Are we now a dog-eat-dog church?

OK, so I'm growing weary of posts reporting more schism and dissension, when I'd rather post mission news. Still, this stuff is news, so I guess it belongs here.

Springfield and Central Florida have joined the other four dioceses in seeking Alternative Primatial Oversight. In related news, speaking of alternative bishops, the Martyn Minns adventure gets an update. Virginia Bishop Peter Lee has written a letter in which he speaks very frankly about Minns and his decision to be elected as a bishop of the Anglican Church in Nigeria. Lee says,

The election of the Rev. Martyn Minns as a Bishop of the Church of Nigeria with oversight of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America is an affront to the traditional, orthodox understanding of Anglican Provincial Autonomy. Archbishop Akinola acknowledges as much in his letter to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. How that situation resolves itself remains to be seen. However, the request by Archbishop Akinola that Martyn be allowed to continue as rector of an Episcopal congregation while also serving as a Nigerian Bishop seems to me, at this point, to be impossible.

Lee is responding to the notion that Minns would remain as rector of Truro Church (an Episcopal Church) while also serving as a bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (a group that seeks to set up parallel jurisdictions, and which comes under the authority of the Archbishop of Nigeria, who has pronounced himself out of communion with The Episcopal Church). Minns has said this, in a letter posted on the Truro Church website:

What does this mean for Truro? It most certainly does NOT mean that Truro will be left without a rector. I’m not going anywhere. The vestry has endorsed my continuing as Truro’s rector until the rector search committee completes its job and a new rector has been selected.

Again, I'm not quite sure what the hurry is. What about the listening process? Where is the time and space for reconciliation. Apparently the calendar is too full of meetings planning parallel provinces, elevating more priests to be bishops, and finding ways to undermine the Episcopal Church.

In our jargon-rich world, this situation has demanded some acronyms, and we finally have them. First there was Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO). Then England brought us TEA and SEO. Now, thanks to Jim Naughton has brought us ALPO: ALternative Primatial Oversight.

This suggests a possible solution to our church woes. Maybe Lorne Greene is the answer. We could channel him to solve our woes. He'll use charm and wisdom, and cute dogs, to fix everything. If the primates can't deal with our PB-elect, we'll send them another kind of leader (a guy who, by the way, runs a battlestar). That'll teach 'em to play nasty. If love, justice, and inclusion aren't the Gospel, we'll just invoke the good old lex talionis.