Desperate Efforts

Here's the latest desperate effort to discredit our presiding bishop and distract everyone from the weakness of the arguments of Bishops Iker and Schofield about their attempts to take TEC property.

The Living Church reports that "Sufficient legal grounds exist for presenting Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for ecclesiastical trial on 11 counts of violating the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church, according to a legal memorandum that has begun circulating among members of the House of Bishops.

"A copy of the April 21 document seen by a reporter representing The Living Church states Bishop Jefferts Schori demonstrated a 'willful violation of the canons, an intention to repeat the violations, and a pattern of concealment and lack of candor' in her handling of the cases of bishops Robert W. Duncan, John-David Schofield and William Cox, and that she 'subverted' the 'fundamental polity' of The Episcopal Church in the matter of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

"Prepared by an attorney on behalf of a consortium of bishops and church leaders seeking legal counsel over the canonical implications of the Presiding Bishop’s recent actions, it is unclear whether a critical mass of support will form behind the report’s recommendations for any action to be taken, persumably as a violation of the Presiding Bishop’s ordination vows."

I don't think it's unclear at all. This action has no credibility at all.

Plus, as one person on the Fort Worth Via Media list asked, "How can they bring ecclesiastical charges against someone they do not acknowledge as clergy?"

You can read what the PB wrote about the canons in a letter that was issued BEFORE this news story by the Living Church broke here. She lays out the situation very plainly, and in doing so quite effectively cuts the legs out from under this transparent effort to smear her and change the subject.

The boys are getting desperate.