The Episcopal Bishops say 'No!'

This is the big story within Anglican goings-on circles at the moment. In summary: The USA Bishops have decided to say ‘no’ to some of the recommendations that the Primates decided upon at their meeting the other month – in particular the ‘pastoral scheme’ involving the appointment of a ‘primatial vicar’. (The resolutions they have…

primatial vicar

This is the big story within Anglican goings-on circles at the moment.

In summary: The USA Bishops have decided to say ‘no’ to some of the recommendations that the Primates decided upon at their meeting the other month – in particular the ‘pastoral scheme’ involving the appointment of a ‘primatial vicar’. (The resolutions they have passed to this effect are here, or a summary here).

A ‘primatial vicar’, in case you are wondering, is a person who represents the primates and would oversee those dioceses who do not want to be overseen by the normal Episcopal bishops because they think they are heretical for supporting gay blessings and suchlike.

It is all terribly complicated and I cannot hope to explain it here without coming across as terribly dull.

There will be more pronouncements today and in the coming days from the Episcopal bishops as they are having a meeting at the moment. The USA Anglican blogs are good places to get the latest – try Father Jake Stops the World, daily episcopalian, That We All May Be One, Preludium or InclusiveChurch blog. Thinking Anglicans for links, but then you knew that.

[Feel free to republish this cartoon on your blog. Pasting in this code will do it:]

<img src="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cb/primatial-vicar.gif" alt="cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com" />
<p>Cartoon by <a href="http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/">Dave Walker</a>. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at <a href="http://www.weblogcartoons.com/">We Blog Cartoons</a>.</p>

8 Comments

  1. Are you feeling better? You must be, if you can grapple with primatial vicars. Either that, or you’re delirious again!

    Rest!

  2. Is this an Anglican plot to prove Evolution? There are too many Primates these days and we must stop them. I for one will be happy to lead the next Reformation. All I need to do is Nail a Primate to a Worm, if my reading of church history is correct.

  3. Tired&Emotional: With respect, it’s actually “Nail 95 Primates to a Wormy Piece of Wood,” because, as Garrison Keillor reminds us, no Lutheran would countenance pounding holes in a good piece of wood. This is a different requirement to the Diet of Worms, which all Lutherans now hold to have been superseded by coffee hour and covered dish suppers.

  4. Dave, you’re spot on! Don’t know if that means you’re delirious or healed.

    Ron, Orlando, FL

  6. Ah, covered dish suppers! The jargon associated with American church social events is one of the traps set to catch the unwary Atlantic-hopping Christian. After a two-year sojourn in the US, I can confidently state that there are four main categories of church fellowship meal. In ascending order:
    1. Brown bag supper. Bring your own, eat your own.
    2. Pot Luck supper. Bring your own and share with others (perversely, in our current church in the UK this is called an ‘American supper’).
    3. Covered Dish supper. Bring a vegetable dish or dessert: the main meat dish will be provided (and in the Deep South will invariably be fried chicken)
    4. Fully catered. Generally only to be found in larger Southern Baptist and Episcopalian churches.
    Lutherans wash it down with coffee, Episcopalians with wine, and everyone else with iced sweet tea.

  7. Um folks. What this englishman is referring to is a ‘casserole’. The big difference is that the British don’t see the casserole (or covered dish supper) as the only and most automatic response to bereavement. An American sees someone coming up his walkway with a casserole in hand he immediately sticks his head out the window and says ‘Everyone’s fine here! No need for a casserole’. My friend James once said that it really sunk in that his mother had died when he saw all the casseroles on the table at his house after the funeral. Casserole.

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