[Magdalen] Mass e-mails, was Test

[sally.davies at gmail.com]

Sympathy here too.

I've thought about this and conclude that the problem with churches is not
(entirely) the churches, but our expectations that these will be good
mothers, giving us good milk. Instead what we get is at best an average of
the emotional intelligence of the component people, at worst a
representation of the weakest emotional links. Aspects of self-awareness,
responsibility, empathy, a long view and so forth are sadly missing,
instead there is egocentricity, blaming out, self righteousness,
judgementalism and a general failure to think logically. None of that
matters too much if things are going well with the leadership but if
there's a problem there, it breaks out like infection in an
immune-compromised body.

As for the mass emails, and other forms of piling on, it raises some basic
questions for me... Such as, "Is there any way for this to end well? What
IS the end that you have in mind here?"


Scott, I can't say how much I admire the way you've chosen to walk
alongside your new Rector, not in unthinking support but out of grace and
charity. May God continue to guide you and give you wisdom in this tough
situation. Jesus promised to build his church, not as a defensive structure
but as an attack on the forces of Hell. So I reckon it's up to him, we just
need to get behind him and not behind the "mob".

I'd also abandon the thing entirely if I hadn't already discovered that I
can't survive spiritually without some kind of fellowship and without the
sacraments!!

Sally D
On Wed, 08 Apr 2015 at 11:19 PM Molly Wolf <lupa at kos.net> wrote:

> I don't know what it is about churches.  I just know that I'm sick almost
> to spiritual death of church politics, which seem to be full of inflated
> ego-needs and power toxicity. I had a nasty run-in not long ago which
> finally did me in.
>
> Molly
>
> The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no
> other way. -- Mark Twain
>
> > On Apr 8, 2015, at 4:05 PM, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Scott, I will keep you and Ascension in my prayers.  What is it about
> churches anyway?!?!?!  No place seems to be immune from the evil that is
> always lurking in the shadows, ready to leap out and disrupt.
> >
> > Marion, a pilgrim
> >
> >> On 4/8/2015 2:43 PM, Scott Knitter wrote:
> >> One parishioner who left as soon as the organist and choirmaster were
> let
> >> go let it be known a $2M bequest was leaving with him. I care not and
> would
> >> rather not know such things,  but he apparently wanted us to know that
> to
> >> lose him as a member is worse than to lose someone else.  But he
> wouldn't
> >> be satisfied unless we called an old-time closeted rector with a
> particular
> >> personality, as though that were essential to a Catholic parish. It
> >> certainly ain't.
> >>
> >> What saddens me is that people with whom I was on friendly terms have
> >> started avoiding me because I'm not on the Save Ascension list. And I
> will
> >> not participate in coffee-hour gossip about it. I'm sick of the
> conspiracy
> >> theories, demonizing, lies about an "empty" church and choir loft (not
> >> remotely true), and brickbats thrown from afar by folks who haven't
> been at
> >> the church in years or ever but are sure they know what is behind the
> staff
> >> changes, a sinister plot worthy of a bestseller.
> >>> On Apr 8, 2015 10:54 AM, "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> That reminds me a lot of what happened when a few people in my late
> >>> parents' church (ironically also named Ascension) took offense at the
> >>> electon of +Gene Robinson in NH and in a rump meeting of *part* of the
> >>> vestry, decided that none of those awful gay people were going to
> infest
> >>> their sacred environs and put out a mass e-mail to that effect. My
> parents
> >>> were furious, as was the clergy, but it did cause a split in the
> church and
> >>> they lost some big contributors. The parish remains, however, the
> largest
> >>> in the diocese.
> >> .
> >
>