Hell hath no fury

http://hillsofthenorth.blogspot.com/2008/01/hell-hath-no-fury.html

[Hills of the North] 5 Feb 2008--It's not easy to piece together this story, but it appears that the Presiding Bishop is now extending her antipathy toward large and successful parishes and dioceses to the church's voluntary, independent lay organizations.

The venerable Daughters of the King decided at their 2006 meeting, by an 80 percent to 20 margin, to admit to full voting membership their ecumenical chapters. These include Lutherans and Roman Catholics, but also Anglicans in the United States who are affiliated with overseas provinces. Smart move, of course, if the organization doesn't want to rot and die like the Episcopal Church. And certainly they want to be able to support those chapters at churches which leave. But undoubtedly this is what caused the Presiding Bishop to go after the Daughters as she's done, with nary a bow to their "autonomy" and "democratic polity."

Seemingly out of the blue, Province 4 bishops, including our own (but not including Bishop Howe), chastised the elected DOK president. They demanded financial transparency. (That they've got: all financial reports were posted to the DOK web site today.) But what really irked them is plain in this line: “We are further concerned to hear that amendments to the constitution and bylaws and other governing documents of the Daughters of the King have been made without the full consent of the membership gathered in the appropriate assembly empowered to make those changes.”

What they don't like, plainly, is that those stinkin' Anglicans get to vote. Of course this was a year and a half ago. What's changed? The Presiding Bishop. Here's what she wrote her fellow bishops....