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The Rt Rev Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster, addressed a meeting of Episcopal Church leaders this afternoon. His message can be very briefly summarised as follows: “You’re great, we’re great, and I’m the greatest.”
The Episcopal Church is great because it’s got lots of women in leadership.
Thank you your grace. Grace is a name applied usually to females but in our Anglican churches it has only been applied to men until you came along. And that is wonderful.
Applause
I will tell my own synod what a joy it is to be in a church led largely by women.
Maybe that’s his idea of an ice-breaking witticism.
He pats himself on the back for developing “alternative schemes of care” to deal with Anglicans who stubbornly insist on holding fast to the faith once delivered to the saints outmoded sexual ethics.
[W]e have had to develop alternative schemes of care for those who disagree with the positions we have taken on sexuality . . .
We developed a document called: Shared Episcopal Ministry. In this document, we call for the care of all those who feel themselves to be minorities in the national church. The wording speaks of “all” minorities. The wording is important. The Canadian position therefore differs from the primates who have envisioned the care of only “certain” minorities. It seems to us that many will feel disadvantaged and we must care for “all” minorities.
So there are some who are in the minority because of traditional convictions and they must be cared for.
To be honest, I haven’t read that document but, as one who believes that actions speak louder than words, I have to say it doesn’t seem to have done much good. Quite the opposite, in fact. Bp Ingham’s scheme of “alternative care” for the “minority” with “traditional convictions” includes surreptitious attempts to change the locks on church doors, installing hand-picked ringers to govern recalcitrant congregations, and pressuring traditional clergy to move on. Oh, and harassing bishops who venture into his domain diocese to minister to Anglicans who aren’t appropriately thankful for Mike’s “alternative” “care”.
Yes, providing “alternative” “care” to those with “traditional convictions” demands a great deal of the good bishop’s time and cunning ingenuity.
New West’s favoured minorities, on the other hand, get plain ordinary care, not the alternative kind. But they’re not well served either.
But it is also clear that there are other people, namely sexual minorities, who also need the care and pastoral concern of the church.
Care for sexual minorities looks quite different but, really, is it any better? Pastoral concern here entails teaching them that indulging illicit sexual desires is just fine with God.
As we formulate our response to the primates, it is important for both of our churches to say to the rest of the Communion that we must be even handed and not selective.
And Mike has been the very epitome of even-handedness and impartiality.
He puffs up the assembled TEC leaders by telling them how close The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are growing through their joint effort to bring into the Anglican Communion alternative care for pesky traditional minorities "the fullness of the gospel".
And then there’s this.
Orthodoxy is a wide river not a narrow stream. The genius of orthodoxy is that it has provided space and boundaries for many in different positions to come together and that is not just the genius of Anglican orthodoxy, but it is the genius of the entire Christian tradition.
So, who ya gonna believe: Mike or Jesus?
He ends with flattery
I am impressed with your advocacy for the MGDs [sic] and your consistent advocacy for mission and your advocacy of Jesus Christ in your tireless efforts for the unfortunate.
You may not know this about yourself but you are a light to the gentiles.
and, no doubt coincidentally, receives a standing ovation.
Michael Ingham and The Episcopal Church, standing tall together.
h/t: titusonenine
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