LSOG, 2012!!
It’s no secret that the demise of Episcopal Life’s Letters to the Editor section was a major blow to this department. Lil Slice O’ Goofy was almost always good for a laugh or two. But ENS recently made it up to me by opening their news stories to comments.
They’re pretty fair over there; I’ve gotten a comment or two posted. And, as might be expected, their story on the Occupy Wall Street convictions has provided a fair amount of Braxton’s Lear-level overacting. Leading off the festivities, Mr. Art Hawley writes:
Am I the only one who sees the irony of being sentenced to community service for doing what is essentially a service to the community?
Trespassing on private property for no particular reason benefits the community? Then Bishop Packard and his entourage should have brought cans of spray paint along with them and written OWS all over Trinity’s walls. How bitchin’ a “prophetic witness” would that have been? Susan Ashland Crowson thinks it’s just terrible that Trinity deliberately picked on poor George Packard like that.
Really? George Packard doing community service ?? The man was born doing community service ! So sad it’s comical. WAKE UP TRINITY. smell the roses will you ??
Time to stop acting like a corporation or shut the doors. You tarnish the concept of church of any kind. I realize that you’re called trinity wall street there’s no church In your name yet you let people with collars work for you. Bleck!
The Pack was born doing community service, was he? Straight out of the womb and right into a picket line? How does that work exactly? And last I checked, it was officially Trinity Episcopal Church, not Trinity-Wall Street, Inc. Vicki Gray emotes all over everything and makes a particularly gooey mess.
I am, on the one hand, ashamed that Trinity Wall Street values private property and fiduciary interests more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the other, I am grateful to Trinity and its rector James Cooper for breathing new life to the flickering flame of this veteran of Occupy, bruised and disenheartened by the silence of our church. You have have sparked that flame anew and given those of faith strength to carry it forward. As we do, we will keep in our prayers Mark, George, and all who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
So does Russell Graham.
As a lifelong Episcopalian, all I can say to you, Trinity Church WALL STREET, is shame, shame on you, because in effect, what you did, all your verbal gymnastics aside, was put Jesus in jail. Following on Vicki’s astute comments, this is not a flame you will find so easy to extinguish. Thank God for the voices of so many of the faithful calling for justice here in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
And Katerina Whitley.
And here comes Jesus, together with his friend George Packard, filled with sorrow and fury at what his church has become, ready to overturn the stalls of the moneymakers. Shame on Trinity; thank God for the George Packards of our church.
While Harlan Bemis goes the more traditional “more in sorrow than in anger” route.
I mourn for the Trinity Church of old: The super-rich church that responded to the Gospel of God with power. Trinity has stood with the disenfranchised and the poor against the forces of mammon. It has been an exemplary witness to the love of Christ and continued as a standing offense to ‘Wall Streets’ for more years than any of us have lived.
Has it finally sold out to the power of wealth? Or has it just ‘gone native’ and been sucked into the world that surrounds it? Thank God for our brothers and sisters George Packard, Earl Kooperkamp, Mark Adams and the many other members of Occupy Faith NYC and Occupy Wall Street, who have stood up to Temporal Power and woken us up to this situation.
I pray that the Rector of Trinity Church, The Rev. James Cooper, and his vestry and deputies may wake up and choose to turn around to do the will of God.
Chris Thompson? Trinity bent over backwards to keep these people out of the hole but they wanted to be convicted.
I am amazed, the Episcopal Church having it own people arrested. What happened to sanctuary, support for the least of these and comfort for the oppressed? Bishop Packard and others of many faiths are following the reality of being Children of God. Trinity Church, Wall Street should look in the mirror and ask, who do we “really” serve?
Ditto, Father Clark Powers.
While very few of us do this in our own lives, at least most of us try to have compassion on the poor and refrain from putting people in jail who try to help them. Shame on those in authority at Trinity.
Wayne H. Kempton offers a rare voice of reason.
I really wish everyone would just get over this. None of you who have responded to this article would like it if some group stormed your church (or home for that matter) and seized a piece of your property, cutting your locks with bolt cutters and climbing your fences without your consent. Just because Trinity is a wealthy parish doesn’t make them any different from the rest of us when it comes to protecting what is rightfully theirs. And believe it or not, every Episcopalian does not necessarily support ALL of what Occupy Wall Street claims to stand for.
And promptly gets called out for it by Joe Brewer.
Disclosure: Wayne is an employee of the Diocese of New York and an apologist for its bishop and Trinity Wall Street.
So Trinity’s guilty as charged, Joe? Good to know. Ann Post is another one of those directionally-challenged Episcopalians for whom left is always right.
I am an Episcopalian in the NY diocese and have participated intermittently in Occupy.
I believe that beyond the particulars of this painful case, what Trinity Church is missing is the big symbolic nature of these events. The world is watching and is judging!
We in the church understand the power of signs and symbols to communicate : and herein lies the true tragedy of this event is that we again have missed an opportune moment in history to symbolically align ourselves in solidarity with the greater good and have degenerated into squabbling among ourselves and punishing each other in civil court!
The trespassing Bishop and clergy have acted prophetically!
I figured somebody would eventually get to that word. Because anybody who owns a Bible knows that the Biblical prophets were all about breaking laws for no definite reason. For his part, Geof Bard’s ready to give up on the Anglican tradition altogether. Know why? Because Anglicanism is just too damned conservative.
