As I read the various blog announcements that former bishop Schofield has been formally inhibited by the Presiding Bishop and likely will soon be deposed, I am sad. Sad because the action was needed, sad because so many will feel rejected because of the action. I think that inhibiting Mr. Schofield was exactly the right thing to do, but hardly an occasion for jubilation.
And yet, I read comments on one blog this brief, "Hallelujah!" and any number of variants.
I do not see it. Schism is tragedy. Losing even a very bad bishop and this seems to have been a case where the church should have withheld consent, is a tragedy. Losing a number of conservative clerics and laity who have been had by those seeking power before God, is a tragedy.
Where is the joy? I cannot see it in this event.
On the other hand, our parish announced the call of a new rector and I am thrilled. She will I suspect shake us to the foundation and we need it. There I can see the joy.
So perhaps we need to ask ourselves, where do we look for joy? Is it enough to win? Or to see a guilty person punished? I do not have Mr. Schofield in mind, but rather the glee with which some people greet executions. Is that a place to look for joy? I think not, but then I have been wrong before.
Where do we look for joy? What does that say about us?
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- JimB
- I am an Anglo-catholic Episcoplain layman, a lay contemplative, a musician, and a completely doting grandfather. New slogan for the election cycle: Vote for Cthulhu -- don't settle for the lesser evil!
2 comments:
Jim, I really don't hear "the glee with which some people greet executions." Rather, I hear people -- especially actual Episcopalians (as opposed to Southern Baptists in vestments) rejoicing: "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Reading the comnmnts of San Joaquinians since December 8, I have been truly shocked at what they have endured under the former diocesan.
Lisa,
I am afraid I read both. Yes, especially in the case of those in the diocese who have been on the receiving end of Mr. Schofield's arrogance, I do hear relief and simple thanksgiving. But some comments around the blogisphere go a lot farther and they worry me. The last thing we need to do is convince the conservatives who really are not trying to tear TEC apart that we don't want them and have fallen into a sort of triumphalism.
Point taken, I fell into perhaps, the same sort of broad brush fallacy you and I detest in others. Thanks!
FWIW
jimB
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