Ellington

On October 10th, the Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray III, Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi, wrote a pastoral letter to his diocese restating his support for the anti-gay Windsor Report.

But just in case folks were offended by his refusal to leave the Episcopal Church over the election of the (now) Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori as the first female presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church and wider Anglican Communion, Bishop Gray felt the need to level a pretty serious accusation against some of her supporters:

As I have said on other occasions, I am deeply disappointed in some of my colleagues in the House of Bishops, active and retired, who voted for Bishop Jefferts Schori, not from conviction, but in an intentional and deliberate effort to precipitate a crisis within the Communion. Their motives and actions shall have their judgment within the providence of God. You can expect me to live fully into this new day believing that God can redeem even the most mischievous of human actions.

This is what's wrong with mainline Christianity right now: The overwhelming fear its leaders have that at some time, somewhere, the church might accidentally do something bold and courageous.