People Unclear On The Innovation.

Some of the disaffected one-half of one percent of The Episcopal Church (tm) - you know, the ignorant clods who cling to bigotry and hate and don't read The New York Times - sent in some letters which Episcopal Life Online printed. For comedy relief, no doubt. First up, one Janine Taylor Bryant of Oklahoma City wants to turn back the clock to the first century:

'DESIGNER CHURCH'
With all the letters on Father [John] Butcher's "speed bump" issue on the creed, here be another.

We are no longer a liturgical church -- we are a designer church. We are a salad-bar church, a build-your-own blend of hymnody, prayer sources and unraveling liturgical core.

That is a recipe for disaster. It was for the followers of Arius, and it will prove to be for us. Even John Wesley, who never intended a Methodist Church, had one start under his ministry, and he insisted on a liturgical rule based on the BCP of his day. The worship tradition of that church (in which I grew up) is a factor that drove me away. I found solidity in the Episcopal Church instead of goofy innovation and very poor liturgics.

That is the future of the Episcopal Church if we don't get back to our roots, and the Nicene Creed is intrinsic to those roots.

And right after that judgmental side-splitter, one John H. Campbell, of Pittsburgh (so we strongly suspect he is currently in a cult), completely misses the point of The Episcopal Church (tm). He thinks it has to do with some kind of salvation:

CREEDS OKAY
In his August 1 letter "Creeds are lacking," the Rev. John Beverly Butcher uses the fact that "… the creeds speak of the birth of Jesus and then of his death. There is no mention of the life ... teachings ... the healing power of Jesus" in order to make his point, "The heart of the gospel is missing."

Conversely, I always have used this same observation -- that the life and works of Jesus are summed up by a comma in the creeds -- specifically to illustrate that Christ's atoning death and his birth (without which there could be no death) are precisely the heart of the gospel. Teachings and healings or not, we are all deserving of hell, and it is only through Christ's death and resurrection that we are saved. I see no defect in the creeds as written.

If these people were smart enough to subscribe to the House of Bishops/Deputies Listserv, they'd learn that the Creeds are sooo yesterday. I mean, they never mention the Baptismal Covenant once!