BEAUTY CONTEST, ROUND TWO

Once again, I watched the whole session of the beauty pageant called the Walkabouts, all two hours and forty minutes of it today. Whew.

By and large it was the same as the first night. The three candidates vied with each other in who had the closest relationship with God. It was all vertical religion, all the time. There was not a hint of the social gospel, not a bit of concern about making the world we live in a better place. This reflects the essence of the narrow religion in the breakaway contingent going under the name of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina.

The three contestants did seem a bit more relaxed and comfortable. Each seemed less nervous; and there was much less repetition of what the others said. The intros were generally the same except for Edgar who changed from talking about how much he had grown the Church of the Apostles in Columbia to how much his life was led by God.

The questions continued to be soft ball lobs and the answers were all pleasing generalities. Thank goodness the questions themselves were different than those of the first night. The best questions of tonight came from the audience (I think they should just let the audience ask the questions), and the very best of these was to describe one's understanding of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. Finally, some meat on the bone. All the answers to that question were substantial. Then there was a question about being humble, another good one. It struck me that two of the three candidates have quite large egos (I will not say which) and could use some humility (but then, could not we all?). There was another question about making disciples in the diocese. I took that to mean how to grow membership. Important point. The ADSC has had a huge and relentless drop in communicant numbers since the schism, at least count down below 12,000 (from 27,000 in the pre-schism diocese). Unfortunately, no one had a good suggestion on how to grow membership.

Once again, I was struck at the lack of public interest in this Walkabout. At most only 67 people were watching the livestream. Bear in mind the diocese claims over 20,000 baptized members (a huge exaggeration). So, no more than several dozen people cared enough about their next bishop to tune in? And, as yesterday, I have no idea why there is so little interest in the choice of the new bishop. 

Speaking for myself and no one else, I see one candidate emerging as the most impressive but I will not say now which.

The beauty pageant moves tomorrow to Charleston. If I am up to it, I will try to watch again, but I am not promising.