I was unduly dismissive of Bishop Robinson yesterday morning; from everything I hear about him, he is (and will be) a marvelous bishop to all who can receive his ministry. Moreover, he’s a spectacular bishop to a number of Episcopalians, who have longed for a presence such as his. I have heard only positive things about his pastoral sensibilities and his work with the church in New Hampshire.
I was thinking about other things, and perhaps trying to justify (to myself) my not trekking down to St. Edmunds; I usually don’t hop around Chicago to meet every bishop who comes to town (I often enough miss opportunities to see long-time friends who pass through Chicago, it being a big city and all). Doing so in a public way, though, may have communicated the impression that I lack respect for Bishop Robinson. That’s not the case at all, and I give thanks for his ministry. I hear he preached an excellent sermon, and I know his visit meant a lot to many colleagues and friends.
Posted by AKMA at February 9, 2004 08:15 AM | TrackBackThis may have been one of those times when I look back and wish I had kept my mouth shut, but oh well.
"Doing so in a public way, though, may have communicated the impression that I lack respect for Bishop Robinson." To whom would that lack of respect be communicated to? If people are going to extrapolate beliefs based on actions without actually verifying the reasons for those actions from the source, then, in my humble opinion, they need to get a life. I know, not very pastoral. Maybe it's the fact that I've spent almost three years being in an environment where people have felt the need to tiptoe around sensitive issues and worry about the negative aspect of their every action. Add to that the fact that people would rather "talk about" the action than talk "to the person" and I don't have a whole lot of patience for that stuff. It reminds me of a particular service I worked on that utilized all seniors and the scuttlebutt I got back was that non-seniors were annoyed. But did anyone come to the review or talk directly to the MC's? Nooooo. So don't let it worry you.
Maybe I missed the overall point of the post, but that paragraph got my dander up and I just had to vent.
Posted by: Todd at February 10, 2004 05:12 PM