The Episcopal Church in America (ECUSA) is looking for the next bishop of the Chicago diocese, and their committee has nominated a sexually-active lesbian priest as one of the finalists. Orthodixie has a fine round-up along with excellent comments. One blogger that Fr. Joseph linked to mentioned the ECUSA committee’s “Bishop Search Prayer,” (link HERE) which I find unfortunately revealing:

Almighty God, prosper with your blessing the mission and ministry of our diocese. You have blessed us with the ministry of the Rt. Rev. William Persell. We thank you for his ministry to us as chief pastor and leader in the Church. Stir up in us the grace and power of your Spirit, as we begin the search for our next Bishop. Give to our search committee inquiring and discerning hearts, that they may clearly see your will. Give us all the courage to dream and the will to persevere to make those dreams a reality. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and ground us in the knowledge and love of you. Empower us with the gifts of joy and wonder as we seek out the special ministry you have for us together in our diocese; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mind you, in some ways, it’s a dandy prayer. If the Mainstream Media see fit to cover this at all, they’d be bound to think that it offered all that we religious types could possibly want. “Grace and power of your Spirit”…”inquiring and discerning hearts” … excellent, excellent. But then comes that one sentence, and you feel like it had to be there. They didn’t pray that God would lead them in the path of righteousness, or that He would give them courage to make the RIGHT decision. They prayed for the courage to DREAM.

Since when is it an ambition to pick the next bishop? Can you imagine our bishops praying that God would enable them to live the dream of appointing Fr. So-and-so to the bishopric? It’s nonsense apart from the context of an agenda that needs to be pushed through. And, more sinister, since when does a committee pray to God for the will to perservere in that decision? As this blogger puts it, it sounds to me like the committee is “not so much beseeching the Lord for a favor as obliquely chiding his more cautious brethren to accept the progressive vision of the future as God’s will.”

So God help the ECUSA and any (lower-case o) orthodox Christians left therein. It’s not for certain that “Rev. Tracey” (sorry, but … yuck!) will be appointed, but if she is, will we start to see Episcopalians knocking on the Big Eastern Church door? Others like this commenter have made the switch, but Fr. Joseph agreed with this commenter that it’s probably too late for that.

Which prompts me to remember the importance of having truly pious clergy shepherding the flock. The ECUSA didn’t just wake up last week and decide to be this morally impaired — it must’ve happened over the course of many small decisions that seemed like nothing at the time. God help our Orthodox priests and bishops to truly have courage and discernment. As the daily prayers say, “Save and have mercy upon all right-teaching clergy of Thy Church, which Thou hast purchased with Thy precious blood, and by their prayers, save me, a sinner.”