Anglican Curmudgeon: Once Again, Conflicts Galore on the Kangaroo Court

I am now confident that whoever may be in my limited audience, it is not anyone connected with the august Disciplinary Board for Bishops ("DBB" -- funny how those initials are the same as those of the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor, who is acting totally in concert with the Board to achieve its nefarious ends). The DBB was created under the provisions of the new Title IV adopted by ECUSA's General Convention at Anaheim -- after just fifteen minutes of debate -- in 2009.

The reason I can make that statement is that the DBB continues on its merry way, utterly oblivious to the conflicts which would disqualify many of its members from ever sitting as a judge at law (and one of them is a sitting judge). As far as the Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson and his legal counsel are concerned, the usual pattern of ignoring such problems altogether is the best way to conduct the Church's "business as usual," which has the goal of ridding itself of meddlesome bishops on flimsy and risible charges.

Example #1 in point: Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts has himself "abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church (USA)", by an "open renunciation of the Discipline of the Church" -- exactly as the DBB, on which he sits, has proclaimed that +Mark Lawrence has done. Bishop Shaw, as we know, defied both the marriage canons and the Book of Common Prayer rubrics by interpreting Resolution C056 ("Liturgies for Blessings") adopted by General Convention in 2009 to allow him to authorize clergy in his Diocese to perform same-sex marriages, and then performed such a ceremony himself. According to Bishop Shaw, he and his suffragan bishops are the final authority on what the Canons and Resolutions of General Convention mean in their Diocese. So why is not Bishop Lawrence just as final an authority on the meaning of those same Canons in his Diocese, as well? And how can Bishop Shaw, having made that assertion (which in fact, is entirely correct), now seek to hold Bishop Lawrence liable for the latter's own judgment of the meaning they are to have in his Diocese?

Talk about hypocrisy -- but the members of the DBB (as well as David Booth Beers himself) are immersed in it up to their necks, day in and day out. Read more