The Exit of the Imperial Priesthood

I realized today that the decline of my dear Episcopal Church was more of a testiment to the resiliance and strength of the christian faith than any other event in my lifetime. When the priests quit preaching the Gospel, most of the Christians left. Where once sat hundreds of parishoners each Sunday to hear the good news, now sit few listening to the hollow echos of United Nations programs, and social change. Many who realized that the church organization has been hijacked by people with specific secular agendas and no particular affection for the gospel have turned away. Some agendas are radical social agendas, and others are as simple as a desire to ride out the last few years before retirement by living off the tithes of widows and elderly parishoners. In either case, parishoners are waking up, and walking away.

A Sunday tour of parishes will reveal nearly empty parking lots, and cavernous sanctuaries where there were once strong and thriving parishes. It is in these parishes where the drumbeat of secular agendas and the droning of posturing priests have driven the faithful to find new church homes. In these dying parishes, it isn't too uncommon to find tenured priests feeding off of the few remaining parish funds, fighting the tooth and nail to hang on to their positions while exhorting widows and elderly to contribute more and more to the church. If only the priesthood were as devoted to Gospel and the spiritual needs of their parishioners as they are to the maintenance of their own comfortable positions. The young families in the parishes have moved on seeking christian guidance and education for their children, but for many of the elderly, the neighborhood church is the only choice. As in nature, the elderly are ones the jackels take.

It would be very easy to condemn a corrupt priesthood. At first glance, it may appear to some that the apparent theft of the church organization itself, the neglect of the Gospel, and the abandoment of Christian principles would easily justify harsh judgement. But it's not our judgement to make.

At some point in the near future, a priest will look out from a dusty pulpit at an empty sanctuary, and realize the last of the parishioners have turned their back and walked away. The reserve fund is exhausted, and the long con is finally over. No one will be there to hear the latest news from the United Nations. When the last lonely, fallen priest leaves the dark and empty church and retires to his warm and comfy home overlooking a placid lake somewhere, a new, young, inspired priest in a cold and dusty warehouse will read the Gospel to a people eager to hear the good news. The faithful will again gather. That is the day of the rennaisiance of the Episcopal Church.