope-watchers, Rome is FIVE hours ahead of EDT, not six, and SIX hours ahead of CDT (FW Ken, six hours, not seven). As if things weren’t complicated enough!

FW Ken,
She would not do anything so overt. She just had her minions administer a lifetime dose of Depo-Provera.

Here is hoping Ephraim Radner will find his way to the ACNA and be colleagues with Stephen Noll. That has been my hope that these two great minds of Anglicanism would be together.

Since I have posted on Daylight (Summer) Time here and there, I am alarmed this morning to find that Ireland and most of Europe did NOT begin Summer Time this morning. WHY are we doing this now, when Europe doesn’t move until March 31?

As always, it is For The Children. We changed both dates unilaterally when we decided that children needed to trick-or-treat in daylight, which seems a most bizarre idea to me. So when I travel next week, I get two more time changes! Bonus!

Daniel,
Who fell asleep in a restaurant this morning while waiting for his breakfast

Daniel, but it’s March!! “The Children” don’t need to go around getting candy in March! Plus, in my neighborhood, all the parents take their kids to private Halloween parties at the end of October, because they are afraid their angels will be given poisoned candy or snatched away before their eyes — and because it’s easier, and they can party, too.

I am sitting here drinking yet another coffee and trying to stay awake. Getting up an hour early to go practice the Hallelujah Chorus at 7:30 a.m. sun time was exhausting.

FW Ken – you are bang on. We need a visual, though. Someone who is adept at Photoshop please help out. Maybe nine jars with pairs of balls in formaldehyde, suitably labelled for each victim, and Kate Schori / Cruella DeVille in full regalia celebrating a black mass behind them.

This is an evil totalitarian institution. I cannot imagine why these men relented. I cannot fathom what pressure was put on them. I cannot comprehend why they would want to still be bishops in that organization. I cannot understand why anyone with integrity would still belong to TEC.

The only comfort is that this publicity may undermine some of TEC’s court cases, because it will be seen as witness tampering.

The Queen doesn’t really have a choice about what she signs or doesn’t. She’s a puppet of Parliament; all she can do is private advice and waving a lot at the camera. That’s the whole story of modern UK royalty, and I’m sorry to break folks’ bubble if folks didn’t realize that.

MichaelD -

There are things I can live without seeing

Michael D – How about this?: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_59w7FAg2ZYM/S6gYyx7r-EI/AAAAAAAAAko/3Pk5Fwqpksw/s1600-h/killa-kali-thumb.jpg

(Make sure there aren’t any little kids – or bosses – nearby)

FW Ken,

KJS will have an empty spot on her wall/in her drawer; I can’t rightly say that I believe those who caved were equipped with that particular part of the male anatomy.

It’s one thing to sit silent in the face of evil. It’s another to take a stand, and then back down from that stand. Denying one’s principles (and what one purports to believe in) makes one an intellectual/theological whore, selling out to whoever applies the most pressure/pays the highest price.

Shameful. Disheartening.

And oh, so Anglican. (More sand over here folks; we’ve got another line to tdraw!!!)

Katherine, I was puzzled when I read all the American sites going on about putting the clocks forward. We won’t be doing that until the end of the month, so we have an extra hour in bed in the morning for the next two weeks.

It is noticeably brighter in the mornings, though – that is, when it is not raining and overcast and windy, like right now and (if the forecast is to be believed) will be for the next week or so.

All I can guess is that she has plenty of dirty pictures of the squishops in question doing illegal stuff with farm animals.

How on earth did the episcoipal church come to such a silly end?

@ Suburbanbanshee: Privdes the defence that “The Queen doesn’t really have a choice about what she signs or doesn’t. She’s a puppet of Parliament;”

But so is the Belgian King. In 1990 “The civilian Government temporarily suspended King Baudouin I from power today after he declared that he could not, in good conscience as a Roman Catholic, sign a new law permitting abortion.

After declaring the King ”unable to govern,” the Cabinet assumed the King’s powers and promulgated the abortion law, which was published in the official gazette. And it called the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate back from Easter vacation for a special session on Thursday.

The lawmakers will be asked to vote on the proposition that the 59-year-old King is once again able to govern. Approval is expected”. Which they did.

Once you surrender your conscience to the State than you cease to be your own person, but become a cypher of a human being.

And to think that the early Christian martyrs died for the sake of refusing to eat food that had been sacrificed to the Roman Emperor god! Where has the Christian intestinal fortitude gone??

Better to die for your principles than to live as a coward!!!

Amen, La Valette. The currently active bishops seem to have decided that they wouldn’t do their dioceses any good with defiance; they would be deposed and replaced with somebody much worse. But that’s going to happen, anyhow, as soon as these bishops retire. They surrendered their consciences for the sake of a few short years of uncomfortable anticipation. The retired bishops were, we’re guessing, told that if they didn’t sign, their non-retired friends would be immediately deposed. So they all caved together.

