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The Old Oligarch expounds on modesty and swim ware inspired by a post by Theresa MF. The whole post is well worth reading as he states "The burqa and the bikini are polar extremes of the same fundamental error."

There is a sickness in a society that makes children’s thongs. Recently there have been some murmurings of a possible return to some level of modesty, but for the most part the slutification of our socieity continues.

It use to anger me the amount of skin displayed on magazines as you approach the checkout lane or what I call "temptation aisle." Taking possession of my eyes looking neither right or left like I was being sung to by the sirens. I read a tip on a Carmelite list serve where they suggested instead of getting angry that to spend the time praying for the publishers and those involved.

I do wish that stores had a policy that posters and full sized advertisement displayed would have to conform to the same clothing standard as the shoppers. If someone went to a store dressed like the pictures displayed they would be arrested. And don’t even get me started on modesty at Mass. Sometimes after leaving the Church I look around for the swimming pool that these people must have dressed for.

Oh and by the way the Old Oligarch finally got around to adding a site feed. So now those with aggregators can easily track his latest posts.
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Update: SecretAgentMan weighs in with a post on male dress at Mass called Dressing like a Doofus.

Two years I started my first blog "Atheist to a Theist" at blogspot with this entry and a quote from G.K. Chesterton.

"It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are one very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on."

Back in June of 2002 Tim Drake wrote an article on Catholic blogging that first let me know about St. Blogs. The article mentioned Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, Kathy Shaidle, Kathryn Lively, Pete Vere, Tom Kreitzberg and others. I only recognized Mark’s name and googled his site since the article had not hard links to sites. I soon started visiting the links on Marks blogroll and soon the people in the article and others became daily stops for me. As what has happened to many others commenting on other people sites leads you to the ego jump of starting your own blog.

My original intent was to comment on politics and the Catholic Church. As a recent convert I wanted to develop my new faith and expound upon life via my new Catholic eyes. I had never envisioned doing comedy via my blog. This just goes to show how little I knew myself. It took me all but two weeks to introduce comedy into a post with my Top ten list for you might be in a "spirit of Vatican II" parish if: Six months later I moved to Movable Type on my own domain with The Curt Jester. You can easily guess the Jester connotation and since my punditry is normally short and to the point I used Curt. But mainly because I liked the pun on Court Jester since one of my favorite movies is The Court Jester with Danny Kaye.

Blogging is much cheaper than a psychoanalyst and it is good to get pet-peeves off your chest. Plus I have found that it has forced me to think deeper on issues and to research what the Catholic Church has said on various subjects. I could easily had set the tone of my blog to be that of the Wanderer or the Remnant which I might of had a natural affinity to do. I complain about issues in the Church such as liturgy, but I try to do it with humor and charity (not always succeeding on either count). Steven Riddle had a defense of blogging of which I largely agree. Blogging is great for humility. I thought I knew a lot more about the Catholic faith then I really did when I started blogging. I have learned a lot more than I might have inadvertently taught. The other good thing for humility is that you might slave over a post that becomes almost like another child to you and it gets little or no attention. Then you put up something that you are not quite satisfied with and that one gets pointed to. I use to wonder how comic strip writers could come up with something funny to say everyday, and then I realized that they don’t always come up with something funny – some days are duds. Just like comedy blogging, some ideas are just duds.

The one annoying thing about writing daily is when you are not a writer. I am in no way a perfectionist, but I know how much lacking my prose is. I think might stuff reads like grammatical speed-bumps. I never intended to write, but then again I never intended to become a Catholic. So once again a entrance for humility when commenters tell you how you have grammatically butchered the English language. These comments have been useful since they have helped me to improve my writing a little bit.

St. Blogs is much like the communion of saints. We come to know and to pray for others that we have never met or seen. So again thanks to those who read my blog, and for bloggers who have blogrolled it or linked to my posts.

Other Blog Birthdays:

Steven Riddle of Flos Carmeli had his two year blogging anniversary on July 19th.

