Pagan Ritual Removed From Episcopal Women Ministries

Most interesting, especially the reference to the "vicious attack " by "Anglican fundamentalists" in Fr. Melnyk's frantic email (see the end of the article) requesting everyone on the Druidry.org message board to cover his tracks by deleting all reference to him. Now, unlike some, I'm not opposed to interfaith discussions, and even sharing of theological insights, but this....? I do feel real compassion, though, for the pair in the genuine suffering they're no doubt experiencing.

Episcopal Church's Office of Women's Ministries removes pagan ritual from website
"We have been astounded and grateful for the number of people who have taken an interest in The Office of Women's Ministries of the Episcopal Church through Christianity Today's recent weblog," begins a press release from that office today. "We profoundly regret that Christianity Today did not contact us before making claims such as, 'leaders of the Episcopal Church USA are promoting pagan rites to pagan deities.'"

Let's get one thing out of the way. Here's what we've repeatedly said, and this message is linked at the end of every Weblog posting: "Weblog is a compilation of articles, and therefore doesn't involve any original reporting, nor does it necessarily strive to separate hard news from opinion."

And Weblog stands by its "claim." Leaders is appropriate, since this appeared on the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) website, not some random priest's personal site or a message board somewhere. Promoting is accurate, since the Episcopal News Service sent out a dispatch Monday highlighting "worship resources that are currently available to be downloaded and used by all." This news release was on all three home pages of the ECUSA site. As for "pagan rites to pagan deities," see the Weblog.

The material questioned in Olsen's article, "A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine" was sent to us in good faith in response to our recent call for resources. We regret we did not realize that the material was copyright protected. Proper notifications were not included by mistake and so the page has been withdrawn from our website. …

The resources listed on our website are not approved liturgies of the Episcopal Church. These liturgies are intended to spark dialogue, study, conversation and ponderings around women and our liturgical tradition. There is quite a difference in presenting resources for people's interest and enlightenment and promoting resources as official claims of the Episcopal Church. Only General Convention has this authority.

So the problem with "A Women's Eucharist" is not that it directly sides with idols condemned in the Old Testament and idol worshipers, nor that it's a "Eucharist" with no mention whatsoever about the death or body of Christ, nor that it very deliberately takes the focus of worship off of God and on to woman. No, the problem is that it wasn't properly sourced.

And here's a question about the copyright protection. The very end of the "Women's Eucharist" page had the name and address of Glyn Lorraine Ruppe Melnyk, rector of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania. As we noted yesterday, she was also the woman who wrote it. One might have expected the notation at the end to indicate that she submitted it to the site as well. Surely if she did submit it, there wouldn't be such copyright problems. So perhaps we'll just trust the Office of Women's Ministries and believe that she was not the one who submitted it.

But the office's credibility is seriously undermined by its claim that it didn't promote the liturgy for actual use. Here's the line from the earlier press release:

The Office of Women's Ministries is working towards creating a resource to be used by women, men, parishes, dioceses, small groups, within the context of a Sunday morning service, or any other appropriate setting where the honoring of a woman's life passages and experiences beckons a liturgical response. … Although traditional liturgy acknowledges little of these aspects of women's lives, many women have taken up the task of creating and writing such liturgies for themselves or others. The Women's Liturgy Project has begun collecting worship resources written by women for women in order to create a resource that is accessible to all. There is already a working section on the Women's Ministries website that contains worship resources that are currently available to be downloaded and used by all. (emphasis added)

This was followed by a link to the page with the "Women's Eucharist" listed as the second of nine resources. The "Women's Worship Resources" (not "Dialogue Resources") page of the Office of Women's Ministries has toned down its description of the rites, but still urges readers to "use them for … gathering communities of worship."

David Roseberry, rector of Christ Church in Plano, Texas, one of the country's largest Episcopal churches, said he got much the same story when he phoned Office of Women's Ministries director Margaret Rose yesterday. In an e-mail to theologian Kendall Harmon, he recounts:

Her statement was this: "It is my personal theology that the clarity of who we are as Episcopalians is often enhanced by our engagement with things that are Other … and this is clearly Other."

