Well, well, well . . . all four corners of the Anglican blogosphere are all a twitter (that didn't used to represent a mixed metaphor) about the Candidates for Bishop in the Dioceses of Minnesota and Los Angeles.
In case you're the last person in the Anglican Communion to hear this, there are two lesbians (Bonnie Perry in MN and Mary Glasspool in LA) and one gay man (John Kirkley in LA) out of nine candidates for three episcopal elections (one diocesan in MN and two suffragans in CA).
Chicken Little reigns supreme in some corners, crying that the Anglican Sky is surely falling now (blah, blah blah ULTIMATIUM, yada, yada, yada, GAFCON, blah blah blah ACNA, yada, yada, yada).
Rough translation: NOT!
Meanwhile, others are just being flat out mean, trying to dig up dirt or drag some stuff through the dirt to make it look like something it isn't (oh, I don't have to link there. You know where to go to find that stuff).
Meanwhile, others of us are preaching, organizing Vacation Bible Schools, visiting the sick and fragile elderly, counseling those who are grieving loss of loved ones as well as those who are planning to begin married life, and being present to those who are undergoing ominous diagnostic surgery.
OH, yes, and having fabulous birthday parties with adorable grandchildren on glorious Saturday afternoons.
Yo, +++Rowan! This - THIS - is my 'chosen lifestyle, part deux. I know, I know. Pretty boring and pedestrian.
Here's a news flash, pal: This is the really good stuff.
The weekend before this past weekend, I took Mackie to NYC for her birthday. First stop, of course: American Girl Doll Place. She really, really, really wanted a 'Bitty Baby' this time.
The deal is that she gets one outfit with the doll, but she LOVED this nightgown, bathrobe and slipper set for her baby (whom she named Catharine); so much so that she really, really, really wanted one for herself.
So, I ran the old I'll-have-to-put-it-on-layaway scam my mother used to pull on me, but back then it was Arlan's Department Store where they actually HAD layaway plans. At American Girl Doll Place, one uses one's credit card.
She went home with her Bitty Baby. She got her bathrobe at her birthday party.
That smile you see on her face says, "I knew it all along."
Then, we walked up to FAO Schwartz to get a birthday present for her young sister, Abbi. She LOVED being there. Every part of the store.
I mean, what kid wouldn't? She helped to pick out a baby doll for her baby sister and a set of stacking blocks. Her choices were perfect. Her sister loved them.
This is Mackie outside the store posing with the door man.
Is that a happy kid or what?
This is us outside the plaza of FAO Schwartz and Bergdorf Goodman getting ready to take our pedi-cab ride all the way down Fifth Avenue back to Penn Station. I wish we had thought to get a picture of that!
It was a perfectly beautiful day. Our pedi-cab driver was a delightful young man from Ukraine who certainly earned every penny he charged us AND the very healthy tip we gave him.
All this was going on, of course, while the plot to end the Anglican World as we now know it was being hatched in Minnesota and Los Angeles.
I know. What were we thinking, right?
Actually, we were just living our lives. You know. Just like everyone else. Doing what we love to do - loving each other and celebrating the gift of life we've been given to the best of our ability.
This is my 'chosen lifestyle'.
It's a variation on the themes of the 'chosen lifestyles' of the three individual LGBT candidates for the episcopacy.
We have a life.
I just wish a few other people in the Anglican Communion would get one, too.
Oh, P.S. and BTW: All the other candidates in both dioceses are absolutely stellar. G'won over to both sites and check it out. Just click on the diocesan links above.
It's a GREAT time to be a Christian and a FABULOUS time to be an Episcopalian.
Don't you think?
6 comments:
Minnesota could do a lot worse than Bonnie Perry who is a very wonderful lady and a great priest. On the other hand, with either of the other candidates exactly the same could be said I am sure. I just happen to know the Rev. Perry a little and think she is spectacularly good at her vocation.
Years and years ago when we were about to be postulants together briefly, Michael Hopkins said something that stuck with me. We were driving through one of the nastiest rain storms I have ever seen and talking about the church's issues with various sets of people. "The problem is that the specific defeats the general. So someone says I can prove women should not be priests. And then one woman is and she does a great job and it just does not hold up." (I think that is right -- it is at least a fair paraphrase. I am getting old.)
Yup. Enter +Gene and it is hard to make it stick. If any of the lesbian/gay candidates wins, and one might and then does a great job what will the argument be? Can they really try to claim it is a satanic plot or that God screwed up?
Your lovely grand daughter can face the future without fear. Not so Gaf(fe)Con et al. They have lost the claim for (white) male privilege and that terrifies them.
FWIW
jimB
Bonnie Perry IS fantastic. Everyone who's been in the same room with her for more than 15 minutes can tell you that.
I have also known Mary Glasspool for a number of years and she is a formidable candidate in that election. The others are going to have to work very hard to outshine her obvious intelligence and competence.
I have also been deeply blessed to know and love - and be known and loved in return by - John Kirkley. He's intelligence and eloquence and experience help propel him to the top of the list of candidates.
I am so proud of TEC right now I could simply burst.
What I know of Mary G+ is that she led two near-moribund parishes from death into life, all the while giving a wonderful example of spirituality, intellectual rigor, and faithfulness. There are many wonderful parish priests who can also lay claim to that accomplishment. But how many Archbishops can say the same?
'It's a GREAT time to be a Christian and a FABULOUS time to be an Episcopalian.'
Indeed- Amen
Living outside the US I don't know of all of the candidates. However when news of John Kirkley's candidacy reached here I was literally jumping for joy.
I've known of John for several years now through his wonderful blog- a real blessing to the Church and the blogisphere.
So then of course I read the profiles and answers from the candiates in both dioceses, and was awed by the rich blessings offered to the Church by these individuals.
Could they... is it just possible that this is a lesson to Rowan et al to just let the Holy Spirit do Her work, to trust their fellow Christians?
just a thought
David@Montreal
Once again you've hit the nail on the head. I do love the way you write.
Thanks, David. Thanks, Lis.
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