Bernhardt Varenius of Anti-Socialist Tendencies also celebrated his two year blog anniversary this week. And by the way Bernhardt I am still awaiting my " toenail clipper with a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it! Direct from a tacky little shop in Mexico City" prize for naming your site.

Also my fellow editor over at Catholic! Kerry Watch, Earl E. Appleby of Times Against Humanity also celebrates his one year blog anniversary today.

A SEARCH continues for survivors of an unidentified dhow which collided with a 1,000-foot US aircraft carrier in international waters in the Arabian Gulf late on Thursday.

During night flight operations the USS John F Kennedy collided with the dhow at approximately 10:20pm.

A statement released by the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet yesterday said that all indications are that the dhow sank as a result of this accident.

"John F Kennedy and HMS Somerset immediately launched helicopters and small boats to search for any crew members of the dhow. US Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft were launched to assist in the search and rescue operation.

"Although a debris field has been located, no survivors or remains have been found. Rescue operations are continuing.

"All airborne aircraft from Kennedy’s airwing were recovered and all crew members have been accounted for. No Kennedy personnel were injured," said the statement.
[Full Story]

The U.S.S. Kennedy is stationed here at N.A.S. Mayport. This story reminds me of something that happened on my first ship in July of 1980

On July 29, Midway collided with the Panamanian merchant ship Cactus while transiting the passage between Palawan Island of the Philippines and the coast of Northern Borneo 450 nautical miles southwest of Subic Bay enroute to Singapore. While Midway sustained no serious damage, two sailors working in the liquid oxygen plant were killed, three were injured, and three F-4 Phantom aircraft parked on the flight deck were damaged.

I will never forget this incident. My shop was located underneath the flight deck and so was extremely noisy when launching aircraft via the cats. I had created a set of headphones using "Mickey Mouse" ear protectors. This kept most of the outside noise out and the noise of my music in. I was working on a piece of avionics gear in my shop when the collision occurred. I did not hear the sound of the initial impact or the collision alarm, but sure felt it. When I took my headphones off I heard the ship making a terrible sound almost like it was chiming from the impact. The ship started to rock and I could see the faces of the people in my shop just about turn white. I had no idea what had just occurred, but our Ensign Mr. Brown came running into our shop telling us to evacuate it. The next couple of hours were spent on the hangar deck where we heard just about every rumor possible. Later we learned of the deaths of the two sailors in the LOX plant who were crushed between the bulkhead and the plant.

The year previous the U.S.S. Ranger had been hit by another Panamanian merchant ship and was damaged so badly that they never ended up going into the Indian Ocean by instead went to Yokusuka, Japan for repairs. We had recently come off deployment but instead when out for another tour to replace the Ranger. I always wondered if these "accidents" might have been intentional since Panamanian registry was given to any country that paid for it. The Cactus had made a U-Turn directly into our ship and besides taking of the tales of F-4s on the flight deck, the collision took off catwalks and destroyed an aircraft elevator. We figured that was it for that cruise, but after only two weeks of repairs at the base at Subic Bay where they brought in the very industrious Japanese shipyard workers we were back on cruise with a new elevator, catwalks, and a Liquid Oxygen truck to replace our LOX plant. After an investigation our Captain was not relieved as it was found that there was nothing he could have done to prevent the accident. This is pretty rare that after a major accident of this nature that the Captain isn’t relived on some pretext.

During the repair and removal of the old LOX Plant I found out something quite surprising to me. The welding burns of where they removed the plant burned the tiling in my shop. I found out that the LOX plaint was directly underneath where I had been standing at the time. So obviously I am pretty thankful that the LOX plant did not blow.

Would you eat food cooked in your own urine? Food scientists working for the US military have developed a dried food ration that troops can hydrate by adding the filthiest of muddy swamp water or even peeing on it.