I told her that the liturgy was non-Christian, non-biblical and did not represent her hopes for spreading the love of Jesus. … I told her that anything that promotes the earth as Mother is Pagan and non-Christian and non-biblical. She honestly seemed surprised by the statement … as surprised as she appears to be over the flurry of interest in the web page.

She also mentioned that the Windsor Report was out and that it encouraged this kind of dialogue and conversation, recognizing that we live in a pluralistic society. I asked her if she was authorized to open up a dialogue with a Pagan religion as a function of the ecumenical office of the Episcopal Church. She said that there were many staff people (herself among them) that represent the Episcopal Church in all kinds of dialogues with the National Council of Churches.

I asked her if her office would disavow the liturgy and disassociate themselves from it. She felt that the liturgy itself was a helpful tool in helping us to understand people of other faiths. She might, she said, put up a Muslim liturgy to engender the kind of debate and discussion that we are having about the Druid liturgy … .

That "other faiths" comment is important, because a key question—if not the key question—is how the Episcopal Church leadership (Rose included) views this liturgy and the church's relationship to it. Is it of a different faith? By promoting it, has the Episcopal Church itself become a non-Christian faith? Rose doesn't seem clear about whether this liturgy is ecumenical (of the church) or of "another faith." Perhaps she's confused because the ceremony directly references the Old Testament. But is offering sacrifices to ancient Canaanite idols antithetical to Christianity or not?

Scripture seems awfully clear on this point. "What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God," Paul told the church at Corinth. "I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"

The Office of Women's Ministries' response? "Well, it depends on the copyright."

By the way …
Bill Melnyk, the Episcopal priest who goes by the name OakWyse when he's a "Druid" or "Wiccan" priest, is apparently concerned that news about his activities has leaked out. A frantic message appeared on the Druidry.org message board today (registration is now required, but the message may no longer be there). No proof that Melnyk is actually the author, but here it is:

Raven [apparently Glyn Lorraine Ruppe Melnyk, the Episcopal rector and author of the "Women's Eucharist"] and I have come under vicious attack from Anglican fundamentalists re our connection to druidry. Hour by hour the attacks are spreading on fundamentalist BLOGs across the country.

I ask Kernos to leave this one notice up for a day or two, but then to do a universal delete of all references to Druis. Please delete my membership. I cannot stress how serious this is. If you respond, please do not use my name in your response.

Kernos - the polls will take care of themselves—please note the winners when they are over.

We reiterate the Editorial Commentary from 'Apostle1.com' regarding the original news article: The original article shows how Synchrestic Ecumenism is alive and doing well these days... A most unforgiving action which violates the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the ancient Church Catholic both East and West. Sadly to say, the Evil One has infected the Episcopal Church, as the Evil One has also infected so very many other jurisdictions of the One, Holy, Catholic Church. The National Council of Churches is the offshoot of the World Council of Churches which was the origination of the Greek Orthodox Church in the very beginnings. But, as some of the news postings have shown, even the Greek Orthodox are now re-evaluating their past actions although many of their jurisdictions maintain membership in and with the World Council of Churches and/or the World Council of Bishops - both being heretical to the ancient epitome of the Canons. .

As to the Episcopal Church, it must be remembered that NOT ALL Episcopal Churches are connected to each other but operate under different "Synods" which have theological views that sometimes oppose each other as regards 'ordination of women,' 'Synchrestic Ecumenism,' and more. It is strongly urged and suggested that before making any statements about the whole 'Episcopal Church' that one research the 'Synod' to which the parish or local church may belong for it may indeed make all the difference in the world as to their core beliefs and understandings. Not all of them have as yet 'gone to hell in a hand-basket' although it would appear that most churches of the Christian faith are heading that way regardless of whether they be the "Episcopal Church," "Roman Catholic," "Orthodox Catholic," "Anglican," etc.

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