Thanks to a "heads-up" from Cathedral member, Betty Stead, and especially her link to a Jim McNaughton post on his Daily Episcopalian 'blog, we are becoming aware of remarks made by Bishop Bruce MacPherson (Western Louisiana) about Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the Primates' gathering in Tanzania. As Jim McNaughton put it in his entry on May 1, 2007:
"News of what transpires inside the Primates Meeting filters slowly through the Anglican system, so descriptions of Bishop Bruce MacPherson’s pointed personal attack on Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the meeting in Tanzania is just beginning to achieve wide circulation. Observers say that MacPherson, who had been invited to the meeting to speak on behalf of the bishops who had endorsed the Camp Allen principles, characterized Bishop Jefferts Schori as the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the Episcopal Church. The comments, observers said, went well beyond the issues under consideration at the meeting and included a general condemnation of her beliefs and her ministry. MacPherson’s remarks made those of Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, who spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion Network, seem mild by comparison, observers said."
While I am distressed about what Bishop MacPherson apparently had to say about our Presiding Bishop, the fact that he said it while speaking "… on behalf of the bishops who had endorsed the Camp Allen principles …" disturbs me even more. Must I, in the absence of dissenting voices, conclude that Bishop MacPherson's remarks about the Presiding Bishop in fact represent the views of all the so-called "Windsor Bishops", including our own Bishop Wimberly? If this is NOT the case, is a public dissent forthcoming?
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