The ration comes in a pouch containing a filter that removes 99.9 per cent of bacteria and most toxic chemicals from the water used to rehydrate it, according to the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts. This is the same organisation that created the "indestructible sandwich" that will stay fresh for three years (New Scientist print edition, 10 April 2002).

The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry. One day’s food supply of three meals, weighs 3.5 kilograms but that can be reduced to about 0.4 kilograms with the dehydrated pouches, says spokeswoman Diane Wood.

The pouch – containing chicken and rice initially – relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine. When two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semipermeable membrane, with gaps that allow only water molecules to pass through, the water is drawn to the more concentrated side.
[Full Story]

This gives new meaning to piss-poor rations.

Here is an introductory history on Carmel wrote about a year and a half ago which appeared on the now defunct Our Lady of Lorreto Carmelite Chapel blog.

The Carmelite Order is unique among orders since the founding of the start of the order is shrouded in history. Every other order that I know of you can point to a founder or founders as to the establishment of that religious order. The names of the various orders have been chosen by the founders themselves or were later named based on the founders. It does not take long to discover who the founders of the Dominicans, Benedictines, Franciscans are but the Carmelites are a different story.

The Crusades were in a period of time from 1095-1291 and were conducted mainly to free the Holy Lands from Islamic control. The majority of the people in the crusades contrary to the modern view were pious landowners who joined the crusades in order to free the Holy Lands. Many of them already had significant land ownings and were not seeking more wealth in conquest. These men were betrayed in multiple occasions by some men among their leaders who used the Crusades as a front for power.

I can well imagine the disillusionment of some of these crusaders. The vocation of a soldier is an important one when conducted to save lives and to protect others. The vocation of the contemplative life is an even higher calling especially when souls are saved and protected. The history of the Carmelites contains many instances of military men coming into the order. During the time period of Third Crusades some of these crusaders and pilgrims started to live on the western slope of Mount Carmel. We do not have any details as to who these first men were or how many of them there were. Somewhere around 1150 or a bit earlier these settlements must have occurred since from historical documents we have no mention of hermits much earlier than this.

Mount Carmel resonates with the history of the Old Testament and there was no greater prophet than St. Elijah in the history of Mt. Carmel. We can imagine the influence that mighty figure had on those who first lived in hermitage there. St. Elijah was a great model of both prayer and action. Around 1190 these Christian hermits living on Mt. Carmel constructed and dedicated their first chapel to Our Lady, demonstrating the important Marian character of the Order from the beginning. Carmelite spirituality has seen the small cloud that appeared at St. Elijah’s beckoning to end the three years of drought as a sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The ruins of this chapel still stand today. These hermits became known as the Brothers of St. Mary of Mt. Carmel.

From historic documents all that is know is of a prior with the initial "B", this person has normally been attributed as Berthold. Unfortunately much of Carmelite history is mixed with pious traditions and little historical basis. What we do know is that this Prior went to St. Albert of Jerusalem in the year 1206 to have a rule drawn up and to petition Rome for the acceptance of this new order. We do not know how much of this first rule was written by St. Albert or how much might have been contributed by then prior of this community. The Rule of St. Albert is a wondrous document which is both simple and direct but also contains greats depths pertaining to living the monastic life. Reforms of the order most always looked back at this document as a starting point and the rules written today also reflect much from to this document. This rule can be summarized as:

* Each hermit is to live in a cave or cell of his own.

* They are to spend their time meditating on the word of God and watching in prayer, unless other duties require their attention.

* Every morning they are to come together to celebrate the Eucharist.

* All they possess is to be held in common and distributed to each according to his age and needs.

* At least once a week, they are to come together to discuss the observance of the main points of the Rule and what concerns the salvation of their souls. This is the time to draw attention to any fault, be it in an individual or in the community as a whole, with a view to its correction.

* They are to be austere in their eating habits: no meat at any time, a fast from the Exaltation of the Holy Cross to Easter. It was accepted that delicate health, illness or any just cause could excuse one from the fast or abstinence, as necessity knows no law.

