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Katharine Jefferts Schori, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC) acting as mentor
to bishop June and bishop Joanna. Source: Twitter |
How did (s)he get to be a bishop is a question that has been in many people's minds lately.
The answer may be found in the death at age 90 of bishop John Shelby Spong, a 'maverick author' and key leader on the left of The Episcopal Church (TEC) which has moved in a 'liberal/progressive direction'.
Anglican Ink reports that Spong led his followers to embrace emerging social movements and not to trust the Bible: "He never could quite grasp that Christians could believe the Bible. According to Spong the gospels were fabricated."
That will be familiar to the mainly former members of Church in Wales which has moved in the same direction.
In their latest move to bless same-sex civil partnerships and marriages the bishops have now alienated evangelicals. As
Christian Today put it, "This is good news for liberals and progressives who dominate the Church in Wales, but not good news for evangelicals and others who continue to represent the majority Christian position found among most Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and others."
Even clerics who have gone along with change in the hope of getting on have seen their hopes dashed as the bench prefers to look to England for like minded liberal progressives to fill vacancies as if there were no talent in Wales.
Archbishop Barry Morgan bears much responsibility for the sorry state of the Church in Wales. He lauded TEC's presiding bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori despite her dreadful
unchristian record. She was subsequently to mentor June Osborne, bishop of Llandaff and Joanna Penberthy, bishop of St Davids, neither of whom has brought any credit to the Church - see
Dysfunctional Church.
The fallout from treading Spong's path is also strongly in evidence in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) which has already leapt ahead of Wales in the same-sex marriage stakes.
In appointing Canon Anne Dyer to the post of bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, the Scottish House of bishops ignored the conservative profile of the diocese and appointed another of their own thinking, a female gay marriage supporter who focused on fighting for social justice and sexual equality. Sounds familiar!
The bishops have become badly unstuck with allegations of bullying leading to a review by Prof Ian Torrance, a former moderator of the Church of Scotland. He found that the bishop's management style led to a culture of "systemic dysfunction".
Concluding his Report Prof Torrance posed the question: "Does the bishop have the personal capacity to bring about healing and reconciliation in the diocese?"
He said it was 'a matter of trust and confidence' in recommending that, for the good of the diocese, the bishop be granted a period of sabbatical leave and step back permanently from the diocese.
One commentator responded, "If this woman had any sense of the office that she bears, she would have stepped aside for the good of the Church."
Another parallel with the Church in Wales.
Postscript [18.09.2021]
'Heartbroken' Welsh evangelicals reach out to Gafcon - Christian Today
