Looking for the face of God...
A satirical essay
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
December 16, 2010
The 2011 edition of the Episcopal Church's anti-racism training manual is now available for training sessions and educational purposes. Intended to provide a "process for dismantling racism in the church and in society," the 254-page manual is entitled, "Seeing the Face of God in Each Other."
Please come to order. Thank you. My name is Katharine Jefferts Schori. We are here today to push forward the church's anti-racism program and to see whose face will pop up in our latest séance as we locate "each other".
Would the Imam of NY kindly open us in prayer?
Imam: In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger and death to all Infidels who do not believe in the immutability of Allah... Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, ALLAHU AKBAR...
Jefferts Schori: interrupting...Thank you, Imam. I think we get the message... Now I want you all to know that I recently discovered the Body of God, courtesy of a feminist Yale professor thus allowing us to move to a new era of inclusion and diversity unprecedented in our history as Episcopalians.
Bishop Sean W. Rowe: interrupting... What is the Body of God, Presiding Bishop? Whatever happened to the Body of Christ? I didn't know God suddenly had a body. Mormons claim that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones, do Episcopalians now believe this Presiding Bishop?
Jefferts Schori: Sean, as the youngest bishop in the HOB and still in your thirties, I can understand your ignorance, but you really must get up to speed...
Rowe: But I've been busy sorting out the scandal of a dead priest's pedophile past and the legacy of sodomy and abuse he left in my diocese...
Jefferts Schori: (interrupting) ...that's no excuse Sean. Have someone bring you up with the latest in my thinking.
Rowe: Sorry Presiding Bishop. You know of course of a similar situation with a living pedophile priest in the Diocese of Central New York...
Jefferts Schori: (interrupting)...enough Sean. That is a peculiar Catholic problem, not ours. Now as I was saying, it is time we started looking for God in the face of "each other". Would you all place your fingers on the planchette, which will then move about the Ouija board that will spell out the words of the "other."
Bishop Clayton Matthews: Presiding Bishop, I see a name coming up...ohmygosh it's Bernie Madoff.
Presiding Bishop: Impossible Clayton, we are not going to see the face of God in that disgusting little Wall Street Jew who ripped off billions of dollars from people, including some of his own ....try again.
Matthews: It's moving again, Presiding Bishop...yes...I see a name forming...yes ohmygosh...its Charlie Rangel.
Jefferts Schori: Impossible...well, he is the right color, I suppose, but he is a tainted politician who got reprimanded recently for corruption. Can't we do better than that, Clayton?
Clayton: I'm not in control of this, Presiding Bishop. Perhaps, we should ask David Booth Beers to give it a shot.
Presiding Bishop: Go for it, David.
David Booth Beers: I must confess I am not comfortable doing this, Katharine. It's not very...well, er...Episcopalian. Shouldn't we use the Prayer Book...?
Jefferts Schori: interrupting...Do it, David. I am paying you a bundle for all these diocesan and parish lawsuits...you will die the richest lawyer in Episcopal history.
Beers: Very well then. (The Planchette moves). Ohmygosh, Katharine, you are not going to believe this...
Jefferts Schori: Well, who is it David?
Beers: You are not going to like this Katharine...I see....I see the face of Archbishop Robert Duncan and he is wearing purple and he is surrounded by African archbishops and they are all smiling...Katharine put down that shotgun...KATHARINE...
END