Tuesday, March 02, 2004 AD
The next schism will be mail-merged
I've sort of promised myself not to use this blog to put the boot into the Anglican church. My departure is "more in sorrow than in anger", and anyway has less to do with the general implosion of the Anglican Communion than with my own changing convictions (see below).
But I couldn't resist this one. Following a glorious "gotcha" post from Chris Johnson, which revealed that ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold had recycled an old letter and sent it to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (easy mistake...), Douglas Leblanc has published a handy cut-out-and-keep letter template for busy Primates.
There is a simpler template available for non-ECUSA archbishops, which (rumour has it) was due to be included on the new-look ECUSA website: a handy online form for excommunications:
The above item got posted by someone on the Virtuosity site, who then went on to point out some completely justified criticisms of it - in particular, the danger of caricaturing the Global South, which was not remotely my intention. But if this item causes any offence, I suggest you read the Virtuosity exchange before flaming me...
But I couldn't resist this one. Following a glorious "gotcha" post from Chris Johnson, which revealed that ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold had recycled an old letter and sent it to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (easy mistake...), Douglas Leblanc has published a handy cut-out-and-keep letter template for busy Primates.
There is a simpler template available for non-ECUSA archbishops, which (rumour has it) was due to be included on the new-look ECUSA website: a handy online form for excommunications:
1. Name: [___________________]Update - 5 March
2. Province: [___________________]
3. Number of Anglican communicants in your province (to the nearest ten million): [__]
4. Reason for excommunicating the Episcopal Church (please tick all that apply):
* Gene Robinson [ ]
* Same-sex blessings [ ]
* Frank Griswold's latest reference to "forcefields" [ ]
* I've been meaning to do it for years, but only just got round to it due to time-pressure of fifteen thousand baptisms a week in our diocese [ ]
* All the other bishops I hang out with were doing it, and I thought, "what's the harm?" [ ]
Thank you. Please click "Submit" to send us your e-Bull of Excommunication. Please note that at busy times on our server it may take several minutes for your e-Bull to be processed.
Data Protection: The Eames Commission may wish to contact you from time to time with information about alternative forms of impaired communion that may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive such information from the Eames Commission, please tick this box [ ]
The above item got posted by someone on the Virtuosity site, who then went on to point out some completely justified criticisms of it - in particular, the danger of caricaturing the Global South, which was not remotely my intention. But if this item causes any offence, I suggest you read the Virtuosity exchange before flaming me...
