[Magdalen] Multiply married clergy (was Re: Lasted a little longer...)

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I am glad to see the loosening of the position on multiple marriages. A few
years ago, we got an interim priest after our rector was called to another
church, and the person who filled that role was a priest whose wife, as he
expressed it, "decided she didn't want to be married anymore." When the
divorce was granted, his diocese dropped him, and he was forced to find
work outside the church.  He was never really reconciled to this violation
of his priesthood. At some point, someone in a different diocese broached
the possibility of interim positions, which is what he decided to do.  He
was deeply hurt by the whole thing, but I am not aware that anyone ever
really talked with him about it.
He has long since gone to Glory, but I think of him from time to time.  He
made my life pretty horrible at one time (that was when I was exploring
ordination), but time gives perspective. I really understand his
bitterness, and I am terribly sorry for what the church did to him.  In
spite of it all, he was a really good priest; he had a way of calling a
spade a spade, which drove some folks who can't handle the truth crazy.

We had an associate who split with his spouse and was asked to leave.  I
wish they had some sort of assessment or evaluation process to judge more
gracefully how to handle these things. Of course, I am naive about it,
inasmuch as the church is, first and foremost, a business.  The orderly
working of the enterprise comes first.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 7:10 PM, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> wrote:

> On 10/10/2016 19:27, Cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
>
>> The Donald's serial monogamy (sort of) reminds me of an Episcopal
>> priest in the Diocese of Eau Claire.  He had two divorces and  was
>> preparing to marry a third woman when the Standing Committee
>> entered into the matter.  Their verdict:  The third marriage was
>> overboard
>> for an Episcopal priest.  AFAIK, the priest cancelled the third  marriage
>> in order to retain his priestly duties.
>>
>
> Did he continue the relationship?
>
> Roger
>