NOTES,  20 SEPTEMBER 2021

Welcome, blog reader, on Monday, September 20, 2021. Let us check in on the stories and topics we have been covering of late.

PANDEMIC. We are in the third great surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the charts indicate that we may have reached a plateau or even hit the down slope on this surge. Find the latest for South Carolina here . For info on Alabama, look here . Vaccinations are rising, however slowly, Alabama now over 40%. It is too soon to tell whether this surge is in fact declining. Meanwhile, let us pause and remember that 4,700,000 people in the world have died in this plague, including 690,000 Americans. We all wish and pray fervently for this to end, but must endure whatever happens.

BISHOP'S ELECTION IN UPPER SOUTH CAROLINA. On Saturday of this week, September 25, 2021, the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina will elect the IX bishop of the diocese, to follow the beloved Andrew Waldo. We have had the Walkabouts. 

There are five candidates, four white men and one black man (I do not know why a woman did not make the cut). One of the candidates is resident in the diocese, the other four are employed outside the diocese. From what I saw in the Walkabouts, the diocese would be fortunate to have any one of them. They were all outstanding.

The election convention will begin at 10:00 a.m., at Trinity Cathedral, in Columbia. It will be livestreamed. I plan to watch and to make a report afterwards.

ORDINATION/CONSECRATION OF RUTH WOODLIFF-STANLEY AS XV BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. This will occur on Saturday, October 2, 2021, at Grace Church Cathedral, in Charleston. It will be livestreamed. The presiding bishop will be the Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, greatly beloved in the diocese. With all the attending bishops, diocesan clergy, and delegates to the convention, there will not be much room left in Grace. I plan to watch from home although I would dearly love to be there in person. This is one of those landmark historic events that should not be missed. I will post a report afterwards.

ELECTION OF BISHOP COADJUTOR OF THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. We have had the Walkabouts. I made posts after each of the four sessions. The election convention will be on Saturday, October 16, at 10:00 a.m., at Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant.

There are three candidates, all white, straight men. My best guess is that Chip Edgar has the edge. It seems to me he is the choice of the ruling establishment of the diocese through the search committee which put up only two rival choices, neither of which had been a powerful force in the schism. And, the most logical reason for this, I think, is a desire to unite the diocese with an overlapping diocese in the Anglican Church in North America, the Diocese of the Carolinas, led by Steve Wood. I would  not be surprised to see a union of these two dioceses once the dust settles after the litigation (who knows when that will be?).

Anyway, I assume the election convention will be livestreamed. I will make a report as I can.

SCSC. Still no word from the South Carolina Supreme Court concerning the Episcopal Church's appeal of Judge Edgar Dickson's order. The appeal was filed over a year ago. All of the paper work was finished last May. Since then, crickets. I think it is safe to assume there will be no hearing on this appeal. If the justices wanted a hearing, I expect we would have heard of it by now. I wonder if the justices have made a decision and are working on explanations. Whatever, we have no choice but to bide our time. I am sorry to remind everyone the wait was almost two years last time in the SCSC.

GAFCON AND WOMEN BISHOPS. On 15 September, I posted a piece on this blog asking if a civil war were brewing in GAFCON over the issue of women in the episcopate. 

Apparently, the answer we can give now is "No." The GAFCON primates caved on the question. On September 16, 2021, they issued a statement addressing the problem of the ordination of women and women as bishops. They declared these were "not salvation issues" and so would be left up to the individual provinces. Find the statement here . 

This reverses the position the primates took in June of 2018 when they adopted a report on women in the episcopate that called for a moratorium on the consecrations of women as bishops. The primates agreed then only men could be bishops in GAFCON until and unless there is "a strong consensus" for change.

The primate/archbishop of Kenya ignored this "moratorium" and consecrated two women bishops in the year 2021, the second one earlier this month. Given the de facto end of the ban, the primates met this month and gave in. The issue is dead in GAFCON. 

Why did they give in? Women in the episcopate was never the heart of the GAFCON movement. Homosexuality was. When the Jerusalem Declaration was drawn up in 2008, the start of GAFCON, only one social issue was spelled out, homosexuality. The JD condemned it and its corollary same-sex marriage. There was nothing in the JD about the ordination of women.

Thus, the primates of GAFCON were not willing to die on the hill of women bishops. Although they take a dim view of women's ordination (and the role of women in society) in general, they are not willing to risk the unity of GAFCON for that issue when their primary goal is to stop rights for and inclusion of non-celibate homosexuals in Anglican churches.

Interesting that the primates said the matter of women bishops was not a "salvation issue" and therefore could be put aside. If this is not a salvation issue, homosexuality is not either. Jesus Christ said not a word about it.

At the same time the primates gave in on the issue of women bishops, Foley Beach, head of the ACNA, rushed to declare there would be no women bishops in the ACNA. Find his statement here .

I expect that as time goes by and homosexuality becomes more and more socially accepted, this will become a divisive problem in GAFCON and particularly in its member parts, as the Anglican Church in North America. Indeed, the recent diocesan profile published by the Anglican Diocese of SC showed a gap between clergy and laity on both issues of women clergy and homosexuality. The people-in-the-pews do not have the same opposition to women clergy and homosexuality as do their clergy in the breakaway churches of South Carolina.

Sometimes I wonder if the world has turned upside down and everything has gone wacky. Now we have this silliness. The artist Christo thought it would be "art" to drape the Arc de Triomphe in fabric. Gasp. 

This is not art. It is desecration and I will be glad when this mess is removed in a few days. Ever since Notre Dame de Paris caught fire on April 15, 2019, I have been on edge about the safety of the world's monumental treasures. There are certain things that are so nearly perfect, they should be off limits to human tampering: e.g. the Bible, Shakespeare, Haiga Sophia, the medieval cathedrals, Mona Lisa, Sistine Chapel ceiling (some art critics said the recent "restoration" left it looking like newspaper cartoons), the movie "The Wizard of Oz," Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal, and the Arc de Triomphe. I am sure you can think of others. 

The magnificent Arc is a place I know well and treasure. It is the greatest war memorial ever constructed. It started as a vision of Napoleon who wanted to rebuild the Roman empire. It is as grandiose as the man.

Speaking of irreplaceable treasures, a relentless wildfire is within a mile of the largest tree on earth, "General Sherman." Rangers have wrapped its gigantic base, and its neighbors', in foil. The General, at least 2,200 years old, has survived many fires, but if this wildfire gets dangerous enough, the unthinkable could happen. Wildfires of the last decade have destroyed more than half the sequoias. They grow naturally in only one place on earth, the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, in California. On the Third Day, God created the plants. Finally, God created humans and gave them dominion over all living things. This gardener says it is time men and women exercise that dominion and save the greatest and grandest gifts of God now growing on earth. Everything humanly possible should be done to save the great redwoods of California.

And so, we are besieged with man-made and natural disasters and challenges. Again, these things were given to us in the time allotted for our lives. We wish they would go away but they do not. What matters now is how we react to them. Whatever happens, God is with us and we are with each other. Peace.