Monday, February 23, 2009

The latest Ffrom TEC

From The Living Church Foundation:
The Diocese of Northern Michigan elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester as bishop Feb. 21 at a special diocesan convention.

Fr. Forrester, the
only candidate on the slate, was elected on the first ballot, receiving 88 percent of delegate votes and 91 percent of congregational votes, according to a diocesan news release.

The bishop-elect has served the diocese since 2001 as its ministry development coordinator and more recently as rector of St. Paul’s Church, Marquette, and St. John’s, Negaunee.

The announcement of Fr. Forrester’s nomination sparked controversy last month because he is also a practicing Buddhist and said he had
received Buddhist “lay ordination” and was “walking the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism together.”

Assuming sufficient consents are received from a majority of standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction, Fr. Forrester will be consecrated Oct. 17 in Marquette.


Well, if you can have Driud priests and Moslem priests, you certainly can't discriminate and deny the Episcopate to Buddhists, can you? Anything else would be, well, unEpiscopalian. I'm sure it's okay, as long as he doesn't take his Buddhism any more seriously tan he takes his Christianity. I've been in TEC churches where the worship service was largely navel-gazing, so most people probably won't even notice any difference.