{"id":6067,"date":"2004-05-31T07:17:45","date_gmt":"2004-05-31T14:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/05\/31\/why-yes-this-is-my-church-part-iii.html"},"modified":"2009-08-05T23:37:41","modified_gmt":"2009-08-06T05:37:41","slug":"why_yes_this_is-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/31\/why_yes_this_is-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Why, yes, this is <\/i>my church, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story about the hopeful final (or at least climactic) chapter the brouhaha at our parish is relatively accurate<\/a>, if still in error in a couple of particulars.<\/p>\n

\n

Colorado Episcopal Bishop Rob O’Neill said his warning to an assistant rector who took part in a commitment ceremony with her lesbian partner could help the diocese’s efforts to navigate divisions over sexual orientation. <\/p>\n

O’Neill told the state’s clergy Friday that the Rev. Bonnie Sarah Spencer of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Centennial did not violate church canons, diocesan ethics guidelines or its sexual misconduct policy.<\/p>\n

However, O’Neill issued Spencer a “Godly Admonition” – “a written, solemn warning” that includes teaching and direction. Spencer, who wrote a letter of apology to her colleagues, will begin a six-week leave of absence Tuesday, it was decided.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All of which is true so far as it goes. The gist of the bishop’s conclusions was that there had been no wrong-doing, but that in proceeding with the “commitment ceremony” without explicit, unequivocal permission from the bishop, Bonnie had exercised poor judgment in the broader context of the overall state of the church. The “Godly Admonition” can be considered a letter of reprimand in her file, something that is usually handled in private between bishop and priest but, because of the public nature of the matter, it, and Bonnie’s apology, had to be made known.<\/p>\n

To my understanding, though, the six week leave by Bonnie is not <\/i>directly tied to any sort of punishment, but was mutually agreed upon between her and the bishop. She’s clearly exhausted by the whole brouhaha (not just the last month or two, but the several months (and more), leading up to it).<\/p>\n

It’s notetworthy, again, that the bishop’s concern, from a diocesan perspective, was how this episode brought to the fore some of the conflict over this general subject that has been brewing in the diocese for some time. I can clearly understand how this cause him troubles, since it was during a period when he’d committed to everyone that, while his task force was working on what the common ground was between those accepting of same-sex blessings and those not, he’d make no changes in diocesan practice and policy (which have been similarly conflicted).<\/p>\n

It’s an odd situation, because while I can understand his big-picture concerns here …<\/p>\n

\n

“I think one of the issues this holds up is the need for all of us to be particularly attentive to our corporate life – our life as a community – recognizing our individual decisions do have an impact on the life of the larger body.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

… I also understand (and cannot condemn) the personal aspect of why Bonnie moved forward with this at this time. I think both are right, in their own ways and in their own contexts, and it is part of the tension between one’s personal spiritual life and health, and that of the community about one.<\/p>\n

I found the conclusion of the article pretty interesting, too.<\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Don Armstrong of Colorado Springs, a conservative leader, said O’Neill focused not on sexuality but on unilateral actions at a time when the church’s Lambeth Commission is working toward solutions. “I think what he’s done is struck the right chord for the moment,” Armstrong said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And if Armstrong’s on board with it, perhaps the situation might be defused for the moment after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story about the hopeful final (or at least climactic) chapter the brouhaha at our parish is relatively accurate, if still in error in a couple of particulars. Colorado Episcopal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-religion-my-parish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6074,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/28\/why_yes_this_is.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":0},"title":"Why, yes, this is my church, Part II","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-May-04 8:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article in the Rocky about goings-on at our parish. Days before Episcopal Bishop Rob O'Neill acts in the matter, a Denver assistant pastor has written to parishioners to...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6031,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/03\/but_wait_theres-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":1},"title":"But wait! There’s a sequel!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Jun-04 2:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Evidently not satisfied with Bishop O'Neill's letter of reprimand (a\/k\/a \"Godly Admonition\") to Bonnie, or interested in giving the bishop time to complete his policy review on such matters, the...","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6176,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/30\/why_yes_this_is-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":2},"title":"Why, yes, this is my church","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Apr-04 10:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been in the know on this for a couple of weeks, but didn't blog about it here because -- well, it's likely to be getting all too much press...","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/18\/the-unvirtuous-church.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":3},"title":"The Unvirtuous Church","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Sep-09 6:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"VirtueOnline\" is a conservative religious site (\"The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism\") headed up by David Virtue. \"Global Orthodox Anglicanism\" usually seems to mean \"We don't like the Episcopal Church because they don't stone gays -- oh, and they kinda dabble with having women in the priesthood, too, and most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15526,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/06\/neither-slave-nor-free.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":4},"title":"“… Neither slave nor free …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Aug-09 12:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"This evening we had the honor to see Rev. Bonnie Sarah Spencer installed as Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Fort Collins. Bonnie was a deacon at our parish, Good Shepherd Episcopal, when we started attending there. She was ordained to the priesthood while at Good Shepherd -- and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10324,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/17\/why_yes_that_is_my_church.html","url_meta":{"origin":6067,"position":5},"title":"Why, yes, that is my church (again)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 17-Feb-07 12:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Huzzah for Google Alerts -- which led me to spot this. \"Hey!\" I shouted to Margie. \"We're in the news!\" \"Who we?\" she asked, understandably. \"Good Shepherd -- we're in...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/images\/gshep-rocky.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}