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Re: [HoB/D] Who gets to make the sacrifice?
From: <TBWSalinas@aol.com>
> Of course this is not exclusively a
> clerical problem. Not being up to speed on the Canons, though, I am not
> sure a > failure to obey one's bishop's godly admonition carries the same
> weight or consequences for a lay person as it does an ordained person.
As a lay priest I am most certainly called to obey my Bishop, Jesus; and
the integrity of my spiritual life hangs in the balance.
In the early days of Integrity, I could never have exercised my ministry
had I been constrained by an oath to obey the local one.
As an Anglocatholic I have very high respect for priesthood, ordained and
lay. I find many Episcopalians get lay ministry all wrong. They talk
honoring it with imitation ordinations or commissionings. We do a
superior job of creating clients of the church, but an inferior job of enabling
disciples of Jesus. "I have not called you clients, but friends" (The
Lutibelle rendering of John 15:15).
I doubt that I would have become an Episcopalian back in 1961 had the
Episcopal Church not also valued several things from my Baptist experience:
* The doctrine of the priesthood of the individual believer
* "Just As I Am" in the hymnal
* The possibility of baptism by immersion
In the 43 years since I left, the Southern Baptist have all but abandoned
three of their cardinal doctrines -- prompted to do so, alas, in their
overreaction to lesbians and gays:
1. The doctrine of the priesthood of the individual believer.
2. The separation of church and state.
3. The autonomy of the local congregation.
How very sad for them. With the blessed exception of the third one, it
appears that the Episcopal Church is the only safe place for a good
Southern Baptist to be these days. Don't forget to tell them! We're
not just for
Whiskeypalians anymore!
Lutibelle/Louie, Newark 94, 97, 00, 03. Member of Executive Council