* The Patriarch then goes on to exhort them to live by faith, hope and charity and never to forget that life is an ongoing battle. Their whole energy must be directed, he said, towards loving God above everything else and loving their neighbor as themselves; and they were to look to the Lord alone for their salvation.

* Work, something essential in the whole monastic tradition,is to be an integral part of their way of life. Following the example of St. Paul, it can be a means of earning their livelihood as well as a means of avoiding idleness – the occasion of so many temptations.

* If they are to ponder God’s law day and night, then silence is indispensable. During the day they must avoid all unnecessary speech and at night – from Vespers till Terce next morning – all communication is forbidden.

* Should anyone wish to do even more than is required here, concludes Albert, he may do so, and the Lord will reward him when he comes. Let everything be done with that moderation which is the hallmark of all true virtue.

The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was officially recognized by the church in 1222 by Pope Honorius III who approved the rule given by Saint Albert. These original Carmelites attempted in their mode of dress to approximate that of what St. Elijah wore. This was a long black tunic reaching to the ground, girded by a leather belt. Over this they wore a a cloak in imitation of Elijah’s mantle. They also added a cowl in initiation of European religious dress. Attached to this cowl was two pieces of cloth which hung down to the knees. This scapular was a practical addition which was used to protect the monk’s habit while they worked, but it was to become an article of deep religious significance in the Carmelite Tradition.

These first Carmelites spent most of their time in prayer but would come off the mountain at times to preach and to involve themselves in charitable endeavors. Over time living on Mt. Carmel became increasing difficult. Moslems invaded the community in 1263 and vandalized the small chapel at wadi ‘ain es-sich without destroying it. Pope Urban IV granted an indulgence to whomever would contribute to the restoration of this chapel and in 1264 this chapel was restored and enlarged. In 1291 with the fall of Acre this put a end for the time being of the Carmelite Order being able to stay on Mt. Carmel.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam reports:

A brief statement by William Lacy Clay, Jr re:Meeting with Archbishop Burke
On radio station KTRS 550AM this afternoon during the drive time local news update, Representative Clay indicated that his meeting with Archbishop Burke went well and they are going to continue to meet. The first meeting, he said, was a religious moment, more of a religious meeting. Neither party is discussing the details of the meeting.

This is good news in that Rep. Clay and Archbishop Burke are going to continue to talk and to meet again.

Previously Rep. Clay had said:

Clay has said that Burke "has gone too far" by saying that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive Communion and that voters who support them should go to confession before receiving the sacrament.

He said Burke was delving into politics and perhaps the church should surrender its nonprofit status.

This latest statement sounds hopeful so please pray for Rep. Clay and Archbishop Burke that further talks will open him up to grace and the truth of the dignity of all human life regardless of it’s size.

This reminds me of the story of Ahab and Elijah in 1st Kings 21:

Ahab said to Eli’jah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring evil upon you; I will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jerobo’am the son of Nebat, and like the house of Ba’asha the son of Ahi’jah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin.And of Jez’ebel the LORD also said, `The dogs shall eat Jez’ebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ Any one belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat." (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jez’ebel his wife incited. He did very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.) And when Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Eli’jah the Tishbite, saying, "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his house."

So if good truly does come of this I wonder where the critics of the "harsh and intolerant" Archbishop Burke will be? Have you ever heard of someone repenting because their Bishop was uncomfortable or did not want to place people in tough situations?

On two separate occasions Catholics on retreat at a parish in Jacksonville, Florida, have reported remarkable images in and around exposition of the large Host known as the Blessed Sacrament.

The events were recorded at St. Joseph’s Church in the Mandarin area of the city and join a growing number of reports concerning Eucharistic phenomena from around the world — as if to remind that world of the True Presence.

A few days ago we reported the spiritual benefits of adoration in front of the Host and quoted a woman who claimed to see a radiant mist in connection with it. The phenomena often go beyond that, to reports of details and visual effects witnessed — as in the case of Jacksonville — by dozens of people.

