A.S. Haley: From the Outside in, or Vice Versa?

May 7th, 2009

How Others See the Episcopal Church (USA):

An Anglican priest, a Muslim and a Zen Buddhist walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What can I get you, lady?"

Anglican jokes, like Anglicans, aren’t something you run across too often. That’s too bad, because there’s a rich vein of absurdity to be mined in the Church of the Frozen Chosen.

Thus Toronto writer Nancy Gall opens her recent piece, "Ecumenism Gone Wild", in the Holy Post, the religion blog of Canada's Daily Post. The "Church of the Frozen Chosen" is explained elsewhere this way: "Where the Lord warms your heart---but only a little bit." Ms. Gall continues:

Take Reverend Ann Holmes Redding — or just plain Ann as she’ll soon be, having been deposed as an Episcopalian priest for declining to stop being a Muslim. Ms. Redding, a priest of 20 years standing and the director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, WA., saw no reason to turn in her white collar when she found herself drawn to Islam in 2006. Given a year or so to think it over, the “Islamopalian,” as she’s known in the hillbilly encampments of the Anglican blogosphere, was finally deposed by her bishop earlier this month when she refused to disavow her dual religious identity.

“I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman,” she told the Seattle Times in June, 2007. “I’m 100% both.”

"Church of the Frozen Chosen," "Islamopalian"---the epithets just ask to be invented, given that the subject is religion as witnessed by today's Episcopal Church. First, of course, comes its current leaning toward Zen Buddhism: the rest-don't miss this!