Drell's Packing - Can Anyone Doubt Schism Is Truly Upon Us?

Brad Drell, as ever eloquent and concise in expressing himself, said the following this morning in response to the news that Comrade Brezhnev PB Schori is proposing to further change disciplinary Canons in the future to deal with "wayward Bishops" well before any attempted departure from TEC occurs:

Western Louisiana, it is time to pack our bags or surrender to the Borg…

Mr. Drell, trained in the law as am I, sees the inherent and unjust flaw in any disciplinary system which would allow the presiding bishop to initiate deposition or other forms of punishment simply for disagreement, well before any substantive action to "abandon communion" has occurred.   Comrade Brezhnev PB Schori seems to be well on her way to forming an ecclesiastical KGB to sniff out dissent and to eventually rid herself of Bishops who decline to ordain women or LGBT's, who do not believe in same-sex blessings, who continue to see the basic conflict between Islamic beliefs and Christianity, or who continue to believe that Jesus Christ is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  Yet Comrade Brezhnev PB Schori seems inexorably headed down the path of creating a TEC thought police and instituting a 21st-century Inquisition to test whether laity and clergy hold to their official liberal beliefs.

It is thus apparent that if any orthodox Dioceses plan to leave, they need to get on with an accelerated Convention schedule and vote on the requisite amendments to their Diocesan Constitution before GC2009 when it will be too late.  As for Parishes and Episcopalians stranded in a Diocese headed by a liberal Bishop, don't think this proposed disciplinary scheme by Schori will omit you - there are already proposed Canons for discipline of laity that may very possibly bring about the spectre of Episcopal Excommunication.  (After my novel Lest Ye Be Judged and this blog, I may have been close to the head of the line for that rite, other than the fact that I am "Already Gone.")

What Comrade Brezhnev PB Schori and her henchmen do not seem to realize is that at the soul of every American is an individual who has been raised in a culture of individual rights.  Few Americans have never made a statement starting with "It's my right..." or words to that effect.  So when TEC begins to act in a manner that echoes the kind of repression visited on Eastern Europe and many other regions of our planet, at some point the sense of right and of fairness which inhabits all Americans to some degree will become readily offended.  The kind of accelerated discipline, which has already shown itslef to lack procedural due process in the repeated failures to observe and follow even the most basic procedures, is precisely the kind of offensive action that will drive even more Episcopalians away.

Mr. Drell, I'm already out here on the road away from TEC but my journey has a long way to go.  I'm delighted to have you join us - bring Western Louisiana along and we'll all walk this road together.

Comments

[Matthew Asnip]

With as many attorneys as are in the Episcopal Church, myself included, I'm finding it hard to believe that 815 thinks these changes are in any way a good idea.

Apparently, the Episcopal Church no longer needs congregations.