LAYERS OF THE ONION
This is one of those stories that sound encouraging until you have a chance to think over its implications. Seems Katharine Jefferts Schori has just told retired Bishop of Olympia Vincent Warner to shut it down:
The retired longtime Episcopal bishop for Western Washington has been barred from exercising his ministry following what his successor calls “a credible allegation of recurrent marital infidelity.”
The Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner served as Episcopal Bishop of Olympia from 1989 to 2007: Warner surprised the 2002 Episcopal diocesan convention by announcing he was divorcing his wife of nearly four decades. He remarried shortly after his divorce.
“I first heard the allegations several weeks ago, and promptly reported them to the Presiding Bishop’s office, which is the procedure required by the canons of the Episcopal Church,” said Bishop Greg Rickel, Warner’s successor.
“On Monday I received word that Bishop Jefferts Schori had restricted Bishop Warner’s ministry.”
The infidelity allegations will be investigated and resolved according to canons of the Episcopal Church.
Warner underwent a kind of post-midlife male makeover in the last years of his tenure as bishop.
He drove a sports car. He broke into song, apparently trying to channel Johnny Cash, during a St. Mark’s Cathedral sermon. He sent out an Easter letter decrying “patriarchal” and “racist” traditions of the church. He even criticized his flock for not reaching out to his ex-wife, who became a Methodist.
On the one hand, it’s encouraging to see the Episcopalians treating marital fidelity seriously, or at least sounding like they are, although if I were Barry “Third Time’s the Charm” Beisner, I might be feeling a little nervous right about now.
But if marital infidelity is now the new normal, the Episcopal Organization has just opened itself up to hypocrisy charges as big as the apartment building I live in. Why does Beisner still have his pointy hat and hooked stick? Why does Gene Robinson for that matter?
Beisner’s been divorced twice and if that’s not marital infidelity, I don’t know what is. Robinson and his wife agreed to seperate when he decided he was gay.
Irrelevant. Marital fidelity is marital fidelity and if Robinson couldn’t make it work the first time he stood up and made a promise before God, never mind the really good reasons why, that should have been all she wrote.
It’s different, Warner’s retired. Doesn’t matter, he’s still a bishop, he’s just not a diocesan anymore, so the same standards should apply to him as to everybody else.
A commenter at Stand Firm points out something else. Think an Episcopal “pope” is a really bad idea? Well, the Episcopalians have one now.
This case is good example of why the new title IV canons are dangerous. That is pretty quick to “inhibit” a bishop. Where is due process as was under the old canons?? Of course the man is retired so how much of a ministry does he have now anyway?? While it may be cited as something good, it would not take much to turn this sort of “investigation” into witch hunt to get rid of clergy. This may had been something done by the PB to show some that we take these canons seriously and those who disagree better be careful.
Four more words and then I’m done. Mark Lawrence? Heads up.
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