Making me spew Diet Coke

I've somehow gotten on the IRD's (the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which has nothing to do with either) mailing list. I just grin or grimace at most of their stuff, such as all their attacks on the National Council of Churches, or their mutterings about how liberal Christians are destroying the word. And yes, Mrs. Howard Ahmanson is still on the board -- I just checked -- so we know they're still nicely tied in with Christian Reconstructionist thinkers, as well as political right-wingers of "The only good liberal is a dead liberal" mentality.

This just made me laugh, it's so petulant. I'm printing it as I received it, weird punctuation marks and all. I'm wiping Diet Coke off my keyboard as soon as I publish this:

IRD Calls on the Episcopal Church�s House of Bishops To Take
Responsibility in Its Rhetoric

�Sadly, the bishops apparently are more intent upon blaming the
primates than caring for the orthodox Anglicans in their midst.�
-- IRD Anglican Action Director Ralph Webb


Washington, DC--The House of Bishops met in Navasota, TX, on March 16-21, 2007. It adopted a resolution in the form of a statement conveying the mind of the House on March 20. Both that statement and the House�s March 21 letter to the Episcopal Church reflect a strongly negative disposition towards the February 19 communiqu� issued by leaders of Anglican Communion provinces, who are called �primates.� In particular, the bishops rejected the communiqu�s �pastoral scheme,� which proposes that a primatial vicar be appointed and a pastoral council be formed to care for those Anglicans in the Episcopal Church who could not accept the
oversight of either their bishop or their presiding bishop. The Episcopal
Church intends to conduct church-wide conversations over the next
several months, and the House of Bishops will discuss the communiqu� again
in their September meeting. The primates of the Anglican Communion have
given the Episcopal Church until September 30 to meet the requests!
of the communiqu�.

IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb said in response,

�The House of Bishops indisputably has sent a negative message to the
primates of the Anglican Communion that does not help to heal the
Communion in any way, shape, or form. On one level, the clarity expressed by
the bishops regarding their disposition toward the communiqu� is commendable. Nevertheless, the actual positions taken by the bishops in an
apparent attempt to reframe the argument are deplorable.

"The pastoral scheme that the primates have proposed aims to, in their communiqu�s words, �facilitate and encourage healing and reconciliation� at all levels in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. But the bishops have rejected this healing balm, saying that the primates� pastoral scheme �violates� both the Episcopal Church�s polity and founding principles, and that it �abandons� orthodox Anglican tradition.

�The bishops as of yet have offered no substitute pastoral alternative.
Still, they have charged that �great suffering� has resulted from primates and other bishops acting to meet the pastoral needs of orthodox Anglicans who are either currently in the Episcopal Church or who have left the denomination. Sadly, the bishops apparently are more intent upon blaming the primates than caring for the orthodox Anglicans in their midst.

"We at the IRD call upon the House of Bishops to take responsibility for the Episcopal Church's actions that have proven damaging to the Anglican Communion and stop passing the blame around. Only then can the Episcopal Church even begin to demonstrate its self-professed �deep longing� to continue as part of the Anglican Communion.�

"The Bishops have rejected this healing balm" of the Primate's Communiqué? What planet are they from? It's about as healing as Hitler's panzers rolling through Czechoslovakia.

They want a "substitute pastoral alternative?" How about this: They can always resign from the Episcopal Church and go join CANA or AMiA and swear allegiance to Akinola or whoever. Just say a polite goodbye. But oh, wait, they want the property and the pension funds and so forth. Oh, yeah. That's how this whole thing started.