OREGON: Bishop and Diocesan Delegates Mock Scripture Reading on Eve of Election

from VirtueOnline

OREGON: Bishop and Diocesan Delegates Mock Scripture Reading on Eve of Bishop Election

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
11/30/2009

A cradle Episcopalian and parishioner at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Portland found herself mocked and ridiculed for reading a portion of Scripture relating to the qualifications for bishop on the eve of electing a new diocesan bishop.

Margaret Enriques was invited by her rector, the Rev. David L. Humphrey, to read 1Timothy 3:1-7 (NRSV), a passage relating to the qualifications for bishop. She promptly agreed. During the Opening Eucharist, she approached the lectern, announced the Lesson and began to read. When the second sentence was read, people began to laugh. Soon the sound of laughter became so great that she stopped and waited until it died down. Then she continued, but soon the laughter returned and grew so loud that she had to stop again and wait until she could be heard. Finally, she finished the reading.

"The laughter began when I started to read 'a bishop should not be a lover of money' and again later during the reading," she told VOL.

A few minutes later, in the introduction to his sermon, the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb (appointed in 2008 to administer the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin) joked: "I'd like to have a word with whoever it was who picked those readings." The bishop did not make good his threat, Enriques told VOL.