A way forward

Except for the most ardent liberal ideologues, I think that there is a general consensus that the decisions of General Convention 2003 were disastrous for pecusa. I say ideologues because the left has yet to generate a coherent theology for what they have done. When liberals are being honest, they will admit that the crisis they have created has had tremendous negative effects on pecusa, dioceses and individual parishes.

In thinking about the situation of Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, I have wondered about a better way forward. I suggested in an earlier post that the DCNY reach an agreement with CGS to allow them to continue in their buildings. Given that CGS has a significant social ministry, you would think that Christians would want to do whatever is necessary to see that this continues.

What if pecusa took a similar tack? Instead of suing parishes leaving pecusa, pecusa could assert what they believe to be their property ownership rights and then allow the congregations to continue in their present locations until such time as a solution to the present crisis is found. This would save pecusa millions of dollars in legal fees, it would keep properties in pecusa, and it would keep the buildings used instead of being mothballed while dioceses try to find buyers.

What is happening now is a shame and a terrible witness to the gospel. What pecusa is doing leads Christians outside pecusa to believe that pecusa is led by non-Christians. It leads non-Christians outside pecusa to believe that if Christians treat other Christians this badly, why would anyone want to become a Christian.

This leads me to an ancillary point. The DCNY was not willing to license Fr. Bob Hackendorf for ministry at St. Andrew's in Syracuse. The reasoning as it was explained to me by a member of the Standing Committee was that he was going to lead St. Andrew's out of pecusa. Guess what? Fr. Hackendorf was not licensed by the DCNY and he did lead St. Andrew's out of pecusa. How would licensing of Hackendorf have changed the situation? At least DCNY wouldn't have looked so suspicious of a parish that has long been at odds with the diocese. They wouldn't have looked so stupid in the eyes of those who knew what was going on. Maybe if they acted in the spirit of Christian charity at the very least the separating could have been less contentious. This in itself would have saved the DCNY thousands of dollars.

Why is it that pecusa believes it must act in such mean-spirited ways? It makes me wonder whether the folks leading pecusa are Christians.