Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Episcopal Church Goes to Disneyland!


The Episcopal Church is having its General Convention in Anaheim, CA, right across the street, so I'm told, from Disneyland.

Here is a passage from the Presiding Bishop's welcoming address that really speaks to my inner socialist:

The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy –that we can be saved as individuals, that any of use alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that
salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.

Indeed, we're all in this together.  No one pulls themselves up into Heaven by their own bootstraps.  No gets to say "ha ha suckers!" as the doorman lifts the velvet rope for us and lets us into the club ahead of the line.

And to all who demand the absolute clarity of a world of black and white text in screaming high contrast, there is this:




Have a good and productive Convention everyone! Tell the bishops not to ride the Mad Hatter's Tea Party ride so soon after eating.

3 comments:

ueber-g said...

I am so glad that the PB addressed this personal savior business. Whenever I have been confronted with the question: "When and where were you saved?" my reply has always been "On a Friday afternoon 2000 years ago on a hilltop outside of Jerusalem." This always confounds the fundies.

Counterlight said...

"When and where were you saved?" my reply has always been "On a Friday afternoon 2000 years ago on a hilltop outside of Jerusalem."

That's always the best answer.

I knew a priest years ago who had a similar answer to the "When were you saved" question. It was, "The very same day you were saved, the first Good Friday."

There's word dribbling out of the House of Bishops that some of them are about ready to declare war on the House of Deputies. See Madpriest's blog. The word comes from +Gene Robinson.

ueber-g said...

But can we stop with the Swahili? Ubuntu?