tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post7072465324535898352..comments2024-02-15T03:32:25.686-05:00Comments on Preludium, Anglican and Episcopal futures: Don't Think Twice, Its Alright: The love for the assemblyMark Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871096746243771489noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-38645207364210842362012-02-23T17:29:36.785-05:002012-02-23T17:29:36.785-05:00Well, I've been blessed in many ways on many o...Well, I've been blessed in many ways on many occasions during this triennium on Council. I always look forward to seeing you. Thanks for the perspectives, big questions, and good humor you bring, brother.Sarah Dylan Breuerhttp://www.sarahlaughed.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-54145842845751456052012-02-07T14:53:44.458-05:002012-02-07T14:53:44.458-05:00A year or so ago, I realized that the only thing t...A year or so ago, I realized that the only thing that would enable me to continue to seek to live into God's love in a church context was to refuse a request to become Senior Warden and to resign from the Vestry. It's still a near thing, but I walk in those red doors every Sunday morning. <br /><br />Blessings Mark ... and I am sure you have not wasted your time. But I honor your sacrifice.janinsanfranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07548452260456734928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-73107438569186111912012-02-02T07:34:18.483-05:002012-02-02T07:34:18.483-05:00I often wonder the same thing, but the sense I get...I often wonder the same thing, but the sense I get once that thought has run its course is, "No, you're not wasting time; you're following a vocation."Fr. Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05731168102754862500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-48521173931982214802012-02-01T18:38:33.203-05:002012-02-01T18:38:33.203-05:00Thank you Mark, for your lovely testimony here. I,...Thank you Mark, for your lovely testimony here. I, too, do not believe you have wasted your time - in all that you have shown to us of your pastoral care and concern for the marginalsed of the Church.<br /><br />Many of us agree with your godly frustration at the workings of the assembly; but you just get on up there and speak your piece at the next General Convention. The world-wide Anglican Communion needs you!<br /><br />Here is a big Thankyou from little old ANANZP - Aotearoa/New Zealand, for your encouragement of Women and LGBTs on your Preludium site - and for your ongoing work with the *No Covenant Coalition*. <br /><br />Please don't abandon your helpful *Preludium* web-site. Some of us would like to access your wisdom and comments from time to time.<br /><br />Agape, Fr. Ron Smith, New ZealandFather Ron Smithhttp://kiwianglo.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-87223134300527081402012-02-01T16:37:10.273-05:002012-02-01T16:37:10.273-05:00Mark
I have no doubt your work on Executive Counci...Mark<br />I have no doubt your work on Executive Council has not only bourne fruit but been worthwhile in not only the questions you have asked but in the work you have done to move us forward I know I sometimes consider the same questions for any ministry I do beyond the parish--despite being told by others not to worry, I look and wonder if we are just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. I very much resonate with Tom wondering why the bodies charged with acting seem so mired and yet I know in my own leadership positions I find the enertia of the systems daunting. I love the Church and have pledged my life to it in my baptism and ordination. I want to be part of moving it forward--just sometimes I can't find the pathway because it is drifted over from the power dynamics and lack of will that seems to fill the larger church. In the midst of this I see no plan for the future--seminaries selling off piecemeal, churches and cathedrals closing; no one asking the hard questions of moving forward and instead waiting until we are forced into decisions with no good options. Yet I believe my ministry and the ministry of the local congregation I serve DOES make a difference and I find the Holy Spirit moves and people respond. You are right that all ministry is local and diocese and denominations are only helpful and effective if they can recognize this. I pray and hope for our future. Thank you for your efforts and your inspiration.<br />--SeraphAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-42463758211699632422012-02-01T13:42:21.334-05:002012-02-01T13:42:21.334-05:00Where I end up almost literally banging my head ag...Where I end up almost literally banging my head against a wall is that Executive Council, General Convention, etc... actually DO have the ability (in concert) to radically change the nature of the institution that is apparently squeezing the life out of the dreams of many people for the church. And yet they do not. And yet the biggest news out of Executive Council is arguably the flap between the PB and the PHOD over communication and procedural issues, as well as the "duh!" fact that the resources to keep this institutional machine operating continue to decrease. <br /><br />At what point do we ask what really is core to our being and discard the rest. Is an 800+ person House of Deputies that runs an exhausting and expensive eight or nine day legislative sprint <i>really</i> necessary to who we are at our core? Is a office in Manhattan with several floors of faithful people keeping the TEC machine well-oiled and functioning really necessary to who we are?<br /><br />I don't see any of these questions being seriously engaged by Executive Council, General Convention, or anyone else. When they are brought up, the quickly become mired in procedural minutia and sink beneath the waves of power, policy, procedure, and provincialism. <br /><br />It's time to get over ourselves and do the very difficult work of adaptive change or watch hundreds of years of accumulated work and assets crumble into dust.Tom Sramek, Jr.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17891982131922786298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-52172691037129285152012-02-01T13:20:20.654-05:002012-02-01T13:20:20.654-05:00There is always tension, I think, between ekklesia...There is always tension, I think, between <i>ekklesia</i> and <i>koinonia </i>. I suppose the best thing we can do is try to create one that nurtures the other. When I rant, as I am wont to do, against the sin of "institutionalism" I am not saying that there is no need for or honor in servants of ekklesia. Rather the danger lies in letting that service overtake commitment to the community. <br /><br />I think you can be sure, based on what your friends see if not your own vision, that you have not fallen into that error often if at all. Some do: some as for instance some archbishops, seem unable to escape its grip. I think you did alright.<br /><br />There is an Irish folk proverb, I am told, about how best to think of an institution: consider it a garden. The best the gardener can do is plant the crop, spread the fertilizer, and await God's sun and rain. That makes us, all of us who concentrate all or some of our energy on polity, on ekklesia, at best spreaders of (ummm..err..) manure. A humbling thought worth pondering. Still it is God's sun, and God's rain. Don't think twice, it's alright."<br /><br />FWIW<br />jimBJimBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17312606954135884910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-9967761137739581252012-02-01T12:51:37.009-05:002012-02-01T12:51:37.009-05:00Your comments resonated with me. I've spent a...Your comments resonated with me. I've spent a lot of time working within the institution, what I sometimes call the Ministry of Meetings. I think it's a valuable ministry and much of the other ministry of the church would not occur without it.<br /><br />But I've realized over the last couple of years that I'm just not called to that ministry anymore, or at least for the time being, or at least not as much. There are other ministries that seem to have a stronger call at the moment.<br /><br />I've enjoyed the Ministry of Meetings and I've met a lot of wonderful people there. I'm grateful that there are others who feeled called to replace me there and support the other kinds of ministry to which I feel more called at the moment.dr.primrosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05045500427671158694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-40896130418129735142012-02-01T11:56:52.181-05:002012-02-01T11:56:52.181-05:00I concur with Mimi. She says it well.I concur with Mimi. She says it well.Edhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07375352885213654808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326675.post-5661961276552448512012-02-01T10:53:34.871-05:002012-02-01T10:53:34.871-05:00Mark, I doubt seriously you've wasted your tim...Mark, I doubt seriously you've wasted your time. I'm more than grateful to those in our church, which I, too, dearly love, warts and all, who represent the rest of us in the assemblies. As one who is not gifted in working in assemblies, (and I have tried over the years), I appreciate those who have the gift. You surely did, and you served in the place of the likes of me exceedingly well. So, in brief: Thank you for your service.<br /><br />"Don't think Twice, its Alright"June Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01723016934182800437noreply@blogger.com