I have pretty much given up on Anglicanism, despite its occasional attempts to be relevant and progressive. It is structurally reactionary, and individual heroics do little to change that.
That’s all for this week. See you next time.
They’re pretty fair over there; I’ve gotten a comment or two posted. And, as might be expected, their story on the Occupy Wall Street convictions has provided a fair amount of Braxton’s Lear-level overacting. Leading off the festivities, Mr. Art Hawley writes:
Am I the only one who sees the irony of being sentenced to community service for doing what is essentially a service to the community?
Trespassing on private property for no particular reason benefits the community? Then Bishop Packard and his entourage should have brought cans of spray paint along with them and written OWS all over Trinity’s walls. How bitchin’ a “prophetic witness” would that have been? Susan Ashland Crowson thinks it’s just terrible that Trinity deliberately picked on poor George Packard like that.
Really? George Packard doing community service ?? The man was born doing community service ! So sad it’s comical. WAKE UP TRINITY. smell the roses will you ??
Time to stop acting like a corporation or shut the doors. You tarnish the concept of church of any kind. I realize that you’re called trinity wall street there’s no church In your name yet you let people with collars work for you. Bleck!
The Pack was born doing community service, was he? Straight out of the womb and right into a picket line? How does that work exactly? And last I checked, it was officially Trinity Episcopal Church, not Trinity-Wall Street, Inc. Vicki Gray emotes all over everything and makes a particularly gooey mess.
I am, on the one hand, ashamed that Trinity Wall Street values private property and fiduciary interests more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the other, I am grateful to Trinity and its rector James Cooper for breathing new life to the flickering flame of this veteran of Occupy, bruised and disenheartened by the silence of our church. You have have sparked that flame anew and given those of faith strength to carry it forward. As we do, we will keep in our prayers Mark, George, and all who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
So does Russell Graham.
As a lifelong Episcopalian, all I can say to you, Trinity Church WALL STREET, is shame, shame on you, because in effect, what you did, all your verbal gymnastics aside, was put Jesus in jail. Following on Vicki’s astute comments, this is not a flame you will find so easy to extinguish. Thank God for the voices of so many of the faithful calling for justice here in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
And Katerina Whitley.
And here comes Jesus, together with his friend George Packard, filled with sorrow and fury at what his church has become, ready to overturn the stalls of the moneymakers. Shame on Trinity; thank God for the George Packards of our church.
While Harlan Bemis goes the more traditional “more in sorrow than in anger” route.
I mourn for the Trinity Church of old: The super-rich church that responded to the Gospel of God with power. Trinity has stood with the disenfranchised and the poor against the forces of mammon. It has been an exemplary witness to the love of Christ and continued as a standing offense to ‘Wall Streets’ for more years than any of us have lived.
Has it finally sold out to the power of wealth? Or has it just ‘gone native’ and been sucked into the world that surrounds it? Thank God for our brothers and sisters George Packard, Earl Kooperkamp, Mark Adams and the many other members of Occupy Faith NYC and Occupy Wall Street, who have stood up to Temporal Power and woken us up to this situation.
I pray that the Rector of Trinity Church, The Rev. James Cooper, and his vestry and deputies may wake up and choose to turn around to do the will of God.
Chris Thompson? Trinity bent over backwards to keep these people out of the hole but they wanted to be convicted.
I am amazed, the Episcopal Church having it own people arrested. What happened to sanctuary, support for the least of these and comfort for the oppressed? Bishop Packard and others of many faiths are following the reality of being Children of God. Trinity Church, Wall Street should look in the mirror and ask, who do we “really” serve?
Ditto, Father Clark Powers.
While very few of us do this in our own lives, at least most of us try to have compassion on the poor and refrain from putting people in jail who try to help them. Shame on those in authority at Trinity.
Wayne H. Kempton offers a rare voice of reason.
I really wish everyone would just get over this. None of you who have responded to this article would like it if some group stormed your church (or home for that matter) and seized a piece of your property, cutting your locks with bolt cutters and climbing your fences without your consent. Just because Trinity is a wealthy parish doesn’t make them any different from the rest of us when it comes to protecting what is rightfully theirs. And believe it or not, every Episcopalian does not necessarily support ALL of what Occupy Wall Street claims to stand for.
And promptly gets called out for it by Joe Brewer.
Disclosure: Wayne is an employee of the Diocese of New York and an apologist for its bishop and Trinity Wall Street.
So Trinity’s guilty as charged, Joe? Good to know. Ann Post is another one of those directionally-challenged Episcopalians for whom left is always right.
I am an Episcopalian in the NY diocese and have participated intermittently in Occupy.
I believe that beyond the particulars of this painful case, what Trinity Church is missing is the big symbolic nature of these events. The world is watching and is judging!
We in the church understand the power of signs and symbols to communicate : and herein lies the true tragedy of this event is that we again have missed an opportune moment in history to symbolically align ourselves in solidarity with the greater good and have degenerated into squabbling among ourselves and punishing each other in civil court!
The trespassing Bishop and clergy have acted prophetically!
I figured somebody would eventually get to that word. Because anybody who owns a Bible knows that the Biblical prophets were all about breaking laws for no definite reason. For his part, Geof Bard’s ready to give up on the Anglican tradition altogether. Know why? Because Anglicanism is just too damned conservative.
I have pretty much given up on Anglicanism, despite its occasional attempts to be relevant and progressive. It is structurally reactionary, and individual heroics do little to change that.
That’s all for this week. See you next time.
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