No One Left to Say No

Oh dear, another Episcopal Church posting, once again I cannot resist. As a friend of mine, a former Episcopalian who decamped for Rome 25 years ago put it: "It's like a horrible car crash, you just can't take your eyes off it." We were discussing Johnson's Third Law of Episcopal Thermodynamics (formulated by Christopher Johnson of the Midwest Conservative Journal), Every joke you make about the Episcopal Church eventually comes true, and its latest manifestation: the "Stations of the Millennium Development Goals," which are "designed to be used during Lent in lieu of the traditional Stations of the Cross service” (and really, is it necessary to go into any more detail?).

There once was a time long ago, upon hearing about nonsense like the above, I would been outraged. A few years later it would have been ROTFLMAO, as the kids might say. Later still, just an appreciative chuckle; now, merely a slight shake of the head and perhaps a slight frown. What is terribly sad about the whole business is that what formerly was the fringe element in the Episcopal Church is now the status quo. Even though the loopy ones have been calling the shots for quite a while, until recently there were always a few rational souls in leadership,who though mostly liberal, were liberals with sanity, as Ed Koch would put it. When particularly nutty ideas were proposed, the remaining, albeit diminishing, saner element could be counted upon on, at least on occasion, to stand up to their peers and say, "No, we cannot do that." Even former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswald, who rarely encountered a whacked-out notion he could not embrace, still had enough sense to keep the snarling, fang-baring consigliere Beers on his leash, knowing (even if only instinctively) that protracted litigation against dissident parishes and dioceses could only lead to the ruination of the church.

That rational element in Episcopal Church leadership, via retirement or departure for other provinces or Rome, is all but gone now, replaced by those who march in lockstep with the radicals. The church is no longer on the narrow path and can be likened to a train shunted to an abandoned spur: for a while, the track in reasonably good repair, she will chug along but eventually will veer off into a swamp, the track will sink under her weight and she will be consumed by the mire.

I suppose, despite intentions to the contrary, I will continue to write on poor old ECUSA but suspect not in length like above; rather, just tidbits for your amusement. Consider this screed my eulogy.