[Magdalen] Bishop Cook

[Marion Thompson]

Different country and diocese, of course, but you're lucky.  I didn't 
even get a letter,, just a phone call at the 11th hour nearly 3 weeks 
after everyone else had heard saying that the Committee did not Concur 
and I would not be ordained in three months time.  Bah!

Marion, a pilgrim   ... today my sail I lift ....

On 1/14/2015 3:26 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford wrote:
> The search and discernment processes are clearly works in progress.
>
> I noted, some time ago, that one individual in the course of retirement was
> considering some kind of horse farming or ranching, and it  sort of
> dramatized to me how large a sum of money he obviously has to play with.
> It took me a while to think of how much a disconnect it can be for a person
> with such wealth to be placed in charge of a diocese. I know that when I
> had dealings with this individual, he was very careful to make sure that
> there no chance whatsoever that I would ever have any opportunity to view
> or critique anything he might have to base his decisions on, nor could I
> ever see any of his own writings.  In short, I was completely at his mercy
> but had absolutely no recourse to question his decision.  I don't have a
> solution for this, but I certainly have always felt that he made a
> short-sighted decision based on his own limited view. The facts are that he
> had extremely little actual pastoral experience, and he appears to have
> made a decision based on a very narrow view of what the priesthood might be.
>
> The process is good at stopping those who are wounded in definable ways,
> and allows sociopaths simply because there is no real way to stop them.
> This is the way it is, and nobody has a clue what to do about the fact that
> good people are raped by the process, and turned away, while others who
> might be very harmful are simply good enough at covering their tracks to be
> undetected.
>
> A couple of months after I was told I have no vocation to the priesthood, I
> happened to encounter Mr. Sisk at my parish and he just smiled blandly at
> me (I hope it was not a smirk, but with him it's hard to tell) and
> murmured, "I hope all is well."  I didn't know how to comment to this
> person, so I just mumbled, "fine, fine," and walked away, forever. I had,
> after all, invested a huge amount of my own fortunes, to say nothing of
> those of my parish, and then bared my soul to a long line of people who
> thought they knew what the flock they were doing, and in the end, I got a
> boilerplate letter from this jerk with no explanation whatsoever, and a
> note that it is not his policy to explain himself.  Of course. The one per
> cent does not explain itself, nor do those who aspire to the one per cent.
>
> When the Canon for Ministry came for a conference, plainly embarrassed by
> the whole matter, it developed, from the answers we got, that the bishop
> simply did not have an accurate picture (some areas, his discernment [his
> word] was diametrically opposite of the truth). Moreover, it was plain
> that, right or wrong, it is what it is. God forbid that we might actually
> get some reconsideration or that anyone at that level might admit they
> might have been wrong.
>
> Yeah, we need to work on the discernment process -- and in more ways than
> just identifying addiction (not to say that that is not also important,
> certainly).
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
> for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
> on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente
>
> On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 10:33 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Yes, this was posted on FB a few days ago, and I think it's excellent.
>> Also, if you haven't seen it yet, Bishop Sutton's letter of yesterday to
>> his clergy is outstanding and very personal. You can find it on the Diocese
>> of Maryland website.
>>
>> On January 14, 2015, at 9:41 AM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Her church, actually. And well done!
>> -M
>>
>> On Wednesday, January 14, 2015, Dorothy Collman <dac7792 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yesterday our rector posted on facebook a link to a pastoral letter from
>> a
>>> rector in Maryland to members of his church:
>>> <http://gracebrunswick.org/pastoral-letter.html>
>>> - - -
>>> Dorothy Collman
>>> Home: DottieAnne at aol.com <javascript:;>
>>> List: dac7792 at gmail.com <javascript:;>
>>>
>>>