Accusations are flying and the Episcopal Bishop of California is livid after what has been an extraordinarily awkward week of tension between Roman Catholic and Episcopal officials in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On Monday Episcopal Bishop of California Marc Andrus published an open letter to his diocese about Salvatore Cordileone’s installation as Roman Catholic Archbishop.
“Some Catholics may find themselves less at home with Salvatore Cordileone’s installation and they may come to The Episcopal Church,” Andrus wrote in an apparent effort to bring disaffected Roman Catholics to the Episcopal diocese, which has seen a 28% attendance drop over the past decade, an even more precipitous decline than the national denomination.
While the letter states that Episcopalians hope to work with Cordileone on a variety of issues, most of the focus is on the outspokenly conservative Cordileone’s support for traditional marriage.
Three days later, Andrus arrived at the Roman Catholic cathedral for Cordileone’s installation.
In a three-sentence post on the Episcopal Diocese of California’s web site headlined “Bishop Marc Denied Seating at Archbishop’s Installation” Bishop Andrus relayed that he was “escorted to a basement room at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and detained by an usher until the time the service began” whereupon he left the cathedral.
San Francisco Archdiocese spokesman George Wesolek told the Associated Press that it was all a misunderstanding. Andrus, Wesolek explained, had arrived late and missed the procession of interfaith clergy who were to be seated up front. Church staff were looking for an opportunity to bring the bishop in without disrupting the service, according to Wesolek. When they went to retrieve him, he had already left.
“We had no intention of excluding him at all,” Wesolek told the AP. “If he felt like because of the wait that was insulting to him, we certainly will apologize.”
Andrus has now responded on his blog, insisting that he showed up earlier than requested and that he alone was detained while other ecumenical guests were led upstairs.
Religion blogger Mollie Hemingway has noted Andrus is livid.
“He’s issued multiple press releases about his poor treatment and the Episcopal press has taken to their fainting couches,” Hemingway wrote.
Disagreement between Bay area Catholic and Episcopal officials is not new or limited to same-sex marriage. Bishop James Pike, who led the Episcopal Diocese from 1958-1966, was himself a former Roman Catholic and leader in the Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State movement (now Americans United), which in its early years was regarded primarily as an anti-Catholic group. Pike, who heavily favored international subsidization of contraceptives for the purpose of population control was initially skeptical of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign for that reason.
More recently, the diocese welcomed controversial former Dominican Matthew Fox into its ranks after Fox, an advocate of the “techno-cosmic mass” was expelled from the Roman Catholic monastic order.
Comment by Ben Welliver on October 5, 2012 at 5:47 pm
I guess this is what passes for “evangelism” among Episcopalians: inviting liberal Catholics to flee the RC and join the gays, lesbians, and transgenders (and tree-huggers) in the Episc.
Isn’t it funny that when a church markets itself as “inclusive,” it becomes smaller?
Comment by cynthia curran on October 5, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Well, there are conservative mainliners and emergant evangleicals. We should give more support to the conservative mainliners that moved out of the liberal churches. Some conservative Anglicans have more support for the social issues than peoplet that attend Joel Osteen’ church.
Comment by cynthia curran on October 5, 2012 at 9:19 pm
I notice that a lot of conservatives are stuck with the bad evangelical churches like the Calvary Chapel movement which is basically good on foreign policy maybe a little too pro isreal. Some Ulra Orthodox spilt on Christians in isreal. But Calvary has a lot of problems its so decentalized that several pastors have been involved with sex abuse cases and there is no check on bad behaviior in the Calvary Chapel movement. On one blog which is no longer available Red County, many of the political conservatives are involved in Calvary Chapel it would be nice if some were also involved in let’s say the Lutheran Missouri Synod which is still pretty conservative maybe some members are more Democratic but it has a much longer history and can get rid of trouble makers among pastors easier.
Comment by Reed Tom on October 6, 2012 at 9:23 pm
Organized religion is about money and politics. Spirituality is the essence of life, and it has nothing to do with organized religion.
Comment by Mack Hall on October 7, 2012 at 8:46 am
Why would a Henrican clergyperson WANT to intrude himself on the faith he so vehemently rejects?
Comment by Eric Lytle on October 8, 2012 at 8:22 am
Mack, the answer to your question is: Unless the Episcopalians occasionally said something publicly about sex, they would get no publicity at all. That’s a pretty pathetic excuse for a church – and my apologies to any decent Episc laity who might be reading this, but if I were you, I’d abandon that sinking ship.
Comment by Richard Johnson on October 8, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Eric: His Kingdom is not of this world. If it was, He would not have been crucified. The fact that the membership of the Episcopal Church is dwindling does not mean that it is a “pathetic excuse for a church[,]” or that it is doing the wrong thing. There are still millions of faithful Christians who find the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to offer the best mix of Catholic and Protestant, Orthodox and Liberal, a welcoming family for brothers and sisters of Christ who believe in scripture, tradition, and reason, and who humbly seek to be disciples in His Kingdom. We welcome you, too. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Comment by Eric Lytle on October 10, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Richard, I referred to the denomination as a whole, not individual members or congregations, and I stick by what I said: it is truly pathetic (not to mention unChristian) for bishops to give their approval to a lifestyle that the Bible clearly says is incompatible with Christianity. I once belonged to an Episc church, had many friends there, but most of us have flown the coop, for obvious reasons. Some have affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America and are happy to be in a place where the bishops are guided by the Bible and Christian tradition, not by the New York Times editorial page. No church and no denomination is perfect, but I could no longer be a member of a denomination with such a notorious public image.
Comment by ib on October 7, 2012 at 9:16 am
Why can’t we just all get-a-long, little dawggies?
😛
Comment by john on October 7, 2012 at 3:41 pm
and lets once again ask who that “unidentified male companion” was in the car when he was arrested for DUI? the nazification of the catholic church under “hitler youth” benedict and now archbishop “don” corleone continues apace. closet case.