Well, apparently since the International Development Agency was such a colossal failure at the hands of Archbishop Dale Howard, it was time to re-tool the old thing into: CEC MISSIONS! (On a side note, if the IDA was so mismanaged and such a tangle, why not an audit? Hmmm… methinks it could point to an even greater sickness at the top where money is just spent willy nilly without any accounting.)
“But, ++Howard was deposed so that solved everything, right?” WRONG.
We’re back to the same old game but with many more players now with even fancier titles! Look with me, won’t you?
The Bishops are all now “The Most Reverend” because that title just isn’t for Archbishops anymore cats and kittens. We’ll leave that “Right Reverend” crap for abbots.
But, when you’re a CEC Bishop associated with CEC Missions, you travel in style, my friends. You are knighted or something into a … PATRIARCHAL LEGATE! What the hell is that all about?
I think that ex-Archbishop Sly was behind this little project. He was always good at handing out titles even though they weren’t worth a damn anywhere else. Because, really friends, why pay a Priest to do full time work when you can call him “Canon” and he’ll do the work for free?
But, here’s the list of PATRIARCHAL LEGATES and the regions they will be covering somehow:
Acting Coordinator of the Supervising Bishops: John Holloway
I’m sure that will need some re-examining in light of the very serious stroke he suffered a few weeks back.
Asia: Tom Hines
Perfect choice. The Primate of the CEC in Southeast Asia has a proven track record of success. You might not like his style, but he does have results to show for his life’s work.
Brazil: Paulo Garcia
A decent choice. Not sure why he was made a Bishop in the first place. Now Archbishop Garcia, but when he was Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Brazil, he was crying about all the persecution he was suffering at the hands of his Bishop, Robinson Cavalcanti. Huh? If anyone in the CEC bothered to check his story, they’d find that +Cavalcanti was deposed for being too orthodox. Not exactly the liberal loony that ++Garcia claimed he was. ++Garcia is growing his cathedral and planting churches in Brazil. +Cavalcanti has been granted a spiritual home in the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Greg Venables.
Africa: Chuck Jones
Probably not a bad choice. He’s actually been to Africa a few times. Not unlike ++Adler who has just apparently awakened to the fact that he has like quite a few churches there. He didn’t seem all that interested in visiting the continent that was showing forth the greatest amount of growth there for a while. He sent guys like +Weeks (now with the CCR) ++Jones and +Davidson down to Africa to keep the guys happy there. Judging from some updates to the international website for the CEC, ++Adler is getting with the program and acting like a Patriarch. That pallium has got to be worth something besides just hanging out at St. Michael’s going on and on about why this is the most fabulous church in the world and blah, blah, blah…
UK & Canada: Craig Bates
This guy needs to be an Archbishop already. A solid theologian, a trained psychologist, one of the best preachers in the CEC and clearly a good pastor. Plus, we’re seeing growth in his diocese and even some building purchases happening in some of his churches. It’s more that can be said for the CEC in other parts of the country that seems to be on some kind of poverty program. I have rough words to say about the CEC at times (sour grapes, who knows) but the Lord is blessing Craig Bates and the work at his hands and I don’t think that anyone can dispute that.
Europe: TBD
I don’t know this Bishop but I hope he’s good. Europe needs some help. Why not +Elmer Belmonte? He’s actually in Europe. And, he’s not a white guy like everyone else in charge. (The Patriarch’s Council until recently consisted of the “cool kids club”. I think they finally let ++Garcia and an African bishop on the council.) It might actually be an effective strategy that the CEC might want to look into. Wait a second, that would actually mean a real strategy would be necessary and who are we kidding anyway? Perhaps I’ll stop when an actual headquarters building is purchased, health care coverage is available for churches that need it and a pension plan is in place. I mean, come on, this movement is 15 years old already. Baby steps…
Middle East: Mike Davidson
This plan might have some traction. +Davidson only has a handful of churches left these days. He’s closed yet another church in Wisconsin (Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Darien, WI). Good thing he has a full time job at his cathedral parish, and a cluster of churches in his midwest province. (So, that’s his cathedral, a house church in Wichita, a house church in Columbia, MO and Bread of Life in Wisconsin.) The churches that didn’t run off from the CEC in Virginia and Maryland as soon as they found out they would be getting him after Sly aren’t megachurches or anything. The chances of him effectively opening any new churches in his massive province are somewhere between slim and none given his track record. So, by all means, +Davidson will probably have time on his hands to squander his massive area of the Middle East, too. Plus his “lock and load” schtick might actually work there. They’ve been “locking and loading” on each other for centuries in the Middle East so enjoy your PATRIARCHAL LEGATE … he gets you.
Mexico/Central America: John Holloway
Again, this will likely need re-examining. He has a long road ahead of him for recovery. Likely +Gene Lilly who has been giving all the updates on +Holloway’s recovery might take over for him. David Epps might be another replacement. He has like a million ordained clergy serving at his church – it appears like a shadow cathedral on his website maybe it’s just me that gets that impression. He was also such a good bulldog for the CEC when all the mess exploded before everyone’s very eyes on the Ancient-Future forum. He kept pontificating on his silly little local newspaper column about people who talk on the blogs that shouldn’t be entitled to their opinions and likening them to terrorists. Perhaps he’ll be rewarded with a miter.
Well, there you have it. My take on the CEC Missions sham setup. Visit the website here and be dazzled by the pictures of purple shirts, fancy titles and the lack of progress.
11 comments
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August 1, 2007 at 8:33 pm
ancientneophyte
Your posted material sounds like my verbal ravings! But there is much I would like to say to you offline. Please e-mail me!
