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The Episcopal Church is now well and truly off on a deep space quest to go where other churches have never gone before. I know. I was there at the launch, at the shrinking church's 77th General Convention, in Indianapolis.
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| Gene Robinson, with friend |
What happened? Apart from press room rumors that bishop Gene Robinson was getting a divorce from his "beloved Mark" and living estranged in separate hotel rooms. Apart from that and gender neutral bathrooms, what happened?
Famously, a rite, or ceremony, for gay-marriage, which hits the pews in Advent and appears to be the first of its kind. Chalk that up for history and with it the declining church's new gender rules. These make it a crime to exclude people from governing positions in the small denomination if they've had a sex-change. Gender reassignment surgery? The Episcopal Church is the place for you, if you can find it that is, which is hard because it's shrinking at a rate of 50,000 members a year.
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| weaving the circle |
But who knows, maybe the church's new mission oriented budget will turn things around, get the mothership back on the planet, as it were. Unlikely, given that 42% of the denomination's $111 million budget is going to be spent on administration and governance, with $12 million earmarked for legal costs and $1 million for church planting. Mission and growth? You do the math.
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| you're very small from way out here |
A small minority of traditionally minded bishops did mount a fight-back of sorts, signing the Indianapolis Statement, which protests their church's accelerating trajectory into the icy void.
All well and good, traditional bishops, you have my total sympathy. But remember, in space no one can hear you scream.
The Episcopal Church was last seen leaving earth orbit.
LSP