“Well, don’t look now but HRM The Queen is apparently in Schori’s “court” as well…..” Perhaps young Edward wants to finally come out of the closet?

unreconstructed rebel wrote: “All I can guess is that she has plenty of dirty pictures of the squishops in question doing illegal stuff with farm animals.”

Funny how what is a blackmailable offense now will be a sacrament following the next General Convention.

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

Was Wales at least on the table?

The only song that fits the circumstance is a Trotskyist ballad from the Stalin era, “The Old Bolshevik Song.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngbhBa3qHvE

As the surrendering bishops will soon learn, “and my capitulation had a ring so true, that now I’m in the prisons of the GPU.”

Lee

I would hope that after this Dan Martins has the good sense to take down his blog.

I am ashamed for all of these cowards. The ones still active should retire immediately and quit pretending they are bishops.

“Reconciliation” sure is different in TEC than it is elsewhere. More like Reconstruction and Re-education!

As for the blathering of ACI, just more Anglican Fudge. Sorry, guys, not buying it.

There is so much to fisk in Dan Martin’s blog post. This in particular “We feel manipulated and victimized. We are nowhere near happy about this outcome, even though we stand by our decision to accept the Accord.” TEC is full to the brim with victims.

This is why I don’t bother commenting at StandFirm anymore. They’re as loyal to their schism as they claim it was wrong to be to the Holy See, despite being far more grossly provoked.

Slightly off topic – The style of The Queen is HM, Her Majesty. Royal is used for lesser beings such as HRH, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.

Not that many people care. It’s particularly strange when British newspapers get it wrong tho.

Ed the Roman – I have missed something – what are you refering to at “This”?

One of the bishops makes his case:

http://cariocaconfessions.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/conciliation.html?m=1

FW Ken,
I would suspect that you would agree that he does not make his case. How can member of the leadership of TEC refer to himself as a ‘victim’? If this is true, what does it say about the entire organization?

I read Martin’s blog post. Just goes to prove that one can justify anything if one tries hard enough. So they basically scared them with financial threats. So tough. So principled. So disgusting.

Matthew 19:12
For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—such as, for example, KJS

I guess they must lack intestical fortitude.

Paula Loughlin,
I’m impressed with your pun but don’t know for sure if you are hitting below the belt. (:

Dale+,

I think ++Martins makes some points. I don’t think he makes a case.

I’m still baffled at this whole thing: half these men are retired, the other half certainly qualify for retirement if they were deposed. The part about protecting their diocese makes no sense. The liberals in their care don’t want their protection, conservatives are likely to be appalled, potentially bolting, and the mushy middle are going to die off whatever the case. Protecting the institution is a losing game.

According to things I’ve read here and there, FW Ken, the idea is that TEC insisted that all had to sign, or none would be forgiven. This, if that’s what happened, means they used emotional blackmail to get the retired bishops to sign, lest their still-active fellow bishops be immediately deposed.

The gains from not being deposed are very temporary, of course, and sticking with an institution capable of this sort of degraded behavior is pointless in the long run and even in the short run.

Katherine,
“the idea is that TEC insisted that all had to sign, or none would be forgiven.” If that was a part of the deal, then why wasn’t it included in the document? I think that statement may just provide more wiggle room but still does not justify their signing the document. Can you or anyone else verify the all or none signatue theory?

I know about the all-our-nothing factor, but really… REALLY! So the conciliation “fails” over this, and the deposition proceeds. The sitting bishops announce their agreement with the conciliation, but that KJS refused their obeisance.

My point is that now they look cowardly and naive both. Its tempting to say “stupid” as well, but we know they are smart men. So I remain baffled.

FW Ken,
You will get no disagreement from me on your conclusions.

Dale, I read it somewhere at Stand Firm, but can’t vouch for it. It could be just talk. No, I don’t think anything justifies anyone in having signed this document. Having done what they did, that is, challenge TEC’s legal strategy in court, the only honorable thing to do was stick with it, since they were objectively correct about church history and structure.

All, read Martins’ blog again. See his analogy of the business that is advised by its legal counsel to settle out of court, because the litigation would be too expensive. They were just frightened of the threat of expensive legal action. They weren’t protecting anybody or anything other than their own wallets.

The bishop and the ACI have something in common.

If you added the balls of all the men in both groups, you’d still have fewer than Katherine Jefferts-Schori.

How does it feel to get shafted in the back side by a woman with more testosterone than you (plural)?

I wouldn’t follow these so-called bishops to a newspaper stand as the end of the block. They are a disgrace to their offices.

-Jim+