The events began on November 6, 1999, and were also witnessed by priests, including Father Bernard Ahern, a retired Navy chaplain who recounted that in the midst of the retreat — the middle of Saturday afternoon — a woman came into the room "hysterically" crying that she had seen Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed during the retreat.

"I then went into the chapel myself to find out what was happening, and I, also, saw the Face of Jesus in the Eucharist," the priest told two chroniclers of the events, who produced a booklet on the occurrences. "The color of the image was a sepia color, a light brown and white. There were many other people who also saw Him. I was skeptical and thought that there might be some shadows in the back of the monstrance, or light in front of it causing the image. But I found no basis for this after checking the surrounding area, and realized I saw what I saw."
[Full Story]

I heard about this after it originally happened. The Pastor of my parish, Fr. Leon, told our Carmelite group about it. The two priests involved had contacted him after it happened and he had asked them why they hadn’t notified the Bishop during the almost hour that it was observed. He told us that the priest felt rather foolish for not calling the Bishop immediately. This happened in the chapel of what was the older Church built before there new Church was built. They are still maintaining the older Church since it is part of the grounds where they have a school. Even though this is pretty close to where I live I have never visited their previous Chapel. While I found the story interesting and relying on my pastor’s opinion to be credible, I don’t worry about following signs. That Jesus is in the Eucharist is already something I firmly believe and I would prefer to rely on the eyes of faith.

Fr. Leon also told us that one of the people there that he talked to was upset that his wife who is a convert saw it and that he as a cradle Catholic did not. I would hope that I myself would not react that way. That hopefully I would rejoice in a visible sign given my wife and to rejoice that perhaps God thought that my faith was strong enough with out it.

Google’s mail system Gmail, which offers 1 gigabyte of storage space, is still in public beta. Watching Tech TV yesterday I found out that these GMAIL accounts were being auctioned for between $20 and $80 dollars by people who currently have accounts. Since Google owns blogger.com they offered some blogspot bloggers (1 in 20) an account. I created one before and now I am allowed to invite three people to have their own accounts. So if you are interested I will give away those accounts to the first three people that email me here requesting them.

Update: There are gone now.

There are many pitfalls when you are both a Christian and a pundit. It is too easy to lose sight of the purpose of any argumentation or fisking on a subject. Scoring rhetorical points can override defending and trying to make known the truth. We can toss up lines like "hate the sin, but love the sinner", but it is quite another matter to not mix up the two on a day-to-day basis. Self-righteousness is the briar patch that it is all to easy to fall to when your are criticizing the actions or beliefs of others. I have heard that converts such as myself are especially susceptible to the dark side of radical traditionalism where Masonic plots dot the landscape. It is easy to get frustrated seeing liturgical abuses, but we must give all our trust in the Lord that he is guiding his Church and where there are problems that we do what we can to remove them. I think a useful Gospel passage from Luke 18 is always a god thing to meditate on, especially for those defending the faith.

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

When viewing this highly secularized culture via the eyes of faith it is easy to see all of the sicknesses and problems that the culture of death produces. We can see those without faith as the proverbial "them" instead of a brother in need of the Gospel. We can grow outraged at headlines, articles, news stories and have anger towards those involved. While righteous anger over sin is good, it is worthless if not basked in charity and backed up by prayer and in some cases action. John the Baptist preached the message of repentance and was a pundit when it came to the marriage of Herod the tetrarch. But first he was rooted in asceticism and prayer and probably spent much time as a hermit in prayer before engaging the public. Jesus often had harsh words for hypocrites and others and over and over again he goes away to pray.

