Saturday, July 17, 2010

I AM COME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE DIVERSITY AND THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE DIVERSELY

from Midwest Conservative Journal

The Rev. Patricia Templeton, rector of an Episcopal outlet in Atlanta, really likes the Episcopal Organization. See if you can guess why:

Thank heaven for church that celebrates diversity

And diversely celebrates it in diverse ways.

In a response to the archbishop’s letter, Bishop Jefferts Schori put it a bit more tactfully. “Unitary control does not characterize Anglicanism; rather, diversity in fellowship and communion does,” she wrote.

And not just any diversity, mind you. The foundation of Anglican diversity is its diverse nature. It’s not too much to say, diversely speaking, that Anglican diversity is the most diverse of all diversities.

Ah, that devil diversity raises its ugly head again.

Wait a second, you’re diverting me here. I diversely thought that diversity was a good and diverse thing.

In trying to justify banning Episcopalians from international meetings and ecumenical dialogues, the Rev. Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion and one of Williams’ right-hand men, recently had this to say to a group of Episcopal leaders: “The problem of increased and growing diversity in the Anglican Communion has been an issue for many years.”

Let me be diversely clear. Come hell, high, diverse water or letters from the Archbishop of Diversity, Temps will not be diverted from her new favorite diversion of beating an Episcopal buzzword to death which, in this case, would be the word “diversity.”

How different from the Episcopal Church that I know and love — a church that sees the God-created diversity of peoples, languages, races, sexual orientations and even faiths as a divine gift; a church that proclaims the good news of the Gospel not to meetings of the like-minded, but to a world suffering from environmental disasters, wars and economic meltdowns; a church that strives to respect the past while being open to fresh movements of the spirit.

As another English word officially loses all its diverse meaning.

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