denial ain’t just a river in egypt

Re #1
LOL!!!

Under the mercy,
John

An Orthodox Christian

The diocese has lost about 19 percent of its members from 2002 through 2007. From 2002 through 2007 Plate & Pledge has increased about 9 percent which is less than inflation. The diocese has many small churches that it may close and sell the property, if location is favorable for sale. They just closed St. Martha in Detroit where Henry Ford is buried in the cemetery. Diocese could sell this property to Ford Motor Co., but best hurry. And if 2008 is difficult, 2009 may really be one to want to forget.  Statmann

“I can tell you that none of the bishops I spoke with asked us to undo what has been done.”

He talks at length about a Sudanese bishop being in his indaba group.

The Sudanese House of Bishops, WHILE AT LAMBETH, issued a written statement asking the current incumbent of DioNH to resign.

My head hurts.

Statman -
Ford Motor would have no interest in the property.
I fear there might not be much of a Ford Motor Company in the coming years!!!!
Actually, there is a development that is planned for St. Martha’s.  There is a considerable amount of land surrounding the Church, and a retirement/nursing home is planned for the property (financed with a trust from the sale of a previous diocesan hospital closed LONG ago).  The parish will the presumably be re-opened then to serve that community as well as the neighborhood.

It is worth taking the time to read it all. The comments on Lambeth—as disingenuous and willfully misrepresentative of the situation as they are—are nothing to the tale of local woe that is recounted in the balance of the report (after a very full account also of his “good” reasons for voting to depose Bishop Duncan of course)

There is:
1. The failure of a piece of land to sell because they had allowed the land to become contaminated —which means the youth programme of the diocese will have to go unfunded
2. An apology from the Bishop for his ill-fated decision to sell the diocesan headquarters in Detroit (it would appear the motive was financial gain—and the backtracking was because the role of the cathedral was cloudy and the level of financial gain was uncertain in the current environment)
3. The sudden resignation of the Dean of the theological school for “personal reasons”. It is very unclear what happened here—but the level of defensiveness displayed by the Bishop suggests it was not a pleasant event.
4. A committee has had to be set up to look at the “deficit spending, potential ethical and legal employment violations” at the Emrich center—which lead to its board and staff being sacked and the place being shut down. The Bishop is careful to say there is no intention when looking at the future to sell the land.

It really does sound like the diocese of Michigan is going from strength to strength!!

“The heart of the connectedness of the body”

Anyone who voted to depose Bp. Duncan has no business prating about “heart” or “connectedness.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

—- T.S. Eliot

[If you wish, you may think of “Headpiece” as an oven mitt.]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“I can tell you that none of the bishops I spoke with asked us to undo what has been done”

Gotta wonder about his hearing.

I can tell you that none of the bishops I spoke with asked us to undo what has been done.

Those bishops who did not show up, the one’s who represent over half of the communion—what do you think they were asking you to do?

On the other hand, at least he was honest enough to share this information about how what they do impacts others when he could have omitted it.  Acknowledging this publicly is at least a step in a positive direction.  And I can guess that the African bishops in his indaba group were “telling” him, but doing it in a polite respectful way that he was either unable to “hear” or chose not to “hear.”  As others have said, the statement made by the Sudanese delegates at Lambeth was very clear and direct, however.

It is no longer about denial.  This bishop and others have embrace intentional and spiritual self-deception.

God have mercy