Prayer is the very foundation that has to be built first if we truly want to evangelize others and to spread the truth. I am no prayer warrior (still in prayer boot camp actually) but I know the dangers of punditry without prayer. When you are not praying and meditating daily it is too easy to become uncharitable. First reflect on your own sin before raising your gaze to others. I work to start each day with the Liturgy of the Hours, spiritual reading, prayer, and meditation before the first electron buzzes around in my computer. There have been times when I was slothful in that habit and I noticed the negative effects it had on my days. There have been posts that I have started by not finished because I realized that they crossed the line from charity into something else. The same thing happens sometimes with items I posted where later I revised them to be more in conformance of charity. Parody and sarcasm can sometimes be useful tools to illustrate a point, but prudence has to be used to prevent them from slipping into what I call sarcaustic comments.

In some ways spending most of my life as an atheist has helped me prepare in my writings and judgments. That I now have faith is something I see only as pure gift. I thought throughout my life that I had been seeking the truth when actually it was the opposite and truth was seeking me. Who am I to judge as to when someone might come to faith. Whether it is in the morning, midday, or end of life that someone comes to faith I can do nothing but rejoice. In Matthew 20 it says:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, `You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, `Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, `Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, `You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, `Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, `These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, `Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last."

So if someone yet has no faith then I can only pray that they come to it and that nothing in my words or actions will harden them to God’s grace. What would pundits have said about a pre-conversion St. Paul? Well we do know that they were quite suspicious of Saul’s sudden conversion. But this conversion of his into a new life started with prayers of St. Stephen as he was being stoned to death. And if somebody has faith but their actions do not yet reflect it; we can remember Peter before and after Pentecost and pray for the Holy Sprit to come down upon them. Reading multiple stories and news sources should provide plenty of opportunity to spark the practice of intercessory prayer. If we can go through a day’s reading and not pray for someone during that time then we really need to reevaluate our attitude. Again I am speaking of the voice of some experience with multiple failures in this area.

An examination of conscience for pundits.

When we are complaining about our Bishop, first are we praying for them?
When we complain about the dearth of vocations, are we praying to the Lord of the Harvest to provide.
When we complain about the heretical views of Catholic politicians, do we also remember them in our prayers.
When a priest falls or seems to be preaching other than the true faith, are we praying for them?
For those faithful clergy and lay people are we praying to support them and thanking them when able?
When we complain about the destruction of the family our we also praying with and for our families?

*This post is part othe Christian Carnival that Karen Marie Knapp of From the Anchor Hold is hosting this week on the 14th of July.

Bishop Gene Robinson failed the first major test of his episcopacy this past
week after all but three members of a New Hampshire congregation voted to secede
from the diocese rather than accept his authority as Bishop.

“We offered [the parish] 95 per cent of what they were seeking,” Bishop
Robinson said. “They chose not to accept any offer, would not grant the
final five percent of authority that allows the tiniest thread of relationship
with their bishop.”

Redeemer’s Senior Warden Jerry DeLemus stated the parish “remained
united in principle and action last night” and was “true to the
authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Jesus Christ”

The Rochester parish has been a sore spot in Bishop Robinson’s campaign
to win over opponents in New Hampshire. The parish vicar, the Rev Donald Wilson,
an opponent of his election, was dismissed for contumacy in November. Over
the past six months, the congregation witnessed public confrontations between
diocesan officials and traditionalists and an exodus of parishioners to other
denominations and Episcopal parishes.

…A spokesman for the departing congregation, Richard Ellwood, told The Church
of England Newspaper, that as a matter of conscience the parish could not accept
the episcopacy of Bishop Robinson. “Because of Robinson’s unrepentant
sin, the very idea that he would be ordained a priest let alone consecrated
a bishop is abhorrent and a violation of canon law and Scripture.”

As a matter of conscience also, Bishop Robinson noted he could not agree to
a proposal that would undercut the US House of Bishops’ agreed statement on
Delegated Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) and was “upholding my vows as a bishop
and my responsibilities under the canons of the church”.
[Full
Story]

This is a good example of the silliness of conscience without
formation. A conscience that has been formed by one’s likes and dislikes is
not a conscience but a mirror or the ultimate yes man. The size of the congregation
is like the Agatha Christie novel "Ten Little Indian", there falling faster
than somebody gets murdered in a slasher film.