PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly recently had a story on Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry which offers a good overview of the challenges facing the church and some insight into the character of Bp Curry.
from the interview;
LAWTON: Curry will be leading the Episcopal Church from the denomination’s headquarters in New York City. He says he wants to see Episcopalians partner with other faith groups to, in his words, move toward becoming the human family of God.
CURRY: ‘Cause when that happens, then we don’t let children go to bed hungry. When that happens, we don’t let injustice reign. When that happens, we figure out how to settle our disputes in nonviolent and peaceful ways. When that happens, we figure out how to care for this creation.
LAWTON: Curry says he caught a vision for the church on a recent trip to Selma, Alabama, when he was staying near the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten 50 years ago.
CURRY: I realized that that bridge filled with so much pain in memory also was the crucible of hope, because crossing that bridge was crossing from a painful past into a hopeful future. That’s our work. To find ways to be a bridge community that does bring differing people together under the rubric of love.
Watch it all here
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The “mission congregation” at Newport Beach was on its way up. They have a beautiful building, too.
A shame that the diocese shut them down and offered a paltry sum to buy the property.
The diocese has not offered a paltry sum to buy the building, the corporation sole of the bishop diocesan of Los Angeles is the owner of the property, not the former mission congregation.
Bill, there is only one side with regard to the facts, the truth. And since I have been the editor most often tasked with covering this story in The Lead, what I am doing is making sure the material facts are stated accurately. I am not taking a side as to who is in the right or in the wrong; the bishop or the congregation.
Yes, David, that (and how that became so) is the argument of the other side. Thank you for pointing it out.
The mess in L.A.? Greatfully has ended (mostly) with greedsters in the name of purity=hatemongering at Church being stripped of *lifted* TEC assets. All is well, sanity restored. (except for the odd gang of fading demeaners of fellow human beings who are still whining about lost *opportunities* to punish LGBTI family, friends and coworshippers).
Are you talking about Huntington Beach, CA–St. James?
Leonardo is referring to a number of parishes that withdrew from Dio LA and took property with them. All property has now been returned to the diocese by the courts.
St James, Newport Beach was a returned property. The current issue there is not with a departing parish this time, it is with a dissolved former mission congregation.
“Any bishop has a fiduciary duty to preserve the church’s assets”
Duty extends as well to public accounting of funds spent and from where.
Some of us remember Janet Cooke, Episcopal Church treasurer, who embezzled large sums of money for her personal use.
The investigation revealed a number of charge accounts at high-end Fifth Avenue stores and other slush funds.
I hope that the controls have tightened up since then.
Her name was, and is, Ellen Cooke.
I think the general question right along has been: the annual budget figures for litigation do not square with the actual sums being spent. Are trust funds for mission being used for ‘mission litigation’?
Then there is the question as to whether this ‘investment’ in ‘mission litigation’ is actually bringing any genuine income back to TEC? It isn’t in TX or Illinois, or thus far in SC. The mess in Diocese of LA is also a bit of a public scandal.
So when +Curry says he is standing behind the policies of the present PB, one might hope that a better public accounting might follow than over the past 9 years.
“You will also note that quite energetically he responded that he is supportive of the policies of the PB when it comes to litigation.”
Of course. Any bishop has a fiduciary duty to preserve the church’s assets.
You will see that the most being offered is some category of ‘individual conscience.’ +Curry nowhere says that Bishops and Dioceses can ‘exercise their consciences.’ That has now been ruled out.
You will also note that quite energetically he responded that he is supportive of the policies of the PB when it comes to litigation.