August 2, 2007 at 12:32 am
cechealing
You can e-mail me: cechealingblog@gmail.com
August 3, 2007 at 3:07 am
mommablogger
Just to clear things up about the CEC church in Wisconsin that you said was “closed”, that is not entirely accurate. Fr. Harry is retiring. The man should have retired years ago, but held on, even through his wife’s stroke. The church was not closed for any other reason than that.
August 3, 2007 at 12:27 pm
cechealing
The church was closed. How is that inaccurate? In most grown-up denominations, when a pastor retires, the bishop/overseer/superintendent just doesn’t decide to shut the doors of the church. Usually, there’s some work invovled to find a successor, see if anyone might be interested in taking over, etc., etc.
August 4, 2007 at 3:40 pm
mommablogger
It was a small church to begin with, and the few remaining parishoners left after some of the damage done about a while back were planning to retire. It was not closed because of anyone’s wrongdoing. Yes, we have a shortage of priests up here, but it was not something that was meant to last forever. The community there was not interested, and were mainly older people already embedded in their own churches. That church held on through some experiences that a few people I’m aware of wouldn’t have bothered staying through. Fr. Harry is one of the best priests I know, and to say that his church was closed as though something was wrong with it, is not being fair or accurate.
The building they had been in was sold, most of the people are retiring and moving away, it just wasn’t something that anyone felt needed to be forced to stay open. It was time for them to go. It’s as simple as that.
August 4, 2007 at 4:00 pm
cechealing
Wow. You’re totally missing the point. I never said anything about wrongdoing or was I trying to put down Fr. Harry.
And what’s this about a shortage of priests? At the cathedral in KS alone, there are 10 clergy PLUS a bishop. That’s more ordained clergy than the Episcopalian’s National Cathedral in Washington DC! How can there be a shortage when, at last check of the ICCEC’s website, there are plenty of clergy to go around to ALL of the churches in the midwest province?
Like it or not the church was closed. How is that unfair or inaccurate? You have a presence there that was built on the good work of Fr. Harry and his good name. You have at least a church name, logo, letterhead, etc., etc…
To choose to close all that up is an insult to the work that was put in through the years by all involved.
Again, this sounds like a church closure. It was open, and now it’s not. Hence, closed. You may not like my choice of words, but it is what it is.
August 6, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Anon
The problem is not a shortage of clergy, but a shortage of money. The ICCEC does not have the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to support a priest and his family, so they can’t just move a fellow to a new town — he would need to find his own employment, housing, and the like. In the meantime, the clergy continue to accumulate where the pool of candidates is.
August 6, 2007 at 9:13 pm
cechealing
Yes, very good point. But how does this thing break out from a “mom & pop operation” into the work it was supposed to be? Some dioceses appear to be better than others at being strategic in supporting clergy. Obviously, this one in WI is not one of them.
August 7, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Anon
Well, that’s (literally) the million-dollar question, isn’t it? It’s certainly possible to reach the “big time” — a number of evangelical churches have done so in the past decade. I’m sure that there is a lot of lessons learned that can be gained from them.
However, I keep coming back to the central stated purpose of the ICCEC: “The Charismatic Episcopal Church exists to make visible the Kingdom of God to the nations of the world; to bring the rich sacramental and liturgical life of the early church to searching evangelicals and charismatics; to carry the power of Pentecost to our brothers and sisters in the historic churches; and finally, to provide a home for all Christians seeking a liturgical-sacramental, evangelical, charismatic church and a foundation for their lives and gifts of ministry. ”
How many Christians are really looking to broaden their experience? How many are really willing to leave their respective traditions for “rich sacramental and liturgical life” or “the power of Pentecost”? It seems that the river runs the other way — Christians want to bring a broader experience of Christian worship into their home churches where they already have “a foundation for their lives and gifts of ministry”. This leaves the ICCEC paddling upstream, which makes it more of a resting place for those on the journey than a final destination. Sadly, this seems to be the case more and more.
August 30, 2007 at 12:26 am
xcecdeacon
I am glad to find others that are healing now since leaving the CEC.
I left a year ago and finally landed in Communion of Corpus Christi and I have to say, it is a far cry from the cultish experience I had in the CEC in the NE.
It is sad (to say the least) that the CEC had to go through schism to wake up, however I truly believe it is not over yet and another wave will hit in a few years. There is still too much baggage that (as far as I can tell) has not been dealt with.
From my perspective though (simple as it may be), whether it corrects its failings or not, it has announced that it is really just another protestant denomination with no intention of attempting to work toward the unity of The Church. (Naturally it needs to work on its own unity first.) That was the entire reason I entered holy orders in the CEC was that it was supposedly working toward being a bridge toward the church catholic – restoration of the One Body. We were moving more toward the catholic when all of a sudden it appears as though Adler brought it to a screeching halt, both by his actions (as poor as they were) and behavior as well as his declarations and those of Bates as well.
Well, enough of my pronouncement. Congratulations on your healing journey and I will check in from time to time to see how things are.
I am assuming that the poster “klampert” would be Fr Dave Klampert, the former Dean of the Cathedral under Bates and now rector of St. Michaels in Rhode Island.
Good to see that at least one of the brothers still talk to outsiders up there.
pax+
August 30, 2007 at 2:25 pm
cechealing
xcecdeacon-
Thanks for sharing. I hope this is of some use to you. I’ve found writing here has been extraordinarily helpful to me. I’m working through my own feelings of being hurt, betrayed, lied to, worked against, blackballed, etc., etc…
Oh well, I’ve not arrived to where I want to be. I’d really like to be a million miles away from where I am spiritually. I believe I’ll get there in God’s time and so long as I cooperate by letting some of this stuff go.
-cechealing