The Episcopal Church draws strength from its growing immigrant population, cried Jefferts Schori to a newly minted congregation of liberal Episcopalians in the Diocese of Albany that found Albany Bishop Bill Love a bit too exclusionary (read orthodox) in his understanding of mission. They opted for the pro-gay Bishop of Central New York, Skip Adams, an arrangement worked out through DEPO that was originally designed to rescue orthodox parishes from revisionist bishops.

No, we draw our strength from Jesus himself, the Holy Spirit and the push from the church ("it seems good to us and the Holy Spirit") to spread the gospel to immigrants, not merely to embrace them in order to fill our dying churches. Of course, the immigrants, let's say Hispanic, that TEC will get are those ex-Catholics who cannot afford an annulment, but get divorced and remarried and need a church they call home with less guilt or no guilt at all. TEC fills the bill quite nicely. Pass the plate, please.

No matter, "Our part in what we call God's mission is to help heal the world, heal the brokenness of the world," says Jefferts Schori.

Of course, this has nothing to do with proclaiming the Good News about God's salvation in Jesus to heal a broken and fallen world. It is a socio-political statement to heal the world by passing dozens (yes, dozens) of resolutions that will absolve the guilt of Middle Class White Episcopalians (for being White) and to keep Al Sharpton in front of a camera explaining why racism is alive so Whitie can make endless atonement for being, well, White. The Episcopal Church's Anti-Racism training is one of the more egregious attempts to get aging Episcopalians to believe that in being white they are the cause of all the racism in America, if not the world. Mea Culpa, Mea Culp, Mea Maxima Culpa. One cannot atone enough for being White, never mind that PA Bishop Charles Bennison (who is white) is busy closing Black parishes and was accused after the heart attack death of a black Episcopal priest, by the priest's wife, also a priest, for trying to close his parish and grab the parish's endowment. She threw Bennison out of the hospital when he came to make a pastoral call on the dying man.

According to Lambeth Conference 1998, Section II p121, "Mission goes out from God. Mission is God's way of loving and saving the world... So mission is never our invention or choice. The initiative in mission is God's, not ours. We are called simply to serve God's mission by living and proclaiming the good news."

But the "good news" the Five Marks of mission call us to proclaim is not interpreted as The Great Commission of Mt. 28. According to Jefferts Schori, it is to embrace change and diversity while not telling Muslims the Good News about Jesus because they don't need it. In fact, it might be considered offensive to do so. (She poo pooed personal salvation at the last General Convention.) To "embrace change" is code for accepting the whole panoply of pansexual options that now invade pew and pulpit.

Consider the following resolution and ask yourself why Jesus in all his wisdom did not send the 70 disciples out with a mandate to tell the residents of Nazareth, like the District of Columbia, who have been denied the right to self–determination under Roman rule, that they should now be allowed statehood.

Resolved, That the Convention recognize that the people of the District of Columbia have been denied this right to self-determination for over two hundred years...

What in God's name has this got to do with preaching Good News to the poor? Would statehood suddenly make tens of thousands of Washingtonians instant members of God's kingdom? Would it make them better people, more Christlike? Would Washington DC with 474 homicides annually, making it the No. 1 murder capital in the nation, suddenly change?

Furthermore, why hasn't all this talk of "statehood" for Washingtonians, who are mostly black, not translated into Episcopal churches filled with joyful African Americans believing that a new life for them is just around the corner and that The Episcopal Church is the standard bearer and flag waver for their new tomorrow. Truth is the Diocese of Washington is sinking rapidly while it is suing to get its hands on the Soper Fund's $25 million in order to stay afloat.

Or take this resolution; That this Convention calls upon Israelis and Palestinians to recognize one another's right to statehood, economic viability, and security and that all other nations do likewise... that this Convention calls for the cessation of violence by all Palestinians and Israelis, and blah blah blah. Does anybody really care what TEC thinks, or that TEC's resolution actually makes a difference? What about any open support for Arab/Israeli CHRISTIANS who are being hounded out of the nation (they have gone from 7% to 1.5% of the population) most having fled to Canada and the US to practice their faith in order to evade persecution from Muslims or a vicious secular Jewish state. A Vatican document says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the upheaval it causes in the region is the chief reason why Christians are fleeing the Middle East. And then there is this resolution that just about takes the cake and reduces TEC to something less than the Rotary Club. Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That The Episcopal Church ratify the rubrics and practice of The Book of Common Prayer to invite all, regardless of age, denomination, or baptism to the altar for Holy Communion...

One blogger asked: Is this the Body and Blood of Christ or Unitarianism with free snacks?

"'We are beginning to discover a way forward into a new chapter in the church's history," Jefferts Schori said. "If we are going to save the life of the church, we are going to have to lose it." And lose it she is doing.

In the run-up to GC2012, how many more ecclesiastical morsels will we get, that in effect, guarantee the downward spiral of TEC will continue at a pace just slower than a 747 whose engines have flamed out and is headed for the ocean floor?

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