In one sense this is nothing new. In 2003, the Episcopal Church elected V. Gene Robinson to be the first public homosexual living in a partnered relationship with another man to be the Bishop of New Hampshire. In 2010, the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly lesbian bishop, Mary Glasspool, over objections from orthodox Anglicans.

Robinson's consecration brought about a split in The Episcopal Church, resulting in the birth of the Anglican Church in North America and eventually, the formation of GAFCON. The consequences of that action still reverberate around the Anglican Communion. (Robinson was later banned by Archbishop Rowan Williams from attending the last Lambeth conference).

Lambeth Conference warned TEC in 1998 not to proceed with homosexual ordinations and same-sex unions, but they did, with schismatic consequences.

Having started down this pathway there is apparently no turning back. Consequences be damned. It's like telling a child who puts its hands into a fire to see what it feels like, discovers how hot it is and then, despite warnings, does it again, and wonders why its mother rushes the child to hospital. The mother doesn't talk about diversity, inclusion or justice, she wants the child healed and the lesson learned -- DON'T PUT YOUR HANDS INTO THE FIRE AGAIN.

The Episcopal Church is dipping its cassocks, chasubles and miters into the spiritual fire of God's wrath, and they wonder why the Church is shriveling and dying.

Former Utah Bishop Otis Charles came out of the closet after 40 years of heterosexual marriage and announced that he had tied with knot with Felipe of Fruitsville. There have been at least two other homosexual bishops and one bisexual presiding bishop, while not coming out of the closet, who have influenced the direction of the Church with serious consequences.

WOMEN BISHOPS

While the Anglican Communion remains divided over women priests and women bishops, progressive western provinces have gone ahead with little concern about how this might impact the Global South. Since the Church of England (AKA the Mother Church) recently started ordaining women to the episcopacy, no one believes it is a communion breaking issue. Homosexuality is. The deeper question is, so what! What have women, who have advanced to the priesthood and episcopacy really achieved other than the fact that they are not men?

It is interesting to see the trajectory of women to the episcopacy.

In Northern California there were five candidates -- three male and two female. Megan M. Traquair was elected the eighth bishop of that diocese. She is the first woman to be elected as bishop, selected from the first slate to ever include female candidates in the diocese of Northern California.

In San Diego there were three candidates and a woman won.

In Texas there are three candidates ALL female replacing a FEMALE suffragan. She will be elected Feb. 22, 2019.

South Dakota, Vermont, El Camino Real, Michigan, Montana, Southern Virginia, Eastern Michigan. Georgia and Missouri all are set to elect new bishops in 2019.

El Camino Real already has a woman bishop -- Mary Gray-Reeves.

North Dakota and Virginia have announced their retirements in 2019; a woman could replace them.

The Bishop of Alabama announced his retirement in 2020.

Bishops in West Missouri and Oklahoma announced their retirements in 2021.

Another question might be asked...are they jumping off a sinking ship?

The Presiding Bishop has made it clear he wants more women and people of color rising up to lead TEC into the future. The question is what sort of future does The Episcopal Church really have? Under Katharine Jefferts Schori's leadership, the national church spent millions of dollars in litigation against five dioceses in church property fights. In most cases, the national church won. Parishioner losses escalated under her reign.

Kirk Peterson, writing on the state of dioceses in TEC in a recent column in The Living Church, made two observations which must be taken seriously.

"[Of] the very small (Episcopal) dioceses, it doesn't seem like there's any way they can be financially sustainable. At some point you're small enough, how do you cover the bishop's salary?"

Then he said this: "There are 16 dioceses in the United States that each have a lower average Sunday attendance than St. Martin's Church in Houston. And those same 16 dioceses collectively are smaller than the Diocese of Texas. It seems like some of these dioceses should not be there." No one is accusing Peterson of being a flaming conservative, he simply tells it like it is.

The bottom line is that neither lesbian nor homosexual bishops have made churches grow, nor have they created new church plants, and women priests are no better at holding congregations together than men who have failed equally to keep congregations from failing. Women bishops simply emulate their male counterparts, so nothing really changes.

Political correctness in the choice of women and pansexualists guarantees nothing. One need only witness the push to make Heather Cook a suffragan bishop of Maryland! Look how that turned out! One wonders how much humble pie Katharine Jefferts Schori had to eat when that exploded under her watch and in her face!

All of the women bishops have followed their male counterparts on sexuality issues, seeing it as a justice issue full of hope for a more inclusive Church.

Albany Bishop Bill Love was right when he told VOL following his partial inhibition over his refusal to embrace B012; "Satan is real and he is intent on causing confusion, misleading and dividing brothers and sisters in Christ, turning them against one another. He will use anything and everything he can to destroy the Church and separate us from one another and, most importantly, from God. In the current crisis, he is using issues of human sexuality and same-sex marriage quite effectively against us and will continue to until we recognize what is going on and stop playing into his hand."

God is not mocked, TEC is reaping what it has sown and the issue of gender, it would seem, is utterly irrelevant.

END