[Magdalen] Prayers for Ascension, Chicago

[Jim Guthrie]

> Here, too. I've seen a bishop vacate a vestry, and I've seen it more than
> once.
> Ugly difficult times but, as you say, sometimes necessary.

+Walker refused to allow a search until our Wardens and the majority of Vestry 
were replaced -- resulting in a standoff between our dragon ladies (who ran the 
place) and the Bishop that ended up giving us five years of supply priests. 
Often they'd be from Africa and did not have command of the English Language. 
And they'd tend to 45-60 minute sermons that were totally unintelligible, other 
than figuring out he was preaching the details of dispensationalism (not exactly 
TEC theology! <g>).

Finally, as the dragon ladies died, we managed to replace most of them, and 
finally persuaded the wardens to not run again.

They did arrange an official photo of the new vestry at a totally inconvenient 
time -- we showed up in full leathers -- serendipity, as we were al going to 
different places. I sent a copy to Bishop +Walker and we were soon on our way.

It may have also helped that I sent a note about the 5-year plight to a 
conservative bishop friend, who brought it up to him at a HoB meeting. As some 
know (for better or for worse) it's always helpful for a lay leader to have a 
Bishop or two in his/her pocket.

John Farrell when he was called to be PIC noted wryly that our vestry was just 
like a vestry from the 1950s -- Mostly Professional men. Of course the 
difference being our professional men were all gay <g>.

Once Farrell was there, the Vestry tried to get rid of him three times (which I 
stopped each time), but true to form. They had gotten rid of the three previous 
Rectors so why not do it again?) less than a year after I decided not to run for 
a third term as Warden, they cleared Farrell out too.

They also made sure I would not return to  Vestry at the next annual meeting.

Cheers,
Jim


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