One of my annual habits is to read a baseball book each spring or summer. This year's choice is Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy. Murphy is an assistant Managing Editor of Fortune magazine and she brings her business acumen to the subject of what she regards as the greatest year of baseball, 1908.
In the early pages of her story Murphy recounts the start-up of the American League. Before it was launched as a rival to the National League it was a minor league outfit called the Western League. The idea of a rival league to the National League was hatched in 1893 in Cincinatti. A few franchises of the Western League were moved to the east coast to give the new league a truly national presence and the hegemony of the senior circuit.
The new league would be markedly different from the National League. As Ban Johnson, the league's founder, declared, "Clean ball is the main plank in the American League platform, and the clubs must stand by it religiously" (quoted in Murphy, p. 22).
This next sentence is what really makes the comparison of the launching of the American League with the current realignment of the Anglican Communion in North America: "Being in the mainstream is not the same as being smart, and the NL owners failed to comprehend the realities around them - that attendance was poor, labor relations worse, and the threat from Johnson real" (p. 23).
At every turn the Episcopal Church (also known as pecusa, which is short for protestant episcopal church usa) has failed to understand the realities around them. For example, we have the presiding bishop saying frequently that the number of congregations leaving pecusa is less than 1/2 of 1%. What she will not say in public is that some of those churches leaving are larger than some dioceses in pecusa. What she will not say is that the largest churches in a number of dioceses have left pecusa. What she will also not say is that Sunday attendance in pecusa is poor and getting worse.
She will also not say that pecusa has lost some of her most talented priests. The priests of these congregations have in a number of cases led their churches from numbering in the hundreds to numbering in the thousands. What the p.b. will not say publically is that the threat from the Anglican Communion Network in North America is real.
"Being in the mainstream is not the same as being smart," observes Murphy, and we could say the same about pecusa. The Episcopal Church has chosen the path that has been earlier chosen by the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Church. The path that pecusa has chosen is one that leads to diminishment, and the UCC and the UC are both evidence of this. Why pecusa thinks that it can grow on the path to eclesial suicide is explained by Murphy, "Being in the mainstream..."
The NL and AL coexist together now as members of Major League Baseball. We cannot expect such a happy ending for pecusa and the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church has said through her General Convention, p.b., and the House of Bishops that she will not turn around from her path of self-destruction. It's shame really. As an ad this week taken out in the New York Times by the bright ones at the national headquarters pointed out, pecusa has a long and glorious history. It is a shame that pecusa has chosen a path that will lead to a less stellar future.
1 comment:
Pecusa and a CHristian Anglican Church cannot both be members of the Anglican Communion because the Communion will not allow them both to be members!
Much more likely of course, is that once the communion has recognise the Network, the litigation will start for all the assets of ECUSA to be turned over to the "Network" - as if the AL were given all the franchises and stadiums of the NL.
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