Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme

Shrimp here. In a Christianity Today blog entry reporting on the west-central Illinois Diocese of Quincy's vote last Friday and the upcoming vote this weekend in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, to leave The Episcopal Church entitled "The (Episcopal) Snowball Effect," Timothy Morgan brings to our attention a campaign beign organized for next year's TEC General Convention.

The group WAKE UP wants the repeal of Resolution B-033 which, believe it or not, formally expects Episcopal Church leaders to refrain from same-sex rites and consecration of non-celibate bishops who are in homosexual relationships. Morgan quotes WAKE UP:

WAKE UP is a coalition of concerned Episcopalians who seek a Full Inclusion Church. We came into being during the summer of 2006, following the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. While pleased at the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop, we experienced the passage of Resolution B-033 as a betrayal of the Church's professed acceptance of lesbian and gay Christians as full members of the Body of Christ. We also view with alarm the attempts of some, both within and outside the Episcopal Church, to move us in a direction of exclusion, intolerance, and dogmatic "purity codes" that have never been part of the Anglican heritage. Our primary purpose is to TAKE ACTION to STOP THE APPEASEMENT of theological bullies, and protect the Anglican heritage of inclusion and openness that has been passed down to us. We value the unity of the Anglican Communion, but not at the price of appeasement and injustice.

Makes the ELCA's pro-gay Good Soil coalition sound positively moderate, doesn't it? At least for now. But observe how the more things go the gay lobby's way within the church, the more strident its language becomes...

Shrimp out.