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OREGON: Bishop and Diocesan Delegates Mock Scripture Reading on Eve of Bishop Election
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
11/30/2009
A cradle Episcopalian and parishioner at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Portland found herself mocked and ridiculed for reading a portion of Scripture relating to the qualifications for bishop on the eve of electing a new diocesan bishop.
Margaret Enriques was invited by her rector, the Rev. David L. Humphrey, to read 1Timothy 3:1-7 (NRSV), a passage relating to the qualifications for bishop. She promptly agreed. During the Opening Eucharist, she approached the lectern, announced the Lesson and began to read. When the second sentence was read, people began to laugh. Soon the sound of laughter became so great that she stopped and waited until it died down. Then she continued, but soon the laughter returned and grew so loud that she had to stop again and wait until she could be heard. Finally, she finished the reading.
"The laughter began when I started to read 'a bishop should not be a lover of money' and again later during the reading," she told VOL.
A few minutes later, in the introduction to his sermon, the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb (appointed in 2008 to administer the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin) joked: "I'd like to have a word with whoever it was who picked those readings." The bishop did not make good his threat, Enriques told VOL.
Asked about her ordeal, Enriques said she was shocked and deeply saddened by what had happened, but it was not enough to make her leave The Episcopal Church.
Following is the text of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (NRSV). "The saying is sure: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way- for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil."
The diocese elected a new bishop in the person of the Rev. Michael Joseph Hanley. He was elected on the second ballot to be the 10th bishop of Oregon. Pending the required consents, on April 10 Hanley will succeed Bishop Johncy Itty, who resigned from his diocesan position at the end of 2008.
The actions of Bishop Lamb, the retired Bishop of Northern California and delegates to this convention herald a new low in The Episcopal Church. From the absorption of pansexual behavior, to the rejection by Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori of personal faith in Jesus Christ and multi-faith religious blunders, the ridiculing of Scripture is the logical extension of a church adrift from its historic moorings rooted in Holy Scripture.
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